Domino’s Pizza continued the aggressive launch of its new hand-tossed pizza, announcing that it beat Papa John’s and Pizza Hut in a national taste test of hand-tossed pepperoni pizza, sausage pizza, and extra-cheese pizza.
The victory resulted from an independent, blind taste test of nearly 1,800 random pizza consumers from eight U.S. markets. In head-to-head comparisons, participants picked each of the Domino’s pizzas as tasting better than both Papa John’s and Pizza Hut by a wide margin.
“Consumer perception of our delivery and service has always been strong. Now we’re proving that our taste and quality are great, too,” says Patrick Doyle, president of Domino’s USA. “Beating Papa John’s and Pizza Hut in this taste test is a very significant step in that direction.”
The new hand-tossed pizza, which arrived in stores in late December, features new sauce, cheese, and garlic-seasoned crust. The reformulation was one of the biggest moves in the company’s 50-year history, and was inspired by its toughest consumer critics. Domino’s transparent approach to talking about the change garnered much attention from the media and public in general, with the press highlighting the company’s “open and honest” treatment in its advertising.
“We listened to our consumers. They told us to change … so we did,” Doyle says. “Now, they’ve told us we’re better than we used to be—and better than our competition. We think that’s really cool.”
Surrounded by this excitement, Domino’s still has even more to look forward to as the company approaches the kickoff of its biggest night on the calendar this Sunday.
“Our stores and team members always look forward to the big game, and get about as amped up as the players themselves,” says Russell Weiner, Domino’s chief marketing officer. “With the momentum created by our new pizza and beating our two national competitors, this is sure to be our biggest game day yet—and we couldn’t be more excited to deliver over 9 million slices of pizza this Sunday.”