Marketing Wisdom, From the Alum Who Helped Turn Domino’s Around

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Each year, now-CEO Russell Weiner ’90 comes back to the Hill to speak about the secret sauce behind the pizza chain’s renaissance

By Beth Saulnier

No matter how you slice it—or whatever other pizza-related pun you’d care to employ—in 2008, the future was looking grim for Domino’s. The company’s stock price had dipped below $3 a share. Sales had fallen for several years in a row.

Its pizza—consistently ranked dead last among national brands—had become the butt of jokes on late-night TV and social media. In focus groups, consumers compared its crust to cardboard, its sauce to ketchup.

Jump ahead to 2020: the Domino’s stock price closed out the year at more than $383—a 9,834% increase. The brand that had been in crisis had become a success story—and it was due, in large part, to a brash marketing campaign conceived by Russell Weiner ’90, then its chief marketing officer.

The Arts & Sciences alum is now the company’s CEO. And in the years since he helped spearhead its remarkable turnaround, he has regularly returned to the Hill to share his wisdom with MBA students.

During the fall 2024 semester, the former government major addressed a packed lecture hall as a guest speaker for a marketing class taught by Prof. Kaitlin Woolley ’12. Cornellians sat in—and, like all good students, we took notes.

Among his lessons:

You only have one shot to tell the world something that matters—and for people to believe you. Don’t blow it!

With that make-or-break principle in mind, the company spent nearly two years working to improve its pizza and to devise its audacious marketing campaign, which launched in January 2010.

Nothing kills a marketing campaign faster than a bad product.

As Weiner and his team planned how to market the pizza, they oversaw the culinary staff working to create the optimal combo of crust, sauce, and cheese.

“If you’re running marketing and you’re going to be responsible for the sales results,” he told the students, “make sure you have a role in developing that product.”

… and, conversely, a negative brand reputation can discredit a good product.

As part of the company’s research, Domino’s put its existing pizzas in a competitor’s box—and tasters ranked them higher. And when it put that competitor’s pizza into a Domino’s box? The ratings dropped.

If you’re running marketing and you’re going to be responsible for the sales results, make sure you have a role in developing that product.

“At some point, it just became ingrained in people’s minds,” he said of the pizza’s perceived low quality. “So no matter what we did or how good it was, we had to do marketing that would overcome and change that perception.”

To find big ideas, look for the “tensions.”

By that, Weiner means potentially fraught issues—either regarding the brand, the consumer, or society at large—that will resonate strongly with audiences. “If you break that tension, you’ve got all that pent-up energy behind your message,” he explained. “Think of it as a catapult for your ideas.”

There are thousands of such tensions; the trick is finding the ones in which the brand, the customer, and broader culture intersect. The job of a marketer is to figure out how to break all three of those tensions.

If you break that tension, you’ve got all that pent-up energy behind your message. Think of it as a catapult for your ideas.

So, what tensions did Domino’s use, and how did it break them?

Weiner took students back to the late Aughts: in the wake of the financial crisis, Americans were losing their homes. CEOs of auto manufacturers and financial institutions were begging Congress to bail them out—and flying to those bailout hearings via corporate jet. There was a widespread sense that pillars of society were tone deaf and could no longer be trusted.

In the midst of all of this, Weiner said, Americans were yearning for someone to listen to them and tell them the truth; if industries and institutions weren’t going to do it, then Domino’s would break that tension.

Remember, he said, Domino’s knew a hard truth about itself: its pizza didn’t taste very good.

Domino's decided to be the brand that listened to customers and did something about it, by admitting its shortcomings in the most public way possible and completely changing its pizza recipe. 

“The creative brief to the advertising agency was, ‘In today’s world of deceit and mistrust, Domino’s will connect with customers by being unexpectedly real and transparent—by actually listening and telling the truth.’ That was it: one line.”

Always manage expectations ... and risk

In short, Weiner said, “Anyone who tells you that you can turn around a brand with one ad is ridiculous.”

Given how entrenched—and how low—opinions of Domino’s had become, Weiner made it clear that it wasn’t a quick fix: the campaign would be a year long.

“There’s nothing more fun than running marketing,” Weiner observed. “The one downside is, you’re the very first one to be blamed if sales don’t go the right way. So you need to set expectations. In our case, we needed to align with management that the new product would cost more, and the campaign needed to be bold to break through.”

Anyone who tells you that you can turn around a brand with one ad is ridiculous.

And what about the risk of running a multimedia campaign admitting its pizza wasn’t good?

“We tested everything from the product to the advertising," he said. "We de-risked a huge risk. The research told us the campaign would break through and drive customers to try the new pizza, which was significantly improved—not only better than Domino’s original product, but better than our competitors'.”

