Domino’s is one of the largest pizza chains in the world…so why did it completely fail in Italy? In this video, I break down why Domino’s didn’t work in Italy, not from a food snob perspective, but from a business, cultural, and strategic point of view!
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#DominosPizza
#Business
#Italy
#FoodCulture
#CaseStudy
39 Comments
I think Domino failed to see the potential on offering pizza options not often seen in "normal" pizzerias but that some really liked – heck even my friends are slowly accepting pineapple pizza and they're italians!
Io sono l'Italiano Atipico o l'Italiano Tipico (dipende da chi si sente o meno come me.
Per principio da quando ho compiuto 16 anni nel 1980, ho rifiutato qualsiasi prodotto, ideologia o stile culturale provenisse dagli USA. Ho spesso Maledetto Cristoforo Colombo e Amerigo Vespucci. (e visti i risultati attuali, non credo di aver sbagliato).
Quindi L'hamburger lo mangio alla paninoteca dei figli della signora Carmela, La pizza la mangio nella Pizzeria da Gennariello, e da bere Birra Italiana, o al massimo Europea. Invece della Coca Cola compro la cola Blues dell'eurospin (che è buona uguale) ed evito qualsiasi prodotto made in USA compreso gli acquisti su Amazon, che devio su Temu – AliExpress – Shein eccetera. Oggi se potessi toglierei anche il Gas perchè lo stiamo comprando dagli USA. Insomma il mio credo è principalmente BOICOTTARE GLI AMERICANI Sempre comunque e dovunque!
The question isn't why Domino's pizza failed in Italy, but how someone could think that garbage industrial stuff could ever win against high quallity tradition real stuff. the same apply to Subway
Most Domino’s were putr inside gas stations. That meant a totally wrong approach to the concept and sacrality of food in Italy.
Even McDonald's struggled to gain a foothold in Italy in the 1980s; it had to buy the Italian fast food chain Burgy to expand and maintain its foothold. Starbucks closed many stores, remaining only in tourist areas, and had to lower its prices. No normal Italian would pay more than €2 for a Starbucks coffee (that's already too much).
In Italy the competitors are not Italian pizzas but Egyptian, these men have worked 20 years under Italian leadership and have mastered the local preferences.
There is no such thing as Italian pizza, it's so diverse all over the country.
YOU answered yourself at the beginning…because we love pizza and domino pizza Is a shtty pizza. I live in Italy, only around my house there are 5-6 pizzerie…One Better of the other, we don t Need the McDonald's of the pizza
Sei mai stata in Italia?
Let me put this in an Italian way. If I brought you literally shit, you wouldn't eat it either. You'd be disgusted, and I'd have to leave. That's exactly what happened with Domino's. We Italians understand our cuisine best; it has UNESCO status. We know how it's made, what goes on it, and how it should taste its best. Anyone who says they know more about pizza or any other dish from our cuisine than we do. They're absolutely arrogant. If I were being sarcastic, this is what I'd say: "Oh, how wonderful that you're improving our recipes. It's about time. Of course, how could we have forgotten for centuries that cream makes everything better? Carbonara without cream? What a primitive notion! Our grandmothers probably just didn't know what they were doing when they cooked with guanciale, pecorino, and egg yolks.
Thankfully, there are now people like you who finally have the courage to make our recipes properly – with whatever's in the fridge. Maggi, ketchup, and maybe a touch of peanut butter – the main thing is that you like it.
And what's a culinary identity compared to your personal taste.
Seriously, please keep going. And feel free to call it "Carbonara." Maybe we'll soon be calling pineapple pizza "alla Vesuviana" – because it's so wonderfully explosive. But let us know when you rename the next national dish – then at least we'll know what we're allowed to boycott.” Italian cuisine is rigid when it comes to its traditional recipes and names. And we are very protective of our cuisine. This is also why, in real life and in online comments, Italians clash with modern people. They are two worlds that don't understand each other and never will. Unless we Italians lose our defiance, our pride, our stubbornness, and our Italian spirit. Our cuisine isn't the best in the world for nothing. It was built with Italian hands, it was invented with Italian minds; no foreigner has the right to say what belongs in our cuisine and our recipes, and what doesn't. Only we get to decide. American pizza, and chains like Domino's, are destroying everything that Italian pizza, our national dish, our Italian cuisine, and the culture behind it stand for. That's why such things will always fail in Italia. You can accept it, tolerate it, criticize it. We in Italia couldn't care less; we'd print out that comment and use it as toilet paper. Viva l’Italia 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹
I disagree with her explanation. The fact that in every city there are hundreds of different pizzerias means that you can choose the good ones and avoid the bad ones. It's not a matter of loyalty, it's the very opposite!
If it was about loyalty and eating every time the same exact product, you could have easily substituted your local pizzeria with dominos. The problem is that if you do that you'll never find out the places in which they make a better pizza. Variety is all about that , it's meritocracy.
Do we even need to ask the question?????
Domino's pizza Who?
How about an Italian burger joint in the US??? Probably would do well!
Dominos would be pizza rejected by famished Somalians in Italy…not even soup kitchen material.
Forse se avesse usato materie prime italiane ce la poteva fare.
Unfortunately, one evening, it was late and I didn't have much time, so I popped into a Domino's Pizza in Milan on Via Melchiorre Gioia (before it closed). It was the worst pizza I've ever tasted in Italy. Dry, almost inedible. I asked for some extra virgin olive oil to add to it. They boasted that they didn't have any and that Domino's pizzas don't include oil. Get out from Italy!
