Sorry seems to be the hardest word. But not for Domino's Pizza. So, how many ways can one make amends before consumers believe a business has changed its evil ways? The Ann Arbor-based pizza company is finding that out right now as it makes the public-improvement of its principal product a significant cog in its business plan.
Excerpt:
Domino's Pizza, ubiquitous as it is, had become more of an inescapable phenomenon than a viable pizza joint. "They" said it was more of a logo in an endless blur of logos than a place of sustenance. It was rarely at the forefront of pizza-centric brains, rarely a first, second or third choice when ordering pizza, always a pizza of last resort. The crust was famously cardboard-y, the cheese tasted processed, the sauce lacked distinction — in the event of famine, a jar of Prego slathered across a Domino's box itself might serve as a respectable imitation. Indeed, ordering Domino's pizza had become the culinary equivalent of wearing sweat pants to work — something you do when you no longer care.
They said worse.
But so has Domino's.
"They" were a handful of Loyola University students rounded up with the promise of free pizza. Albeit, free pizza with a catch — they had to eat Domino's pizza, a (cheap) pizza they only order, they said, when they are feeling especially strapped for cash. Specifically, they had to sample the new core recipe that Domino's Pizza recently rolled out. If you haven't heard, to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Domino's, the second largest pizza chain in the country (behind Pizza Hut), decided to scrap its often-maligned standard pizza and reinvent its most basic product "from the crust up." As incoming Chief Executive J. Patrick Doyle explained, the goal was "a pizza dramatically better than the old pizza."
Admirable, but not remarkable.
The remarkable part is Domino's marketing campaign, which is centered on the startling admission that its pizza has been profoundly lousy — in fact, lousy for a very long time. The TV commercials, which began earlier this month, are that blunt, that confessional.
Read the rest of the story here.
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