BE EXCLUSIVE ,
Domino’s the world’s larg-est pizza brand launches its first hybrid: the Burger-Pizza. And so takes the fight for the Indian QSR space to the burger king-dom. Will it win?
By Rajiv Singh
It’s a burger…it’s a pizza…it’s BurgerPizza! No such confusion for Domino’s, the world’s biggest pizza brand which is set to launch burgers in India this week.
“It only looks like a burger, but has all the goodness of a pizza inside,” says Dev Amritesh, president and chief business officer of Domino’s Pizza India. Perhaps, that’s the reason why the pizza maker is not calling it a burger but a BurgerPizza— a cross between the two. Proof that Domino’s is not willing to cut the umbilical cord completely. The BurgerPizza will come in two vegetarian and non-vegetarian variants, with a starting price tag of Z89. Unlike most burgers, it doesn’t have a patty, is loaded with herbs, tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese — ingredients that are central to pizzas — and is oven baked.
But why would a brand famous for its pies even come up with something which resembles a burger? No rocket science there, just business opportunity. Though Amritesh prefers to call it a move dictated by occasions.
Burgers in India are all-day escape and fun food while pizzas are becoming meal replacement and comfort food. The ‘all day, individual consump-tion occasion’ is an opportunity that is incremen-tal to Domino’s, explains Amritesh. “BurgerPizza is our offering for this opportunity,” he says, quickly adding that though consumers order piz-zas through the day, BurgerPizza will target the in-between meals day parts as well.
The opportunity is immense. While the brand-ed food service industry in India was a $3 billion market in 2015, it is set to touch $8 billion by 2020, • • DOMINO’S THE urrent leader in the 1 QSR space according to Euromonitor is launching a burger pizza hybrid STARTING AT z89, BurgerPizza gives Domino’s a credible offering in the snacking space where burgers are a very popular option THE FORAY into burgers takes 4 the fight into a space currently dominated by archrival McDonald’s SOME MARKETING experts believe this is a good strategic move to make Domino’s product independent OTHERS BELIEVE it could potentially damage the brand’s DNA according to a recent Euromonitor consumer food service report. In terms of the quick service restaurant (QSR) market share, burgers occupy 29.9% whereas pizzas slice up 26.7%.
Though the gap between burger and pizza is not huge, the market fora whole-day indulgence food has been growing at a faster clip. Over the last two years, a slew of big global burger brands such as Carl’s Junior, Wendy’s, Burger King and Johnny Rocket have opened stores in India at a time when /MB the pizza segment has been quite muted in terms of new players. In fact, Domino’s is not the first to step out of its comfort zone. Cross-product pol-lination has become the norm, with a donut brand like Dunkin, and Café Coffee Day, the country’s largest chain of cafes, pushing burgers.
Even for online food delivery companies, burg-ers are chartbusters. “They are one of the most popularly ordered items across all eight cities,” says Nandan Reddy, cofounder of Swiggy, an on-line food delivery startup based out of Bengaluru. Swiggy has over 4,000 restaurants on its platform offering burgers and has delivered 0.7 million of these so far. “Consumers order burgers through-out the day,” he points out. The move by Domino’s wins approval from some marketing experts. The segment that patronises pizza predominantly consists of young consumers, who seek multiple products. This is necessarily because of non-preference for pizza, but is driven by variety-seeking behaviour, boredom with pizza or the need to fit in with others in the group, says Abraham Koshy, professor of marketing at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He believes brand loyalty for Domino’s has outgrown product loyalty for pizzas. “By launching burgers, Domino’s will make itself product independent,” he says, adding that what matters to consumers is the brand experience which another product could offer just as well as the flagship.
But can Domino’s burger potentially cannibalise offerings by its sister concern — Dunkin Donuts? Koshy doesn’t think so. The fact that Dunkin and Domino’s share franchise ownership is known only to discerning and informed con-sumers, he says. For ordinary consumers, these are two different brands that deliver two different products with alternative brand experiences. “A donut company’s burger may taste differently from a pizza company’s burger,” he says.
Bun Intended However, not everyone is sure BurgerPizza is the right move. for Domino’s. “Imageries are strong in the minds of consumers who have been into silo-oriented brand con-sumption,” says brand strategist Harish Bijoor. When you try muddy-ing these waters, there will be some mud on your original product and brand imagery for sure. “So watch out for that,” he adds.
Bijoor contends that a brand must not tamper with its DNA. “A burger is a burger, and a pizza is a pizza,” with the core-competence of creating these tied to separate sets of brands. At one end, there is McDonald’s, Burger King and others, and at the other, there are Domino’s, Pizza Hut etc. The battle lines are well demarcated, with the brands vying to preserve their specialty through QSR and delivery.
It only fuzzy,” he says. It will not be looks like a as deep on pizza as it used burger, but to be, he fears. has all the goodness Domino’s, for its part, of a pizza inside sounds confident. Dev Amritesh, “We are and will al-PRESIDENT &CB0′ ways be a pizza coin-DOMINO’S PIZZA INDIA // pany,” asserts Murugan Narayanaswamy, senior vice president of marketing at Domino’s India, clarifying the new product is a pizza in an innovative new form.
Narayanaswamy believes that the Indian QSR space is evolving at a rapid pace and consumers are on an ex-ploration journey. “They are pushing brands to flirt with bold and new ideas,” he says.
But can this flirting result in khusiyon ki Armr Mir 4,1.1f4P434;41 Ati,,toroo,F B mtlf–140P While Domino’s move is to get new customers, stay relevant in all time slots and increase moments of con-sumption, it may take the shine off the brand. “A branded QSR is not a ration shop where you get everything,” says Bijoor. It has a specific lure and bait, a core competence that is product defined, and not necessarily service defined. “Therefore, I question this move. The fact is that the future brand imagery will be home delivery for Domino’s? The pizza brand is more than double the size of McDonald’s, a company it trailed just four year ago according to Euromonitor. However, in an ear-lier interview with The Economic Times, Amit Jatia, vice chairman at Westlife Development, master fran-chisee of McDonald’s restaurants in south and west India, claimed that “McDonald’s is the largest western fast food player in India in terms of average volume per store and average customers per store.”
In the context of what appears to be heated rivalry, it’s hard to see BurgerPizza as anything other than Domino’s taking the fight right to the flagship of its rival.
Can a 89 hybrid from Domino’s land a killer punch to the z25 something fare from McDonald’s? Or is knowing your slices no guarantee that you will know your buns? rajiv.singh@timesgroup.com