Brand Building Project Corporate Branding of Dominos

ByRadhika Bansal T.Y.B.M.M Roll Number-3705 Sophia College

DOMINOS- DELIVERING TOP PERFORMANCE, ONE SLICE AT A TIME Introduction to the organization-Dominos was founded in 1960, by Tom Monaghan and his brother James, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Monaghan borrowed $500 to buy the store. In 1961, James traded half of the business to Tom for a Volkswagen Beetle. In 1965, Tom Monaghan became the sole owner of the company, and renamed the business "Domino's Pizza, Inc." In 1967, the first Domino's Pizza franchise store opened in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Today, Domino's Pizza is the worlds leading home delivery pizza operating out of a network of company-owned and franchise-owned stores in the United States and international markets operating in over sixty countries, with 9,000 franchisees and a huge team producing more than 60 million pizzas a year.1It has a strong brand equity supported by heavy advertising & marketing campaigns as we will see below. Dominos focuses on a home delivery oriented business model, where consumers can eat in the comfort of their own homes and workplaces. It opened its first store in India in January 1996, at New Delhi. Today Dominos Pizza India has grown into a countrywide network of more than 378 stores with a team of over 11,000 people.2 Dominos Pizza stores are managed by Jubilant Food Works Limited (JFL) in India which started operating in 1996. JFL is Indias largest and fastest growing food service company. JFL and its subsidiary operate Dominos Pizza brand with the exclusive rights for India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Since its inception, the Dominos logo has had three dots, each one bearing the unique Dominos red, blue and white logo. They represent Tom Monaghans original vision of opening three locations and developing a triangulation delivery strategy.3 But the most important design elements are those that help keep the pizza oven-hot and fresh. A layer of corrugated paper made from card board forms the main body of the packaging box and provides insulation. Each box is punctuated with small ventilation holes to allow steam to escape, preventing the pizza from becoming soggy. These elements become vital because Dominos is known for its freshness and the quality of Pizza they deliver. It is hot and piping! For the manufacturers to put in so much of effort and come up with innovations exclusive only to Dominos, helps in providing positive corporate branding to the company. People see the effort and appreciate its functionality. Dominos has always been far ahead of its time. Realizing the importance of the internet they launched their official website- www.dominos.com, in 1996, because then the social media was becoming a very active medium to approach a very niche yet diverse audience. They used their first website to expand their brand by letting consumers get a first-hand experience of what the brand is all about. They also started interacting with consumers through their website by holding contests, activities and events and awarding the winners with lucrative prizes. In the same year
1 2

Source : Wikipedia-Dominos Source : <www.dominos.co.in> 3 Source : <www.marketography.com>

Dominos boasted sales in excess of three billion dollars. Over the years as we see with its current website, Dominos has become comfortable with using the internet as a marketing channel to promote their brand image. For example, on July 27th, 2010, they launched a campaign in the United States which asked consumers to submit entries for their Dominos Proverbs Pizza Contest. The catch was that the winning proverbs would be printed in the Dominos boxes in the future.4 Such incentives help raise interest and an element of fun in the consumers. The Bring out the chef in you! contest was a competition in which Dominos wanted people to share their experience of what kind of pizzas people made at home. 5 They also posted an alternate recipe which was easier and faster to make and gave people the choice of many different flavours and pizza styles to choose from. Another contest was the Launching the Dominicons Comic Strip Contest.6 In this one dominicon would depict something topical, like the varieticon on the right.7 What people had to do was to make a favouriticon on the left which said something funny and interesting. The best answer of the day would win attractive prizes. The second contest was completing the slogan written below, in not more than 15 wordsDominos Pizza goes well with Coke because8 By including activities such as these, it helps Dominos to interact with their consumers and they start making the brand a part of their everyday life which is the best possible outcome for any brand under the sun. Promotional activities undertaken by Dominos throughout the world in the last few months- Dominos focuses on quality customer service in a timely manner. To further this, they wanted to allow customers to place their orders and receive updates on delivery times via their mobile devices. So it partnered with Air2Web to implement a mobile marketing campaign. By highlighting the mobile marketing capability via the Dominos web site, the company was able to increase customer relations and provide the customers with valuable information regarding their order. So even though such an initiative was undertaken to promote sales Dominos here very effectively is making an attempt to build relations with their consumers on a more personal level. As a part of their publicity strategy, Dominos introduced the Dominos Pizza Ferrari by Limo Broker which was created especially for the grand opening of a brand new Dominos Pizza outlet in Pontyclun, South Wales. Such stunts provide more visibility amongst a younger, enthusiastic crowd. The element of cool and fun is being used here to add to its brand image. Using a technique known as vinyl wrapping, the Ferrari Spyder 360 was transformed into a moving advertisement for the new store. The idea in itself was very creative and it was a huge crowd puller. The strategy used here tapped into the stores promise of offering the fastest pizza delivery service in South Wales, which the Dominos Ferrari demonstrated perfectly. 9As the

