Today, India has many fast food brands that have taken the name of fast food like McDonald's burger, Coke’s soft drink, and Domino's for pizza.
While many fast-food businesses are struggling to get recognition, the companies like Domino's have now become brands with their taste and quality of pizza for their prominent and potential customers in India.
Domino's incredible success in India underscores the importance of localization. When it launched there in 1996, the pizza chain had to overcome public skepticism about alternate pizza tastes and unfamiliar ingredients.
But Domino’s persevered, first tailoring their offerings to the traditional Indian palates by including such items as paneer (Indian farmer cheese) and tandoori chicken among their ingredients. They also localized their business model by incorporating cash-on-delivery payments, catering to a wide range of customer needs and preferences.
In addition, Domino’s heavily leveraged digital marketing techniques by initiating customer loyalty programs, running special promotions and introducing innovative delivery options — all designed to reach more customers and further broaden their appeal.
Their market share could not have been achieved without deftly adapting their sales tactics to suit consumers’ demands: they have been able to rapidly expand through franchise activities while accommodating customer segmentation.
Likewise, selling large quantities of personal pizzas or advantages such as “buy one get one free” deals only worked after having combed through data to understand consumer behaviour deeply.
Domino’s strategy was underpinned with fore thoughtfulness along with responding quickly to industry changes. This combination enabled them to outpace their rivals while emerging as the undisputed leader in the nation’s competitive space by building long lasting relationships with their customers.
Let's see How Domino's became pizza’s biggest pizza chain in India.
Domino's - Startup Story
In 1960, when Tom Monaghan and his sibling, James, assumed managing the activity of DomiNick's, a current area of a little pizza café network that had been claimed by Dominick DiVarti, at 507 Cross Street ( Today 301 West Cross Street) in Ypsilanti, Michigan, close to Eastern Michigan University.
The arrangement was verified by a $500 initial instalment, and the siblings obtained $900 to pay for the store. Within eight months, he exchanged his half of the business to Tom for the Volkswagen Beetle they utilized for pizza delivery service.
Monaghan needed the stores to have the same marking, yet the first proprietor disallowed him from utilizing DomiNick's name.
At some point, a worker, Jim Kennedy, came back from a pizza conveyance and proposed the name "Domino's" and this way the brand got its name. Monaghan quickly loved the thought and authoritatively renamed Domino's Pizza, Inc. in 1965.
The organization logo had three dabs in the beginning, speaking to the three stores in 1965. Monaghan intended to include another spot with the expansion of each new store, yet this thought immediately broke, as Domino's accomplished fast growth in the cities. Within a few months, Domino's Pizza opened its first establishment area in 1967 and by 1978, the organization extended to 200 stores.
Domino's Entry in India
Jubilant Foodworks started its business under the name Domino’s Pizza India Private Limited back in 1995 and opened the first outlet of Domino’s Pizza in New Delhi in 1996
In the first quarter of 2014, Jubilant Foodworks inaugurated the 700th Domino’s Pizza outlet. In the next 2 years, they went on to open 300 more outlets, making India only the second country after the United States to reach the 1000 store-mark for Domino’s Pizza in history.
When the country started opening itself on an international level. Not many people in India were familiar with pizza and most believed it was just a snack. There were several challenges to introducing pizza in India and finding success.
The CEO of Jubilant Foodworks limited also attributed the success of Domino’s Pizza in the country to some cultural factors. At the time, Domino's introduced pizza, the market was not as ready and success was not really guaranteed in India.
The concept of food delivery was not mainstream either at that time and in this way Domino’s literally came up with creating a complete food delivery market. Due to the low disposable income in the country, Indian consumers were both highly demanding and price-conscious at the same time.
When Domino’s introduced the thirty minutes or free promise, it seemed a risky strategy because the infrastructure and the traffic conditions in the country would have made the company go bankrupt. The company introduced it in 2004 and Domino’s had already abandoned the promise in the US already.
However, Jubilant’s gamble was a success which turned Domino’s into India’s biggest Pizza chain. According to the then CEO of Jubilant, people loved freebies in India and the kind of noise the 30-minute or free guarantee created in India worked so well would not have been possible in any other culture.
Challenges faced by Domino's in India
In January 2016, Domino's opened its 1000th outlet in the country. In 2016, the Center for Science and Environment(CSE) revealed that their pizza bread was bound with poisons and cancer-causing agents for the human body.
Later In 2017, live bugs were found in Domino's pizza flavoring sachets in Delhi, a video of which went viral in the country. This provoked Domino's to quit giving flavoring sachets for quite a while. When they restarted, they changed the pressing from straightforward to unclear. This was the biggest challenge faced by domino’s India.
How Domino's Reinvented Itself To Win In India
1) Remaking pizza according to Indian taste
To match Indian traditionalists, as well as the budget-conscious eater, the chain spent eight months examining everything from flour to toppings, to lower pricing in the country. Then they came what is called “Pizza Mania”—a 35-rupee pizza that takes precisely 2.5 minutes to make and six more to bake and complete the process.
2) Locations
Dominio’s focused on small cities, where Indians crave Western products and eating out is a family event can happen, Domino’s offers a large dine-in space. Each store’s area is meticulously mapped, down to every intersection and with less traffic, to find the fastest delivery routes— here, Domino’s offers its “30 minutes or it’s free” policy as well.
3) 30 minutes delivery
A delivery person and his manager plot out the route he’s about to take. Each delivery is allotted eight minutes, with a seven-minute buffer for traffic jams in the country and bad roads. More than 99% of the pizzas arrive within the promised 30-minute deadline claimed by the company.