You cannot fight a wolf in its lair.
La pizza da me viene ordinata al telefono per la X ora passo a prenderla. Mai visto un menù, sicuramente esiste, ma io invento volta x volta 😁
How do you fail at selling pizza to a country full of foodies (see Penny)? Well, when you make pizza that tastes like tomato paste-smeared cardboard, it isn't difficult.
As a German, I would like to say one thing: when I go out to eat or order food, it is exclusively from a local restaurant and certainly not from a US chain that has no idea what good food really means.
I'm just saying, "American, go home and stay there."
07:30 – this part about why would you choose some big American corporate chain over a local pizzeria that you know and love is such an important point! Why would you want to spend your hard earned money to prop up the profits of a company outside of Italy? Yes the employees in your local Domino's and the franchise owner get some money, but most of it goes straight out of Italy and into the US… whereas your local "mom & pop" pizzeria, you're helping a local business, that money is staying within Italy, it's helping the local economy, local farmers etc. … here in the UK, I stopped eating at chains about 10 years ago because I had that epiphany of "why on earth am I supporting a non-British company (who likely avoids paying their taxes) when I can support a local place where the quality is going to better?" … and it's something that I have endeavoured to do ever since in all aspects of my life… (Where it is reasonable) I try to buy British as much as I can. I stopped buying trainers (sneakers) from the typical Adidas/Nike etc. that use sweatshops in Indonesia and pay a little more to buy from companies that manufacture them here, same for boots and shoes – they cost more, don't get me wrong, but to be fair the quality is better. Same with most of my clothing, the only thing I do still buy non-British are socks & underwear. My fragrance I switched to British made too, which is financially crippling in a way as one of the only ones I could find that was still actually produced here was Penhaligons and that is…pricey. I think we should all, as much as possible and obviously where you can afford it, try to buy local and from companies within your country as much as possible and stop throwing our hard earned money away at companies who just siphon cash back into their own country, or don't pay their taxes or use shady business practices (looking at you, Nike, with your Indonesian sweatshops where the workers earn $2 per day producing footwear that you charge $100+ for)
DOMINO NEVER SODISFIED ME, BUT ITS BETTER THAN THE PAST.
Why?
If you're dumb enough to bring sand on a beach, you deserve to fail.
Because dominos pizza it's SUKCS! it's disgusting! And because of the COVID. Thanks, COVID 🎉!
America : Food should be generated with speed
Europe : Food Should be generated with Culture
Freshly prepared food, made locally by Artisans within one's own community, or Imported ersatz factory product, mass produced by a Foreign corporate giant?
Hmm, what would you choose? Me? I'm going with local every time.
I'm surprised Starbucks is not failing too… I mean they actually adapted to our tastes but still… go to your local cafe…
Dunkin' s donuts failed as well, at least in Rome they did. Too sweet. I used to go there maybe once or twice a year, there were hardly any people there.
As italian I can tell you that literally anyone, Kebab shops included, makes better pizza than Domino. We also don't like pizzas with 500 ingredients, a good selection of 2-3 is enough to make a great pizza. Less is more. The dough is a crucial part as well. Italy is also the country where you can find pizzas for 4 euros only, depending on the city, sometimes even less. Big cities they often have margherita for 6 euros only.
Most and foremost, I think in Italy every restaurant bases its success on the uniqueness. Restaurant chains are almost unknown. The very idea of standardized product is repulsive for the market
I'll be real, it's not even a matter of tradition, nowadays it's common to say as a joke but also as something true that the best pizza around the neighborhood is from some random Pakistani guy who can't even say "onion" properly, "tonescibola". It's that we already have people who know how to make pizza, make it good, and it doesn't break the bank, so why would be go eat pizza made by a corporation from a country we keep saying shouldn't be let near a stove?
A 5€ magari la focaccia
Un'altro video che ho visto in merito spiegava come qui in Italia non si è di mente chiusa nei confronti di cibi dall'estero, bensì nei confronti di cibi italiani fatti da stranieri. E un po' mi ci rivedo in questo: se viene una catena statunitense a preparare un prodotto tipico italiano ho di mio il pregiudizio che non faccia un lavoro migliore rispetto alle pizzerie locali (e infatti da Domino, quando ha aperto, mica ci sono mai andato)
The story IS about bad food.
I'm not surprised by Domino's Pizza, but I don't understand how McDonald's survives in Italy, perhaps only because of Happy Meals and children's birthday parties. I go to an Italian sandwich shop opposite McDonald's, where the food is exceptional, the burgers are fresh, the sauces are all made fresh every day, and there's nothing in bags or jars. Fresh, high-quality condiments and special bread made especially for cooking. A hamburger and a drink cost €6, while at McDonald's it costs even more to eat things that have been prepared and frozen for months.
who would have guessed that selling bad pizza in the country that literally invented making good pizza doesn't work
Also, personally, I didn't eat/tried Domino's for their aggressive marketing, but not from ads I saw but from their SMS
No matter how much I blocked them, I kept getting them, easy pass and lost a customer even before even seeing a store
Non era così terribile: era dolciastra e particolare, diversa dalle pizzerie che frequento e comunque non la peggiore tra le pizze che abbia mangiato. Diciamo che non ne sento la mancanza.
I saw "pizza" and clicked instantly. Great job on the vod! I didn't even know they tried to expand into Italy and failed.