Source : <www.corporate-eye.com/blog/2010/07/dominos-pizza-hopes-to-strike-proverbial-gold-with-newcontest/> 5 Source: posted on April 22nd, 2011 on the company website 6 Source: posted by Domino's India website on July 1st, 2011 7 Image present at the end of the project- See Appendix 8 Source : < http://www.dominos.co.in/blog/slogan-for-dominos-pizza-coke-studio-contest-3/>. June 30th, 2011 9 Source : <http://www.dominos-pontyclun.co.uk/dominos-ferrari/>

images reveal10, the extravagant sports car was covered in a vinyl wrap with a white back ground, the Dominos logo, and a giant pizza. Another publicity stunt is the use of a creatively designed Dominos Pizza delivery vehicle. It is hard to miss one. With innovative designing consumers from a very distance can track it. This increases brand visibility and promotes indirectly a positive brand image. There is a sense of synergy in the designing of the stores, the employees attire, the delivery vehicle etc and this helps provide credibility to the brand in terms of promoting a singular clear cut message. The presence of games while their food comes in a Dominos outlet helps consumers get a positive image of the brand. They feel that the brand cares about them and wants to see to it that the consumers enjoy themselves even while waiting for their food to come. There are usually two games which are present-asteroids and slide puzzle to play with in the international outlets. Domino's puts customer feedback on Times Square billboard11- In this campaign they are posting a stream of recent customer feedback received online from their online ordering feature known as Domino's Tracker on a 4,630 square foot billboard in New York Citys Square area. The campaign coincides with the beginning of a new TVC in which managers from various Dominos stores across New York focus on customer reactions at a busy store along with the surprise of seeing their comments in Times Square. The comments ran at different times daily. "Our customers deserve, and have come to expect, honesty from us and when it comes to the idea of posting direct feedback in Times Square, it really doesn't get more honest and open than this," Domino's President and CEO Patrick Doyle said in a statement. Through initiatives such as these, Dominos has time and again proven that honesty could be the best policy for a company to build its brand image in a positive light. It is direct and simple but equally effective and helps the organization in building a strong good will amongst its customers. They feel that they will never be cheated and a factor of brand loyalty automatically comes into play. On June 13, 2011, Dominos opened a new store at the Wide Angle Multiplex, Satellite Tower Ahmedabad. It was a unique approach of launching a store which portrayed a cultural extravaganza amongst many other things. Various activities took place on the first week of the launch; these included magic shows, puppet shows, kachhi ghodi dance, tattoo artistry and taro reading.12 It was a huge success and it helped in creating a favourable outlook towards the brand through positive publicity. The families indirectly bonded with Dominos where they enjoyed themselves. This shows that the company is making the effort of tapping into the cultural features of India to help bond with its consumers in a better way. Consumers dont perceive the brand to be an alien brand but immediately start accepting it as a part of their lives.

