Domino's Pizza is living as large as one of its new, fresh-dough pan pizzas these days, posting strong domestic and international growth and planning to garner extra funds from franchisees for marketing this year to support its increasingly robust brand platform.

CEO J. Patrick Doyle has managed to get Domino's into a growth groove by relying on its increasing international presence, rising brand equity, expanding menu, store modernization and experimentation and an industry-leading digitization initiative. Same-store sales in both the U.S. and abroad were up by about 5 percent during the fourth quarter versus a year ago, Domino's reported this week, and the period marked the 76th consecutive quarter of international same-store sales growth.

"The joy of pizza is that bread, sauce and cheese works fundamentally everywhere, except maybe China, where dairy wasn't a big part of their diet until lately," Doyle told brandchannel. "And it's easy to just change toppings market to market."

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Pizza lovers rejoice! Domino’s, world leader in pizza delivery, is offering 50% off all pizzas ordered online at menu price through Dec. 9.

And today (Dec. 6th), 52 countries are celebrating the second Global Domino’s Day by offering the same deal via Domino’s Pizza Facebook pages around the world, where an app directs them to their local Facebook page. Last year, 19 countries took part in the brand’s first-ever global offer with more than 500,000 people taking part, and this year, more than 90% of Domino’s stores worldwide are participating.

“Domino’s is proud of our global presence, and we’re thrilled to spend this one day bringing Domino’s fans from around the world together with this special offer,” said Dennis Maloney, Domino’s Pizza VP of multimedia marketing.Continue reading...

Domino's new US ad campaign promotes the chain's new handmade pan pizzas, and takes a swipe at competitor Pizza Hut for using frozen dough.

Domino's CEO Patrick Doyle certainly can't be accused of just watching the grass grow — or the cheese melt — on his watch. Already, he's led the brand through a marketing makeover focusing on transparency and self-effacement, formulation of new basic recipes for Domino's crust, greater reliance on digital sales, ushered in a new logo, and many other changes as Doyle has relentlessly shaken things up in what actually was a pretty sleepy industry.

Now, Doyle is unveiling Domino's latest big gambit: The debut of Domino's Handmade Pan Pizza, its biggest product launch since improving its core hand-tossed recipe a couple of years ago. After three years of development, Domino's notes that its new pizza is fresh dough that is hand-stretched into the pan — not frozen, "like many pan products out there," as the company's press release puts it.Continue reading...

Domino's is moving to the next stage in its brand-reinvention process with a new logo and experimentation with "pizza theater" in some of its stores (as we anticipated last week).

The logo isn't so much new as stripped down, giving more weight to the domino-tile symbol of the brand -- and a push to make it as iconic and recognizable worldwide, brand executives hope, as the Nike swoosh. After trying out the new look in New Zealand through an affiliated unit, Domino's has removed the word "pizza" from most uses of the logo, leaving just the tilted tile and, sometimes, the word "Domino's."

Part of the point is to raise the profile of the brand as a follow-on to other recent moves, including reformulation of its recipes and a self-deprecating advertising campaign that was meant to underscore Domino's determination to improve its products. Continue reading...

Many U.S. companies, CEOs and their allies in Washington, D.C., have been warning since the end of June that the Supreme Court's upholding of most of Obamacare would impact their financial health. And they indicated that they wouldn't stand by and watch the diminishment of their bottom lines because of it.

Now, the head of one of America's biggest pizza chains, Papa John's, has dropped the other shoe: Directly because of the requirements of Obamacare once the full law takes effect, according to the Huffington Post, Papa John's customers will have to pay 11 to 14 cents more per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents more per order, said John Schnatter.

Papa John's has taken on a higher profile over the last few years, including its buzz-worthy Coin Toss Promotion during the last Super Bowl. And its ascendance has included a very public role in the chain's TV commercials for Schnatter. So he's not exactly trying to maintain a low profile. But Schnatter's direct shot at the employer-carried costs of Obamacare is sure to be noticed.Continue reading...

Domino’s Pizza has overhauled everything from its branding to its pizza recipes to its advertising over the last couple of years, and now the biggest pizza deliverer on the globe is pressing change in a number of new ways.

For one thing, Domino’s continues to push as much business as possible to online ordering, a trend that has been overtaking the pizza trade for a while now. This week, digital customers in the US will receive half off on all pizzas ordered at the listed menu price.

Also as part of this promotion, Domino’s is reminding American customers how many options they have for getting their pizza just right. At a time when some other products are getting simpler for ease of manufacturing and to cut costs for brands, Domino’s wants to let pizza eaters know that they could line up their pies more than 34 million different ways.Continue reading...

Domino’s has gotten a lot of attention lately for its groundbreaking TV commercials, but now the brand’s CEO wants to become known for something else as well: Mobile innovation.

The big pizza chain posted lower sales and profits during the first quarter, in large part due to some extraneous factors. But CEO Patrick Doyle wants the chain to do a much better job helping its franchisees do well financially.

He wants to set the stage for long-term growth in the U.S. for Domino’s by helping shore up the entrepreneurs who own Domino’s outlets — and helping customers order more easily, via mobile and social apps.Continue reading...