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Domino’s revamps chicken items, plans nationwide push

After more than a year spent marketing its revamped pizza recipe, Domino’s Pizza Inc. is changing its chicken offerings.

The Ann Arbor-based pizza maker today is introducing its revised boneless chicken and chicken wings at stores nationwide. The new chicken recipes represent the next chapter of Domino’s reinvention and the first time since 2002 it touted chicken in a national promotion, the company says.

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Analysts say the focus on chicken is a wise move that gives Domino’s an opportunity to capture market share from the nation’s largest pizza maker, Louisville, Ky.-based Pizza Hut.

“Domino’s is behaving like a classic No. 2 in the market,” said Nancy Childs, a food marketing professor at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “They’re just mimicking the leader.”

Domino’s said the new chicken recipe is part of a renewed focus on quality. After changing the pizza recipe in December 2009, “We started methodically working through our menu to make sure everything is the best food we can possibly make,” said Domino’s Chief Executive Patrick Doyle.

The boneless wings replace Domino’s Chicken Kickers and now come with a selection of dipping sauces — BBQ, ranch, sweet mango habanero and traditional Kickers hot sauce. In response to customer feedback, the chicken wings are crispier and come in a range of flavors.

Chicken is usually an “add on” item that customers order in addition to pizza or another meal, Doyle said. Analysts said a focus on chicken will help boost the average amount of money that customers spend on an order. Doyle declined to say how much the company spent on reformulating its chicken but said it took two years to develop.

Though Domino’s is the nation’s second-largest pizza chain by revenue and the biggest home delivery chain, analysts say the company won’t dilute its brand equity by focusing on a menu item that isn’t pizza.

The company changed 80 percent of its menu during the past two years, introducing items such as breadsticks, pasta, sandwiches and dessert without abandoning its core product, said Mark Smith, a restaurant industry analyst with Feltl and Company Inc. in Minneapolis.

“I don’t think there’s a big risk,” Smith said. “They’re always going to be a pizza player.”

The timing is advantageous because wings are becoming more popular and the price of a pound of chicken declined by about one-third since the first quarter last year, Smith added.

Domino’s strategy of continuing to innovate is a good one, said Mark Kalinowski, a restaurant analyst with Janney Capital Markets in New York.

“Like any restaurant business, you can’t rest on your laurels,” Kalinowski said. “It’s a ‘what have you done for me lately’ category in consumers’ eyes.”

Domino’s is known for “speedy delivery of hot food, and the food doesn’t necessarily have to be pizza,” he said. “People still first and foremost think of Domino’s as a pizza category.”

Like its marketing strategy for the new pizza, the new chicken ad campaign will take a self-effacing attitude. A television commercial starring Tate the Chicken Chef begins airing March 2 and acknowledges the shortcomings of Domino’s old wings and boneless Chicken Kickers.

“If we tried to move away from it now, we’d be hurt by consumers,” Doyle said. “This is a way of life for us now.”

Tags: Chicken, Chicken Items