Image attached at the end of the project- See Appendix Source : The Detroit News, <http://detnews.com/article/20110726/BIZ/107260338/Domino s-puts-customerfeedback-on-Times-Square-billboard#ixzz1TnxHzyZN> 12 Source : <http://www.marketpressrelease.com/Dominos-adds-folk-touch-to-its-new-store-opening-inAhmedabad-with-cultural-extravaganza-1310982912.html>
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Dominos also promotes charitable activities. In 2001, they launched a two-year national partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. That same year, the company stores in New York City and Washington D.C. provided more than 12,000 pizzas to relief workers following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Through a matching funds program, the corporation donated $350,000 to the American Red Cross' disaster relief effort. In 2004, Domino's began its partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, participating in the hospital's "Thanks and Giving" campaign raising more than $1.3 million in 2006.13 Dominos also encourages their store managers, franchisees and team members to become an active community member. Whether it is providing pizzas to a local TAFE or university, or conducting dough raisers in store to raise funds for charity groups, they believe in lending a helping hand to those who support the communities in which they operate. They are also major supporters of local farmers and industries, using fresh, local ingredients and purchasing from local suppliers whenever possible. Dominos stands for a cause that they believe in and never step back from doing hard work to achieve their goals. This says that besides being an organization which provides us with pizzas, Dominos is very well aware of their responsibilities towards the society as a whole. It is also a proud supporter of The Australian Youth Development Association (AYDA), a program that brings together school leaders, school captains and school vice captains from across Australia to participate in leadership programs. They recognize that investing in their nations youth is invaluable since the youth of today is the future of tomorrow. In a bid to implement best-practice procedures and policies that will help minimize their impact on the environment, Dominos Pizza formed the Green Team which aims to encourage all Dominos Pizza stores to become carbon neutral. The need to Go Green is very important today with the amount of global warming that is taking place! The advertising campaigns of Dominos promoting corporate branding include the following- In August 2000, Dominos launched the Hungry Kya? campaign which gave it wide recognition across various homes in India. It was launched by the advertising agency Grey Worldwide (India). It positioned the company as an any-time any meal eating option. A series of commercials were shown on the television. Paresh Rawal was chosen as their brand ambassador in 2004. He questioned the authenticity of the companys delivery promise to their latest campaign. The reason why Dominos Pizza has succeeded in building their brand message throughout the years is because of the promises kept of their service capabilities. Its messages have always been very clear, simple and concise.14 Another one of their positioning in 2007 stated- You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or its free. With promotions such as these the consumers get to know what the brand is offering them. The brand image being built here is that they are going to be the first brand to deliver pizzas in less than thirty minutes. In todays world, especially amongst the college students and the working professionals which is the main target audience for Dominos, no one wants to wait so it works
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Source : Wikipedia- Dominos Source :< http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2002/03/13/stories/2002031301000900.htm>

