Dough Rises in Portugal

Principles of Marketing

Dawn M. Sobraski

Florida Institute of Technology

Table of Contents

Abstract ……………………………………………………… 3

A Brief History ……………………………………………………… 4

World-Wide Franchising ……………………………………………………… 6

Why Portugal ……………………………………………………… 7

Community Introduction ……………………………………………………… 8

Continued Efforts ……………………………………………………… 9

References ……………………………………………………… 10

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief historical background of Domino’s Pizza and how they rose from one location to over 10,000 over their 50-year history. Having a rich history with franchisees all over the United States, Domino’s Pizza moved internationally with franchises in the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and even parts of the Middle East. The decision of where Domino’s Pizza will franchise to next is decided along with rational reasoning for this decision and how initial marketing will be handled to introduce the community to Domino’s Pizza, its values and products.

Dough Rises in Portugal

Domino’s Pizza: A Brief History

Domino's Pizza began as DomiNick’s in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a suburb about 35 miles west of Detroit, and home to Eastern Michigan University. Tom Monaghan and his brother Jim borrowed money in 1960 to purchase the store and set about making history - though they didn't know it at the time. Within 8-months of purchasing DomiNick’s, Monaghan’s brother Jim wanted out and traded his Volkswagen to Tom in exchange for his slice of the pie. The former Marine Monaghan knew that it was necessary to evaluate and re-evaluate and realized that keeping the menu simple he would be able to better serve his customers. On nights when he was short-staffed, he would exclude items from the menu and looking over the profits for those days with the excluded menu items, Monaghan’s instincts proved correct. As Monaghan set about expanding elsewhere in Michigan, Dominick, the owner of the original store Monaghan purchased, refused to lend the DomiNick’s name to new stores, so Monaghan was forced to choose a name. In 1965, Domino’s Pizza was officially born. Monaghan was not a restaurateur, nor was he college educated and he learned a lot by trial and error. He became a pioneer by introducing a new fiberglass container that later became an industry standard. Monaghan also developed a new corrugated pizza box that withstood stacking, steam, and didn’t warp in the middle and adhere to the cheese. Domino’s Pizza went through rough times; a fire tearing through the original store in 1968, issues with the IRS and various business partners along the way, and a lawsuit launched by Amstar Corporation, Domino Sugar’s parent company. Domino’s Pizza eventually won the lawsuit and continued to grow. With franchises and franchisees in Vermont, Florida, Ohio, Texas and the original stores in Michigan it seemed as though Domino’s Pizza was the proverbial phoenix and continued to rise no matter what was thrown at it.

World-Wide Franchising Deciding to franchise outside the United States, the first Domino’s Pizza franchise outside the United States was opened in 1983 on the Australian continent and located in Queensland.
Over the rest of the 1980s decade, Domino’s Pizza opened an additional 4,000 locations and could be found in the UK, Germany, Canada and Japan. In 1989, when Domino’s Pizza opened its 5,000th store, franchises had moved to Puerto Rico, Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Spain.
There are 10,000 Domino’s Pizza locations world-wide as of September 2012, there are still countries craving a Domino’s Pizza. With this in mind, it has been determined that the best place to pursue further franchises would be Portugal.

Why