Domino's wants a larger slice of the Indian pizza market

New Delhi: Domino's Pizza, or the 'pizza delivery experts' as they prefer to call themselves, is streamlining its marketing initiatives while simultaneously expanding its product portfolio with a view to get a larger slice of the Indian pizza market. According to Dev Amritesh, Domino's Pizza India's vice president for marketing, the company is now striving to deliver the best tasting product, which it hopes will make it the best pizza company in the country given its quick delivery. He also said that though the '30 minutes or free' campaign will continue, the company's focus will now be on three important pillars for growth, which are enhanced retail presence, best product and delivery competency. Domino's is also expanding its product portfolio. The company has launched a new 'stuffed crunch' pizza, the TV commercials for which will feature Bollywood actor Arshad Warsi and which will start airing within the next few days.

Local marketing will see localised campaigns and store-level publicity, along with flier programmes, some of which have reportedly already been rolled out. A 'marketing investment' of Rs20 crore has been set out to cater to marketing initiatives until March 2008. The increased spend on marketing marks a 70 per cent increase from the previous year. Previous product initiatives, which are part of Domino's product portfolio expansion strategy, included the 'cheese burst' pizza, followed by a 'calzone', and then a 'Chinese' pizza. According to Amritesh, the next fiscal will see the company launch three or four new products that will address the demand for different flavours. The current year has reportedly seen Domino's turnover grow by 65 per cent when compared to the previous year. According to the company, 30 per cent of this came from the new product variants that were introduced. Expanding its retail presence, the company's outlets will reportedly number 200 from the current 180 by the end of the fiscal. Reports in the media have indicated that Domino's will have 500 outlets by 2010, at an outlay of around Rs350 crore, from which it plans to generate a turnover of Rs1,000 crore during the 2010-2011 period.