Domino's Pizza Business Plan

In recent decades, Domino's Pizza has become an unmistakable landmark in the American cultural landscape. Although pizza is originally an Italian food, through the intervention of Domino's, it has been transformed into a distinctly American service/product. Now, it seems that the quality and taste of the pizza itself is secondary in importance to its ready availability. Through the prevalence of Domino's Pizza and hundreds of copycat competitors, the tradition of "pizza night" has emerged, when the desire to eat pizza has been supplanted by the desire for a highly convenient, relatively inexpensive dinner delivered to one's front door. As such, the quality of the food served by Domino's Pizza is not the most important part of their product offerings. Instead, it is the quality of the pizza paired with the ease and convenience of Domino's free home delivery service that must be evaluated.

This study of a business plan for Dominos will present an evaluation of Domino's Pizza based on three sources:

• A single, specific, recent market evaluation of Domino's Pizza
• An accumulated body of research on Domino's Pizza over a period of several years
• An informal survey of friends' and family members' experiences with Domino's Pizza

For the purposes of this business plan, a recent ordering experience will be recounted, but this will be supplemented by impressions gleaned through many such experiences. The claim that the business plan makes is that Domino's Pizza serves only mediocre pizza, but that the overall package of quality, service, convenience and value makes the experience worthwhile.

The typical Domino's Pizza experience begins with a phone call to place an order. Although it is possible to order and pick up pizza at the physical location of a Domino's Pizza, the franchises usually consist of a small, dingy storefront harshly lit by fluorescent lights - in short, not a dining experience worth noting, except for its unpleasantness. Some people have experienced difficulty in successfully communicating their order to Domino's personnel, and many have had problems receiving orders that are substantially different than that which was communicated over the phone. However, my experience did not involve either of these difficulties, probably because of the simplicity of the order, which consisted of a single, traditional-style large pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms.

Roughly 25 minutes after my order was taken over the phone, a delivery person arrived at the door bearing a surprisingly warm pizza. Without partaking of any of the offered specials, my purchase came to just over $12, and I gave the polite delivery person a $2 tip. Although $14 is not exactly inexpensive for a fast food dinner, the cost and convenience of not having to leave the comfort of one's home has to be factored in, as well. All said, my encounters with both the order-taker and delivery person were smooth and efficient, with no difficulty, miscommunication, or discourtesy.

The pizza itself is, as discussed previously, not the pinnacle of Italian cuisine. Indeed, an excess of grease and less-than-fresh ingredients characterizes the quintessential American fast-food version of pizza. The cheese is unevenly melted, and appears to be synthetic, or a blend of synthetic and authentic cheese. Puddles of grease have collected on the surfaces of the small pepperonis. Although the sauce itself is palatable, it too is excessive and irregularly applied, so that some parts of the pizza have thick pools of it, and others just a scant layer. The crust is tasty and nicely done. All in all, the pizza is not unappetizing, but it is too uneven in quality to truthfully be termed 'good.'

This experience of ordering from Domino's Pizza, paired with many past experiences and the input of family and friends, confirms the chain as merely adequate in the quality of its food offerings, but better when cost, value, and convenience are added into the equation. Taken together, the product and service are worthy of implementing a serious business plan for purchase of a franchise. Although I would not recommend Domino's Pizza to someone who was seeking a delicious pizza, I would readily recommend it to someone who was seeking an easily accessible, convenient, and relatively inexpensive meal to be delivered within a short time span.