How Domino’s is telling consumers about its new quality control captains

Domino’s wants to let customers know that it is taking a more critical look at its pizzas’ quality. After seeing a decline in good topping distribution and dip cups making it into order boxes, the brand has added quality control captains in stores in a bid to retain and draw in customers with good value and well-made pizza—plus a bit of star power. According to Kate Trumbull, Domino’s chief brand officer, the chain was seeing more complaints via social listening and customer feedback. “I think like most [quick-service restaurants] in COVID, we had a ton of challenges like labor shortages and high volume,” Trumbull said. “And that demand put pressure on services. So we brought in every franchisee to retrain on quality and to bring service times back to pre-COVID levels.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs The new campaign, from WorkInProgress, shares that stores now have quality captains—employees who are not afraid to call out a poorly made pizza with uneven toppings. The quality captain position will rotate among employees, who will check pizzas before and after they go in the oven and review orders before they leave the store. To show how serious, and ruthless, those quality captains are, the ads star Simon Cowell, the hard-to-please judge from “American Idol” and “The X Factor.” “This renewed focus from the operations team is so relevant to consumers, so we wanted a powerful visual metaphor to get that across,” said Matt Talbot, co-founder and chief creative officer at WorkInProgress. The campaign will run across national broadcast, CTV, streaming, social, digital and audio. The focus on quality comes as fast feeders are trying to woo back price-sensitive consumers. Weak sales earlier this year lit a fire under brands including McDonald’s, Burger King and Starbucks to turn up their value marketing. But even as inflation has moderated, consumer sentiment is still low, and brands aren’t pulling back on value yet. With other brands focusing on value, as Domino’s is with its Tipping Campaign, the chain also wanted to focus on good quality as a part of value. “It’s not just the price—it’s the amount and quality you get,” said Trumbull. “The pressure on consumers has not gone away, so they might have less occasions to order out, and when they do, it needs to be right.” “It’s not a good deal if it’s made poorly,” Talbot added. Domino’s U.S. same-store sales rose 4.8% in the second quarter ended June 16. Competitor Pizza Hut’s second-quarter same-store sales were down 1% and Papa Johns reported that its North America comparable sales were down 4%.

How Domino’s is telling consumers about its new quality control captains

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