Dive Brief:
- Domino's Pizza has created a website where friends and family can honor couples whose wedding plans have been sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic with themed digital gift cards, the brand said in a press release.
- Friends and family can send couples pizza through Domino's new Rain Check Registry at dominosweddingregistry.com. The site features themed gift packages, including the "Virtual Bachelorette Party" and "Vendor Call-A-Thon," which consist of digital gift cards in varying amounts that can be spent on anything at Domino's Pizza.
- Couples can create their own Rain Check Registry by signing in with Google or Facebook, choosing from themed packages such as "Small Wedding Now, Big Celebration Later" or the "Bridal Shower, but Make it Virtual" and sharing the registry with friends on social media.
Dive Insight:
Domino's is looking to connect with consumers who were planning to get married or attend a wedding but had their plans cancelled or postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. By creating tongue-in-cheek gift packages like meals to eat while betrothed couples have to call up and cancel their photographers, florists and caterers, or for virtual bachelorette parties, Domino's is trying to help feed people as they make the best of a difficult situation. The average age to get married in 2020 is 32, which is a good match with Domino's target audience age demographic.
Domino's follows other brands in trying to bring goodwill to couples who have had to postpone wedding plans this year. Busch Beer ran a social media contest in April for couples whose 2020 wedding plans were impacted by coronavirus-related shutdowns. These consumers were encouraged to share a photo of themselves on Twitter or Instagram with a caption explaining how they still plan to celebrate and the hashtags #BuschWeddingGift and #Sweepstakes for a chance to win a year's worth of beer. Jewelry retailer Jared, which is more directly associated with weddings, ran the #LoveCantWait campaign to promote virtual weddings during the time of coronavirus.
By actively looking to connect and acquire new customers, particularly those who create registries or use the app to place orders, Domino's has the ability to expand its customer base. With the impact of the coronavirus pandemic continuing to be felt, many consumers remain wary of going out to eat at newly opened restaurants. Domino's could fill in the gap by promoting a new reason to call up for a meal delivery: treating a friend whose wedding has been cancelled.
Domino's has benefited from pandemic-related lockdowns as homebound consumers have been ordering more pizza from the chain. The company reported a 7.1% increase in sales from March 23 to April 19 even as the pandemic hurt restaurants in general, in part because Domino's is known for home delivery while other restaurants had to pivot to delivery and curbside pickup when in-person dining was first prohibited by local ordinances, per a report from CNBC. Domino's, in response to the growth, hired 10,000 workers to meet the demand.
