All About Domino’s Digital Marketing Strategy
Find everything about Domino’s digital marketing strategy and how the pizza market leader owns its global success today not only in the QSR industry but also competes among world-renowned tech companies.
It was in the 1960s when Domino’s opened a small store in Michigan. Today, it serves over 1 million customers each day in 90 international markets with more than 17600 franchise stores. It continues to engage customers through new technologies and consistent branding. Let’s explore Domino’s digital marketing strategy along with the important elements behind the brand’s marketing communication.
With this Domino’s case study, you will find out why and how it has become the world’s largest pizza company. Click on the links below to read each section.
- The business and operating models of Domino’s Pizza
- Digital transformation of Domino’s Pizza
- Domino’s market segmentation
- Domino’s digital marketing strategy
Exploring Domino’s Digital Marketing Strategy
Domino’s Pizza is one of the top-ranking QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) chains in the United States. According to Statista, the pizza category is among the most profitable sectors.
Domino’s digital marketing strategy is equally successful. To understand it better, read more about the company’s steps to global recognition below.
The Business and Operating Models of Domino’s Pizza
Purpose
- ‘Feed the power of the possible, one at a time’ is the brand’s commitment
- It believes in giving back to the communities it operates
- For the brand, meeting the customer needs with new technologies is important
Franchise Model
As a business strategy, Domino’s operates internationally with a franchise model. Franchisees have all the rights to operate or build the store of the company in a region.
The company also offers formal training to those who want to become franchise owners.
Like others in the Quick Service Restaurant industry, it does not have to invest much in real estate. All the franchisee requires is one store with a small space.
In a way, this kind of franchise model supports two types of profits. One is from delivery and the other, from takeout.
Delivery Segment
In the pizza industry, the company focuses on the delivery segment instead of full-service restaurant dining. And, with it, the brand gained the most global revenue in 2020, about $4.2 billion (Statista).
Fortressing Strategy
To reach out to more customers, Domino’s Pizza utilises a fortressing strategy. This means that it reduces the delivery radiuses and puts more stores nearby. It operates mainly with in-house delivery executives instead of relying on third-party online food delivery apps.
Such a step helps the company by offering “more flexibility and control over fees and the customer experience”, as mentioned by the CFO, Stu Levy.
Supply Chain
The growth of the entire QSR industry is dependent on supply chain management best practices.
Now, Domino’s Pizza excels at it. “Supply chain management is the factor that differentiates the winners and the losers in this business”, according to the former CEO of Domino’s Pizza India, Pawan Bhatia.
According to the official website, the company has a ‘centralised supply system’ to meet customer demands and speed up store operations. The supply chain team sources all the ingredients for the stores.
Digital Transformation of Domino’s Pizza
The above factors are necessary for a food delivery service’s business model.
But technological initiatives also play a vital role in this pizza company’s success.
As soon as the pandemic imposed restrictions on mobility, every industry and business had to find opportunities through digital growth. Previously slow corporations shifted gears to accelerate digital transformation during the lockdown.
Domino’s easily adapted to this digital-first change and increased its earnings worldwide.
Simply because the brand is no newcomer to software and technology.
According to Quartz, Domino’s stocks were higher than Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook between 2010 and 2017.
Another reason is the company invested in digital innovation way back in 2008. A year before that, its stock price had plummeted according to Harvard Business School.
Technology For Franchisee Operations
Pizza Tracker or like the company trademarks it, Domino’s Tracker® was a revolution in the foodservice industry. With the tracker introduced in 2008, customers could track the order time right after the order was placed.
The technology let the franchisees improve operational transparency.
Technologies for the Customer
In 2011, it came up with an iPhone application so that customers could track the orders straight from the mobile.
This tech advancement carried the brand’s success, even more, when Domino’s reinvented its pizza recipe two years back. Together, there was a 25% bump in pizza sales in the United States.
You may have come across the importance of integrating voice search in a content marketing strategy. Well, the company introduced online ordering using voice search back in 2015. It released AnyWare that allowed customers to place Domino’s Pizza orders from Siri, Amazon Echo, smartwatches and more.
Coming to responding to the pandemic, Domino’s introduced Domino’s Carside Delivery® in 2020 in the US. It was a contactless delivery option that customers could safely enjoy.
“Domino’s Carside Delivery gives customers the option to stay in their vehicle while a team member delivers their order to them, making for a convenient, contactless carryout experience. It’s carryout, delivered,” mentioned Dennis Maloney, Domino’s senior vice president-chief innovation officer.
Domino’s Market Segmentation
As a food-tech company, Domino’s uses data to track customer behaviour in real-time. In the west, it has a broader target audience of all age groups. In India, it targets the millennials.
It takes advantage of both traditional and digital marketing. Its offline advertisements appear on billboards and television.
Domino’s Digital Marketing Strategy
Domino’s Pizza uses both organic and paid searches to increase its brand’s presence on search engines. And the company is ahead of its times when it comes to marketing online.
In terms of search engine marketing, the company gained massive sales success using paid search. It utilised smart ad bidding strategies on Google and took advantage of Google’s machine learning algorithm.
Both the SEO and SEM strategies of Domino’s aim at selling. When you visit the official Indian website or of any country’s, you will see their menu and two call-to-action buttons. You can either order straight from the desktop or download the app.
The Indian website may not have high domain authority, but it has an organic reach of more than 4.2 million visitors per month. Check out these results as shown on Ubersuggest.
It ranks for keywords such as ‘dominos phone number’ (33,100 search volume), ‘dominos customer service’ (12,100 search volume). These keywords rank on top of Google search.
Domino’s Pizza relies on conversions with its own app. But it does so by engaging customers and enhancing the user experience.
To take out the competitors it collaborated with the Martech platform Storyly. The objective was to engage the users beyond placing an order. According to Storyly, this integration streamlined the buying funnel. The app would show video stories or polls along with a CTA button.
According to PR Newswire, the in-app stories increased conversion rates by 64%.
Let’s first look at the social media following of the official Domino’s Pizza channels as of February 2022.
Instagram – It has 1.7 million followers
Twitter – 1.4 million followers and counting
These numbers are beside the follower count on the company’s country-wise profiles.
The company focuses on engaging customers on Instagram with snapshots of the products. And there are posts behind-the-scenes inside the store’s kitchen. This aspect humanises marketing communication and helps the target audience build a personal connection.
Domino’s also follows a B2C marketing approach on Twitter. It responds to customer queries and issues they raise on a daily basis regarding online orders. No matter how rudely the issues are raised on the social platform, Domino’s always replies with a consistent, humble message.
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Parting Thoughts
Domino’s Pizza is consistent when it comes to digital marketing. It leverages technology to enhance its marketing mix and continues to be a global market leader in the pizza delivery segment.
Aquib is a seasoned wordsmith, having penned countless blogs for Indian and international brands. These days, he's all about digital marketing and core management subjects - not to mention his unwavering commitment ... Read Full Bio
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