4) Modify Menu
The Domino’s India menu has diverse taste options, to appeal to the country’s many tastes. A recent “Taco Indiana” dish was inspired by northern India’s kebabs and parathas.
5) Balancing Taste
Despite its menu’s local Indian flavour, Domino’s is careful not to over localize; middle-class India places a premium on “Western.” And a recent new launch was Subwich—a cross between a burger and a sandwich but with pizza filling in it, now available throughout the country.
When Did Domino's Add Non-Pizza Items to Its Menu?
In 2010, Domino's rolled out a complete pizza recipe, including new sauce, crust, and cheese. In 2011, Domino's continued to revamp its menu, came up with a new recipe for wings and boneless chicken and added two new bread sides — Stuffed Cheesy Bread and Parmesan Bread Bites.
Domino's made 3 changes to become the world's top pizza chain
1) International Business
Domino's has opened 1,800 new stores across 10 countries in the past four years. Domino's is thriving in emerging new markets like Brazil and China because it is a relatively inexpensive luxury. The company said it is seeing growth in India, Turkey, and Japan in those 4 years.
2) Reinvented products
Sales at Domino's got a boost since the company came out with a new pizza recipe in 2009 worldwide. Having a better core product was important for businesses to turn around.
Domino's has also innovated its burgers, sandwiches, kinds of pasta, and side dishes.
The "speciality chicken product" Chicken strips topped with amazing cheese and sauces, which are increasingly ordered alongside pizzas, are driving up the average sale.
3) Better marketing
As CEO of Domino's, Russell Weiner joined Domino's from Pepsi six years ago in the midst of a huge sales decline. Since then he has implemented a self-deprecating new marketing strategy that's resonated with the market.
Domino's admitted that its pizza wasn't the greatest and touted new-and-improved ingredients, helping to drive sales.
Reason for the success of Domino's pizza in India
The following are the factors of the success of dominating pizza company in India, Dominos:
1) Pricing
Domino’s Pizza India catered to the needs of Indian consumers for good quality and reliable fast food delivered to their homes. Compared to the other Pizza brands in India, Domino’s charges a premium price which suits the Indian consumer.
Apart from good quality food, the company also promises in- 30 minutes of time span delivery for premium pricing.
No other brand is doing this in the country, so the company was able to achieve Success. Domino’s also offers premium dine-in services at domino’s outlets across the cities in India.
However, their business is built as a main business around the home delivery model. Home delivery also constitutes a big part of Domino’s revenue from the Indian market.
2) Adopting Technology
Domino’s found out the formula for a successful business in the country. Hence no other food chain in the country has this use of technology. The company's main motto is to use technology to make it easy for customers to place orders.
In India Domino’s even started delivering in trains, which is a bold move for the food chain because with the train you can’t go wrong, being on time and delivering to the right customer is a bit of a challenge when a lot of variables like coaches, seat number, birth numbers are involved but Domino’s is making this work and it's going successful in the country.
3) Creating a buzz by the brand promise might be a good idea to get the attention of customers
Domino’s has this brand promise that creates a buzz then word of mouth also kicks in making it a more effective strategy. It encouraged Indian consumers to try ordering pizza.
Food delivery was not still a mainstream idea in India back then. Since there was a thirty minutes or free guarantee, the company Indians were assured that the food would be delivered quickly and fresh. If food delivery was delayed for any reason, the Indian consumers were more than forgiving since they were getting the food for free to grab the attention of consumers.
4) Social Media presence is very important
Domino’s very well learned the importance of social media and is very active on its social media platforms. They took it to the next step and take orders from messages, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and through its app. It is a great way to stay connected with customers and to revenue
5) Be transparent with your business
After the challenges faced back in 2016 & 2017, Domino’s started being transparent with the customers to gain customer involvement.
Domino’s came with a simple strategy that follows a very transparent and shows their whole process while ordering from approval of the delivery, baking process, out for delivery and on-road, they show it all. Even though their physical stores have an open cooking area and everything is visible to customers, they have made sure to stay as transparent as possible.
Domino's Future Plans
Domino's revenue has likewise risen strongly over the most recent five years. By 2025, the organization expects a systemwide number of cafés to have developed over 25,000 stores across the globe. The fundamental focal point of the organization is good quality food and customer accommodation.
With over 1000 outlets in India and every outlet offering the same tasty pizzas that everyone loves, Domino has shown everyone that standardization of taste and good quality is very well achievable no matter how big the enterprise is.
With over 1000 stores in just over 20 years and the goal of 1000 more in the coming 5 years, Domino’s India has shown what it looks like to be successful.
Summary
Domino’s Pizza, Inc is an American multinational pizza restaurant that is currently the largest pizza chain in India. It aimed to improve and revamped its brand every year, taking the backlash as an opportunity to get better and never look back.
Domino’s came a long way from becoming the world’s largest pizza chain by following various marketing techniques and working on getting their brands better. Domino’s didn’t stop after making a good reputation again but kept on working continuously to get better.
FAQ's on Domino's pizza:
Domino's Pizza grew its company and brand in the early days and cemented its reputation for fast, cheap, convenient pizza delivery.
Its online and mobile ordering sites, and its revolutionary pizza and driver tracker, lay the foundations for the brand's digital growth.
The crunchy crust, savoury marinara sauce, and delectable toppings make it a well-loved staple in any foodie's gourmet menu.
