What is wrong with Domino’s Pizza? The pizza company is the market leader in the organised pizza market with 50% share and 70% share in the pizza home delivery segment in India. While overall profitability has slid over the past year due to spiraling food inflation, it has expanded presence furiously and has even been able to improve same-store sales marginally. So why is it spending big bucks on a repositioning exercise?
For starters, the brand has redesigned the iconic blue pizza boxes and its staff uniform; it has reconfigured the dine in spaces. It is supporting the changes with a new campaign — “It Happens Only with Pizza” (IHOP) — with a new brand anthem created by Prasoon Joshi plus a stronger digital strategy.
The company says the aim is two-fold. First, it aims to establish a more resonant connection with Generation Z, striving for a “vibrant and youthful” image. The second is to increase the frequency of consumption. Sameer Khetarpal, MD & CEO of Jubilant FoodWorks, says of about a 1,000 occasions a year for food delivery, pizzas are ordered only three times by customers, so the potential in the market
is vast.
The company is actively striving to further reduce its delivery time, from the current 30 minutes to a new target of 20 minutes. That will be possible by increasing the store count. It currently has a presence in 400 cities and hopes to add 500 more. Sandeep Anand, EVP and CMO at Domino’s India, says, “Domino’s distinguishes itself as one of the few quick service restaurants (QSRs) owning the last-mile delivery process, including the delivery team and infrastructure. Leveraging technology, the company ensures timely deliveries, with pizzas being packaged hot and ready within 7-8 minutes of placing an order.”
Samit Sinha, founder and managing partner at Alchemist Brand Consulting, says Domino’s needs to think on its feet given the unique dynamics of the QSR market in India. Take fast-food chains like McDonald’s, which are a family favourite globally, but are particularly popular among the youth in India. Similarly, Domino’s tends to attract college students and
young professionals more than families, and must increase both width and depth of penetration to keep the growth trajectory intact, he says.
Adds Lloyd Mathias, independent director and former HP Asia marketing head, “ The ‘cool’ quotient of pizza has decreased over the past decade. Bringing the focus back to the category is a positive step that the market leader has made.”
These initiatives are also necessary given the furious competition. Naresh Gupta, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Bang in the Middle, points out that food aggregator apps like Zomato and Swiggy gently nudge customers to “diversify” their default home delivery orders from just pizzas to a range of cuisines, which means the all-time favorites lose out once in a while.
All these efforts will be in vain if the product itself becomes boring. To keep up excitement, the company introduced region-specific pizzas for special occasions, such as the “Flavours of East” range for Durga Puja, featuring flavours like Champaran Mutton, Kosha Mangsho, and Malai Chingri. It also relaunched its premium “Viva Roma” range for consumers seeking a more upscale experience. The company also revamped several restaurants to position pizza as a dine-out option, aiming to balance the 65:35 delivery to dine-in ordering ratio.