Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is essential to the company, because it can help the company to obtain
important information from competitor and with this information it can forecast competitors
strategic actions. This analysis also enables the company to identify opportunities and threats.
Every organisation operates within a given environment. An organisations task environment
comprises other organisations or various groups that can affect an organisation
(Schermerhorn et al. 2011).
Dominos has many small and large competitors but its major chain competitors are Pizza
Hut, Papa Johns and Little Caesars.
Market shares of leading pizza companies according to sales are shown below.

Market Commonality and Resource Similarity

Market Commonality is the number of markets with which the firm and a competitor are
jointly involved and the degree of importance of the individual markets to each. Dominos,
Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and Little Caeser compete against each other in multiple global fastfood markets. Whereas, resource similarity refers to how comparable the firms tangible and
intangible resources are to a competitors in terms of both types and amounts. Firms with
similar types and amounts of resources are likely to have similar strengths, similar
weaknesses, and use similar strategies.

The rivalry between dominos and its competitors demonstrates these expectations in the fast
food business. These firms are using the integrated cost leadership/differentiation strategy to
offer relatively better cost pizzas some differentiated features, such as services. But again,
most of the services provided by all the Dominos competitors are same. For example,
delivery services, variety of menus and better dine in services.
Pizza Hut:
Pizza Hut is Dominos foremost competitor with over 13, 000 stores and market presence in
about 95 countries of the world. It concentrates on ready-to-eat pizzas with customisable
variety of toppings offered according to local tastes and culture. It offers a variety of products
such as chicken wings, sandwiches, pasta and specialty pizzas. The firm is the leading quickserve pizza company consistently ranking among the top 100 Best Global Brands on
Interbrand (Hitt, Duaneireland & Hoskisson 2011, p. 106).
There is a high market commonality between Dominos and Pizza Hut. Dominos is an direct
competitor of Pizza Hut because the services provided by both pizza providers is the same
where providing variety of Pizza according to customer preferences, which they fulfil the
definition of market commonality. Furthermore, the degree of resources similarity between
Dominos and Pizza Hut is high because are the companies having almost same resources in
terms of their structure, focus, and features that customers find attractive. Pizza Hut is even
more focused on health conscious people by incorporating a salad bar into their sit down
restaurant section and by serving nutritional pasta bowls. They also have an extremely strong
brand image and compete with Dominos for brand recognition.
Papa Johns
Papa Johns is third largest pizza restaurant in the world with a total of 3, 646 restaurants
around the world. It offers a wide variety of products and has a market share of 5.67 percent
in the United States. To recover low sales in 2009, Papa Johns has invested heavily in
advertising for example, sponsoring the NFL (National Football League) (Annual Report
2010).
The market commonality between Papa Johns and Dominos is high, where both targeting at
a similar group of customers with similar products. The products offering of Papa Johns are
similar to Dominos because they both offer a wide range of Pizzas to serve the different
consumer needs. However, Papa Johns embracing customizable pizza concepts as consumers

demand the freedom to add as many as toppings of their choosing for a set price. When
Dominos have focused on delivering faster to customers, Papa Johns is focusing on
delivering great quality items.
Besides, the degree of resources similarity between Dominos and Papa Johns is reasonably
high. However, Papa Johns have differentiated itself as a brand that offers quality pizza at
premium prices. The premium position has garnered the company favourable profit margins
by avoiding deep discounts on menu items, whereas Dominos always providing huge
discounts on their pizza.
Little Caesars
Little Caesars is the fourth largest pizza company in the world with more than 2,600
restaurant around the world. It offers a variety of pizzas and specialty items such as churros,
Caesar dips and cheese bread. Little Caesars lacks a delivery service and it is a major
competitor for Dominos. The firm is known for its quality pizzas and has topped many pizza
value rankings for many years in a row (Hitt, Duaneireland & Hoskisson 2011, p. 108).
There is a high market commonality and moderate resource similarity. As Dominos, Little
Ceasers also targeting same group of customers but only the group who love to dine in.
However, it also has same lunchtime and dinner crowds. Despite not having delivery, Little
Caesars was arguably the most convenient of the group because of its superb speed and
price point.
As a conclusion, it could be conclude that Pizza hut, dominos, Papa Johns and Little Ceasers
would fit into definition of direct competitors, where the companies going after similar
customers with more similar competitive resources.