perfectly for the brand. Next campaign included the Dominos Pizza Khushiyon ki home delivery campaign.15 It focuses on the dedication of their delivery team who despite facing odds on Indian roads, manage to deliver fresh hot pizzas to the customers in less than thirty minutes. When it comes to fast food specially, most of campaigns of the brands revolve around the customer and the various products or the offers that the brand launches, however this ad of Dominos focuses on the relationship between the delivery team and the customer. It brings the customer closer to the brand by creating a positive brand recall through subtly showing the dedication of the delivery team to fulfill the promise made by the brand. So their brand positioning here is the emotional benefit they offer to their consumers. It focuses on the aspect that all their efforts, whether it is a new innovative and delicious product, offering consumers value for money deals, great service, country wide presence or delivery in 30 minutes or free are all oriented towards delivering happiness to their consumers. They value them. This campaign helped in developing a strong hold over the market as the consumers could relate to it immensely. The Dominos brand also started with a new brand positioning The Dominos Effect in which the underlying core values of the brand like fun, youthfulness, freshness etc remained at the core of the message being provided. 16 It aims to encourage consumers to enjoy life, through a variety of consumer touch points including advertising, local store marketing, instore communications, online and viral marketing, packaging, uniforms, customer activity, promotions and internal activity. It strongly reflects the elements of connecting people in a fun way. Whether it is catching up with your mates or enjoying a meal with the family, Dominos offers a range of tasty treats to make every occasion fun and memorable. So it doesnt talk about the various kinds of products it offers but explains from the consumers point of view, how exactly is it that they feel when they consume their products. The brand is trying to connect with the consumers by trying to understand their psyche in a fun way. There was another commercial for Domino's Pizza (via Crispin Porter and Bogusky's Boulder, Colo, office).17 In the video, the physical evidence of an actual farm, with a Wisconsin farmer telling us the milk is "100 percent real from beginning to end", helps answer the queries of the consumers. The idea is that we're not going to doubt Farmer Dan and his herd of cows. It gives credibility to the brand without using a spokesperson. Dominos is focusing on the tone of transparency here. They want people to know where the food comes from and ignore the myths that they use lab-made ingredients. This forms a very important element of corporate branding. It focuses on the credibility of the company as a whole and not just its products. It's part of the strategy that was launched by the Domino's site in December 2009, "Behind the Pizza," or "Pizza turn around" campaign, which traces the product ingredients to their source. Dominos had also dedicated an entire website to their pizza turnaround campaign where consumers could leave comments about the new products. They could also interact with the Dominos Pizza Turnaround on Facebook and Twitter. The brand

Source : < http://brands-india.blogspot.com/2011/07/dominos-pizza-khushiyon-ki-home.html> Source: <http://www.superbrands.com.au/BrandDetails.aspx?id=100> 17 Link of the video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqBk9IpfmkQ>, <http://www.pizzaturnaround.com/>
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also featured heavily on television shows from The Colbert Report to CBSs Early Show.18 The campaign dramatically changed Dominos momentum, and they developed a new understanding of their brand, as the campaign openly admitted that the brand had become known for their substandard pizza. The campaign promised to correct the previous mistakes made by the brand. The transparency used is praiseworthy. Most brands are reluctant to publically address negative news about their company. But Dominos had the confidence and self-awareness to deal with an unwelcome situation. Corporate branding in times of crisis such as these becomes extremely important. The fact that the company did not shy away but took the problem into their hands speaks volumes about their professionalism and the maturity to deal with negative criticism positively. International ads of Dominos- On April 15th, 2009, two employees in Conover, North Carolina put up a video produced by a hand-held camera, on a website called YouTube. In the video they were seen pelting one another with dough and sticking it up their noses, and finally blowing it across uncooked bases. To top it off, they served the food to the customers. It was a horrible sight, to say the least. Nearly 50 years after it was started, Dominos brand image faced serious damage. In only a few days, the video was viewed over a million times.19 However, the marketing team of Dominos was quick to respond. They started with their own Twitter page, replying to all the queries of their customers and issued their own video with a public apology by the CEO of Dominos.20 They quickly managed to get the situation under control before much damage could be made to the brand. This is an example of a strategy used in corporate branding which helped save the company from ruining the reputation it had built over the years. Dominos also partnered with the Gold Coast Institute of TAFE in Australia and its corporate business division, OSR Business Solutions, to offer the team members of Dominos accredited training courses and nationally recognized qualifications. This initiative was known as the Pizza College which was designed to drive performance, support personal and professional growth and enhance relationships among employees, customers and partners. There is also the Dominos Luv Lab in Australia which is Australias first dedicated pizza research and development kitchen. It specializes in designing systems, food and equipment, and ensures quality, consistency, efficiency and safety across all stores by focusing on quality assurance and occupational health and safety. Such initiatives never go unnoticed amongst the consumers and it helps in developing brand loyalty as they perceive the brand to be putting in a lot of effort to provide the consumers with the best.21 Dominos also has The Partners Foundation which is the Companys internal charity department. It assists its team members and employees in times of tragedy. The Foundation has donated more than $240,000 to over 100 team members who have fallen on hard times. The Partners Foundation reflects Dominos culture of passion and support

