Food Technology Magazine | Digital Exclusive
How Domino’s Thinks About Product Development
A look at how Domino’s focuses its product development on permanent menu additions versus limited-time offerings.
Domino’s 5-Cheese Mac & Cheese fit easily into its pasta line. Photo courtesy of Domino’s
Not all brands are enamored of limited-time offers, even for modest purposes. Domino’s is one major foodservice brand, for example, that has always spurned the idea. “Our philosophy has been to develop new products that are permanent menu additions, rather than offering limited-time-only items that require substantial advertising investment and are removed within 10 to 12 weeks,” says Kate Trumbull, executive vice president and global chief marketing officer for America’s No. 1 pizza chain.
When it comes to new products, Domino’s also strives for simplicity in other ways. After using a marketing campaign more than a decade ago to publicly admit its pizza didn’t taste great, and then overhauling its basic product, the chain has focused on maintaining quality but has been very conservative about expanding its lineup. One main reason is to respect the tightly organized capacity and limited pace of production in its stores.
We have a focused menu designed to present product variety to customers, while keeping operations simple enough to minimize complexity and expedite food preparation.
“We have a focused menu designed to present product variety to customers, while keeping operations simple enough to minimize complexity and expedite food preparation,” Trumbull says. “We prioritize menu items that do not complicate our makeline or require cooking methods beyond our ovens. Innovation ideas we have historically avoided include products that require new cooking platforms, such as fryers or microwaves.”
For example, Dominos recently introduced 5-Cheese Mac & Cheese, which fit neatly into its existing pasta line. The chain also launched Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread as an addition to its long-standing bread sides.
The approach being taken by restaurant and CPG brands these days is much different than “when I grew up in the PepsiCo system,” says branding consultant Kathy Guzmán Galloway. “You couldn’t propose an innovation that was less than a $30 million idea because the system couldn’t handle anything under that. What you see now, though, is that legacy brands have identified ways to leverage their strengths to create smaller and broader-stretching ideas.”ft
