In Response to Rebecca's Post..

What are some of the reasons that you think Domino’s is so much more successful than Pizza Hut?

In my opinion Domino’s is much more successful than Pizza Hut for many reasons. Domino’s seems to offer more deals and promotions like the 5-5-5 deal and they advertise their promotions much more frequently, especially on T.V. in commercials. Domino’s is open later hours than Pizza Hut which makes their food more convenient for customers such as college students. As for the Domino’s in Keene, college students are the majority of their consumers and being open til 1 am during the week and 3 am on the weekends brings in more sales because late nights are the times students want to order pizza. Pizza Hut on the other hand is only open until 10 pm and this does not meet college student’s needs. Also, Pizza Hut and Domino’s offer online ordering, yet Domino’s website provides an online tracking system where you can watch the process of your order and see when it’s done cooking. Domino’s also has won “Chain of the Year” two consecutive years and this I’m sure has helped their reputation. In December of 2009 Domino’s also came out with a new pizza recipe and they had a corresponding advertising campaign featuring real customers and employees talking about their great experiences with the new recipe which helped boost sales.

What marketing tactics do you think Pizza Hut could take on in order to be more successful than Domino's?

Starbucks: Premium Quality Coffee

Starbucks is one of the first companies that come to mind when I think of successful product positioning. For those of you who don’t know, product positioning is a marketing technique which involves creating a unique, consistent, and recognized customer perception about a firm’s offering and image. In other words, it involves creating and maintaining a certain concept of a product in the customer’s eyes. However, before creating the product position the company must determine the market segment they want to target their product or service to. In this case, Starbucks decided to mainly target office workers with middle to high incomes and in turn the company provides premium products with a place people can go between work and home and relax gather and socialize. Within the walls of Starbucks you can find comfortable furniture and tables and they serve multiple different coffee drinks and pastries that are associated with a high price to show their high quality. This is how Starbucks wanted its products and services to be perceived. Starbucks maintains a premium quality image by carefully monitoring each and every step of coffee production. They buy dark-roast whole bean coffee from countries like Costa Rica, Sumatra, and Kenya and then roast the coffee beans in their own plants and sell them only through company-owned stores. Starbucks also provides excellent service and they are always making sure customers are more than satisfied. 

What is the first company that comes to mind when you think of product positioning? How does the company create a unique and consistent customer perception of their product or service?