Source: <http://www.pizzaturnaround.com/> Link of the video- <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhBmWxQpedI&feature=related> 20 Link of the video- < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dem6eA7-A2I> 21 Source : < http://www.superbrands.com.au/BrandDetails.aspx?id=100>
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for all its employees.22 As a result of this they become faithful to the organization and consumers themselves start trusting the organization and the services that they providing. CONCLUSION- The unforgettable 30 minutes or free home delivery promise of Dominos, their delicious pizzas and the affordable pricing has made it more acceptable to larger population across the country. Most of Domino's media coverage focuses on three areas for improvement: the importance of a media crisis team, the ability to follow real-time developments and the need to respond quickly. And all these elements form the thrust of good and effective corporate brand advertising in times of crisis. Their corporate branding is easy to recognize, pronounce, remember and thus attracts a lot of attention. And it very accurately suggests the company and the product image. Corporate branding has the ability to make a product very successful. If the brand name has a track record of a guarantee of quality and good service, then it is very profitable for the brand. However, just one bad product under the brand name may cause bad word of mouth, affecting sales of all the other products under the same name and causing irreversible damage to the company. Dominos has faced a positive as well as a negative impact as we have seen from the above stated examples due to either failure in the new product launches or in the quality of service being provided. The video which was released could have affected the Companys brand image to the extent that it could have shut down but it was quick to respond and that helped it strike back in the market. Corporate branding can result in significant economies of scope since one advertising campaign can be used for several products. Dominos also uses this strategy very effectively. Its Khushiyon Ki delivery campaign has been used to promote various kinds of products like the pizza mania. It highlights the Khushiyon ki Home delivery propositioning very effectively. This phenomenon facilitates easy new product acceptance because potential buyers are already familiar with the name or the mission that the organization stands for. Its corporate branding incorporates multiple aspects such as an innovative logo, excellent and speedy customer service, extensive training of employees, practical and effective packaging, creative advertising, use of synergic stationery, and excellent quality of products and services which is shown across all its public relations or advertising or marketing strategies across various countries throughout the world. This states that their vision is clear cut. They know what they are promising to their consumers and they live up to their consumers expectations. Dominos Pizza has leveraged the four Cs, or consumers viewpoint, which includes customer solution, cost, convenience, and communication which are considered each time Dominos Pizza initiates a new promotion. Thus, we can conclude that today, due to globalization and multiple information sources, most brands could do well with some effective corporate branding. It always helps the brand in times of dire need. Today Dominos has successfully straightened out all it practices and has built a positive brand image for itself, and not just for the products it sells. So even if any new controversy comes its way, and it comes under attack, it can saves its brand image from being ruined through successful corporate

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Source : < 2007_DPE_Annual_Report>

advertising which it has already done in the past, without affecting its sales and profitability and always maintaining a good image about the brand throughout the world! To sum up what Dominos is all about, one consumer very rightly said- To leave the last slice is to be loved. To eat the last slice is to be happy. That is the kind of image Dominos has left us with today! Bibliography Dominos-Ads , 1st August 2011, 10:45 p.m. < http://www.dominos.co.in/adv.php >.  2007_DPE_Annual_Report  Domino's Pizza Turnaround. Mon, 21 Dec 2009. <http://enin.oscarseek.com/item/Domino's- For videos of the pizza turn around campaign.  <http://www.dominos-pontyclun.co.uk/dominos-ferrari/>- For video of the Dominos Ferrari Campaign.  Dominos Pizza raising the bar. <http://www.digitalconnections.com.au/blog/?p=780 >- Video for the Dominos billboard campaign in New York Times Square  21st December 2009. <http://www.pizzaturnaround.com/>- for videos on the pizza turn around campaign.  Domino's ad, 'Who delivers happiness?'. 12/7/2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CElBgOxlsRY>  Domino's TV Ad with David Brandon. 12/7/2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbU7VXONJUc>  Is The Domino's Rebrand Too Honest? 11/7/2011 <www.brandchannel.com. >- for pizza turn around videos

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