Don’t simply market: tell a story.

Like a play, the Domino’s turnaround campaign—launched in January 2010—would unfold in several acts.

The opener, Weiner said, had this underlying message: “Unlike those banks and the government and the car companies, Domino's listened to our critics—and they inspired us to reinvent our pizza.”

There’s nothing more fun than running marketing. The one downside is, you’re the very first one to be blamed if sales don’t go the right way.

Remember those focus groups that compared the Domino’s crust to packing material and its sauce to a condiment? The company had recorded them—and it put them in ads.

The spots went on to chronicle—with humor and humility—how the company had responded to the criticism by completely overhauling its recipes.

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Coupled with a low-priced offer, the ad sent sales skyrocketing—to the point, Weiner said, that “we were three days away from running out of pepperoni.”

A follow-up took a beat from reality TV: chefs and camera crews knocked on the front doors of those same focus group participants, presented them with a reformulated pie, and had them taste it on the spot.

(They all loved it—but Weiner said if Domino's had gotten negative feedback, it would have broadcast the criticism.)

Marketing can drive other parts of your business.

Another phase of the campaign tapped a common consumer frustration: that professional food photography makes products much more attractive in ads than they are in real life.

Domino’s urged customers to take and upload photos of the pizzas they’d received—some 30,000 images were sent in—and the company displayed them in ads, even if they’d been mangled during delivery.

Domino’s urged customers to take and upload photos of the pizzas they’d received—and the company displayed them in ads, even if they’d been mangled during delivery.

As a result, Weiner said, franchisees took notice—since “no one wanted their pizza to be on TV”—and made operational improvements.

“The quality of our pizzas went up big time,” he said, “because we affected operations with our ads.”

When it comes to profit margins, concentrate on dollars rather than percentages.

“You could sell one pizza for $100, but you’d much rather sell 1,000 pizzas for $10—even though your percent margin is going to be smaller. You don’t put percentages in the bank,” he said.

“What we’ve done, through research over time, is figure out that curve where you can maximize volume and profitability.”

Stick to your vision.

As Weiner put it: “If someone tells you after two months, ‘We need to change to a different idea, then a different idea, and then a different idea,’ versus having a longer story—they don’t know what they’re talking about. Decide on your strategy, research it to find holes and improve it, and then stick to the plan.”

Practice what you preach.

Weiner terms it “double-click marketing”—not only making claims, but proving their veracity. With the campaign leveraging the theme of transparency, another ad encouraged customers to post their opinions of the reformulated pizza, with hashtags, on a then-new medium: Twitter.

The quality of our pizzas went up big time, because we affected operations with our ads.

And the campaign went a step further: the Twitter feed—positive and negative reactions alike—ran live on the Domino’s website. “We promised customers we would be transparent, and we delivered at every opportunity," he said. "A brand needs to walk its talk.”

Make sure you’re measuring the right thing.

At one point—back when emojis were first in vogue—Domino’s customers could order pizzas just by texting combinations of the digital symbols.

“Really, not a lot of people did,” Weiner admitted. “But what happened is folks looked at it and said, ‘Oh my God, how cool is that?’ And they ordered us in a different way.”

In other words: the raw numbers of emoji-orderers mattered much less than the cachet it carried.

Similarly, Domino’s built a small fleet of bespoke delivery vehicles, complete with warming ovens. While there were never more than few hundred, they developed a fan base and became objects of fascination—with an online tracker spotlighting their locations.

“Folks loved that we tried,” he said. “It didn’t matter if you saw the vehicle or not. It was reinforcing what we’ve been trying to say about the brand: we will do anything to make the pizza better.”

Keep innovating.

Even after sales had markedly improved, Weiner added other threads to the marketing story.

It didn’t matter if you saw the vehicle or not. It was reinforcing what we’ve been trying to say about the brand: we will do anything to make the pizza better.

They included a focus on the carryout aspect of the business and—of all things—a somewhat-tongue-in-cheek campaign to fill in potholes on public roads that could cause pizza-related mishaps while driving home.

Skip the sponsorships.

In Weiner’s eyes, they’re lazy marketing.

“Your job as a marketer is to create news about your brand,” he said.

“If you’re just another sticker on someone’s car or another promotion for a movie, you’ve not done your job. So don’t let yourself do partnerships, because anyone can do them. Do something that nobody can do—because they don’t own your brand.”

Be your own competitor.

“I don’t say, 'Never look at a competitor,'” Weiner told the class.

“But as [NY Yankees star] Aaron Judge said: ‘If you don’t wake up today better than you were yesterday, then you’re worse.’ So the biggest competitor you have every day is you.”

(All photos by Noël Heaney / Cornell University.)

Published December 16, 2024

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