Dairy check-off leaders recently announced a new partnership with Dominos to increase pizza sales and the amount of cheese used on pizza.
Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), the company which manages the dairy check-off, said it will invest 12 million dollars of producer-contributed funds to the marketing and promotion of Dominos American Legends line of pizzas. The new line-up features six new pizza recipes from regions throughout the U.S. and will be made with up to 40 percent more cheese.
“The purpose of this partnership is first to help dairy farmers in this time of extreme, dire need,” said Tom Gallagher, CEO of Dairy Management Inc. “As we see the global economy slow down, our ability to export commodity cheese takes a downturn, and cheese and powder stocks start to back up. Anything the check-off can do to stimulate short-term demand we will do.”
According to industry research and the check-off, pizza sales have been slowing down over the last five years as well as the amount of cheese used to make pizza.
“We’d like to be able to show that [pizza] is about the cheese and that when people are afforded the opportunity to pay for a good-tasting quality product with quality amounts of cheese this category can improve and improve in the near-term,” said Dave Branson, CEO of Domino’s.
The pizza company has created a TV commercial campaign to market the new pizzas which feature the creation of a new spoofy cabinet position within the U.S. government – the Secretary of Taste. The commercials show that interns within the department shred cheese instead of documents.
“As you see these commercials, I think they will not only make you smile but they will reinforce the fact that we are marketing beautiful pizza products with wonderful cheese and great taste that will really resonate with the American consumer,” Branson said.
The new pizzas will be a permanent menu item, and Branson said the company will contribute more than four to five times the amount the check-off has invested to market the pizzas.
“We are leveraging our dollars with a fantastic company to be able to increase pizza sales and cheese sales,” said Arizona dairyman Paul Rovey, who serves as DMI’s board chairman.
Branson said that DMI’s investment was the stimulus for the campaign.
“We live in an age where we read a lot about the concept of stimulus and how investments can be made to stimulate certain behaviors that are overall good for the whole,” Branson said. “There is no question about the fact the investment DMI made in this product platform was the stimulus to make it happen. Had that investment not been made I can’t say that we would have never launched this product, but I can tell you that there is no way we would have been able to launch it on the timetable we are on or the magnitude we are at.” PD
