WTF is an ‘emergency pizza’?
WTF is an ‘emergency pizza’?
If you’re Domino’s, it drives “meaningful value to shareholders.” If you’re a diner, well…
There are many potential use cases for an emergency pizza. This one is a highly successful Domino’s marketing campaign and loyalty program promotion. Launched last fall, it gifts customers a medium, two-topping pizza after they place one qualifying order of $7.99 or more. And it’s helping to revive Domino’s slumping sales.
The pizza company that once called itself a tech company that’s now a pizza company again, posted quarterly results this week that beat analyst expectations. It’s in part thanks to the company’s revamped loyalty program, including that so-called “emergency pizza” promotion.
It’s hard to argue with free dinner, remember?
In fact, Domino’s CEO, Russell Weiner, said that his company’s pizza sales grew last quarter in part because its new loyalty program gives people deals — like free food — sooner than it used to. In 2023, Domino’s loyalty program gained 3 million members; 2 million of them joined after the September revamp. Domino’s plans to lean into this success in 2024, putting more energy behind its loyalty program.
Pizza is, if nothing else, a crowd pleaser.
I spent months reporting out a feature about failed robot pizza venture Zume Pizza last year (it’s a great story!), and in the process, maybe answered a perennial and lingering question: Why is the tech industry so obsessed with pizza?
Answers from experts I asked included: “Everyone loves pizza,” “Pizza is basically un-fu**up-able,” and “Pizza is the easiest fast food from a food safety perspective because everything goes into the oven at once.” All of these answers feel correct.
There’s also the performance angle: Domino’s and Google each IPO’d within months of each other. Famously, at some points in their trajectory, Domino’s would’ve netted a higher yield (including dividends) with equal investments in both companies at the time of their IPO.
All of these things combined have made pizza, and Domino’s pizza in particular, excellent tech-adjacent fodder. The pizza company has mostly dropped its “tech company” label, and, at this point in the year 2024, that’s a positive change — the tech industry has laid off a reported 42,000+ workers in the first two months of the year.
In an analysis, CNBC attributed the tech industry’s cuts, in part, to the stock market effect: “Companies that conducted layoffs haven’t been punished, either by investors or on their bottom lines. In fact, they’ve been rewarded with rising stock prices,” it wrote.
Emergency pizzas pushed Domino’s stock higher this week, too; shares were up close to 6 percent in morning trading on Monday, just after the earnings release. Weiner, Domino’s CEO, called the promo “a resounding success.”
I call it a marketing campaign for modern times.
“With so much uncertainty in everyday life,” Domino’s chief brand officer Kate Trumbull shared at the time of the emergency pizza’s debut, “we believe everyone needs a pizza pick-me-up at some point!”
What else?
Wonder, FKA ‘the company that makes dinner in a van outside your house’, opened its newest location in a Walmart. The Quakertown, Pennsylvania location is Wonder’s eleventh brick and mortar, and the first inside a Walmart. Two more Walmart locations will follow in New Jersey. Wonder founder Marc Lore sold a previous startup, Jet.com, to Walmart in 2016 for over $3 billion; he joined the company as an executive before leaving to (eventually) tackle the restaurant business. — Inc
I’ve long appreciated journalist Corey Mintz’s nuanced takes on the future of restaurants and especially love how he latches onto the difference between what people say they want from restaurants and what they actually want from restaurants as evidenced by their behavior. Mintz’s recent opinion piece for Business Insider toes that line well. “Restaurants need to evolve to survive, but you’re gonna hate what they’ve got in mind,” indeed. — Business Insider
Speaking of that “hated” evolution, Wendy’s said it’s considering deploying dynamic pricing at all of its restaurants by the end of next year. That means that menu items could cost more or less depending on the time of day or other factors. The restaurant chain is dedicating at least $20 million to the effort, which includes new menu boards that can display price fluctuations. It’s easy to get nervous about potentially paying $15 for a JBC, but as variable pricing has been explained to me in the past, we’re talking small price changes, not necessarily huge jumps. According to new data from the National Restaurant Association, 61 percent of adults have a favorable response to the idea of variable pricing at restaurants.— Food & Wine
Now here’s a great use for generative AI: The San Francisco Chronicle trained its new Chowbot (lol) on more than 1,000 restaurant reviews and guides, meaning it cites journalists’ work when returning suggestions. We love to see it. — SF Chronicle
Resy has shareable lists now. App users and web visitors can create lists to share with others via text. “Resy isn't just for booking, it's a destination to discover and learn about amazing restaurants,” Hannah Kelly, Resy’s chief marketer, said in a statement. — release