How to reinvent franchising with tech and transparency

For many people, traditional marketing—like advertising on TV, for example—still looks pretty straightforward.

If you have deep pockets, all you need to do is hire a fancy agency, shoot a nice commercial, buy some time slots on a few TV channels—and just enjoy the ride.

It’s not that simple anymore. We at Dodo Pizza learned that there is an untapped potential in mixing traditional marketing with digital channels that can significantly improve the performance of your ads. And we aren’t talking about integrated marketing campaigns here—we’re talking about adjusting your TV strategy and even buying using real-time digital data.

Our most significant...

The retail business is like a sport—a constant competition with clear statistics. In 2018, we widened the gap between ourselves and our closest competitors in terms of store count in Russia. Now the question is if Papa John’s will keep second place or lose it to Domino’s in 2019.

In 2018, our whole chain’s sales revenue amounted to 214 million dollars (13.6 billion rubles). That’s more than we had planned. Russian pizzerias have brought us 12.33 billion rubles, all other countries combined, 1.271 billion rubles. There was a time when we celebrated the first billion rubles in overall revenue, and now just the pizzerias outside Russia bring us more than that. For seven years, our pizza chain has doubled each year (+118% in 2018). And our question is, will we be able to repeat that again in this new year?

A New Year’s Day is a relative point, but it measures time. It’s good to take stock of what’s done and set new goals for the future. Today I’ve asked myself a simple question—what was the key moment for our company in 2018? Not an easy question. There are many answers, but what was the most important thing in terms of the long-range prospects of our business?

In 2018, our company has become profitable. We’ve been trying to achieve this for seven years. Dodo Pizza is a franchising company, so the parent...

With Eugeny Naidenov, Ultimate Guitar founder, at the westernmost Dodo Pizza in Russia—in Baltiysk, near Kaliningrad.

In a small town, we saw good service, an awesome product, and a super clean and welcoming pizzeria. Feeling really inspired. Everything we’ve been working so hard and relentlessly on at Dodo Pizza is bearing fruit. There are only 33 thousand people living in Baltiysk. Yet, just a few months since its launch, our pizzeria already nets around 1.5 million rubles ($23,000) a month.

Dodo Pizza in Baltiysk was opened by Denis Usalev and Darya Mishueva. They gave up their fancy Moscow jobs and moved to Baltiysk. They took loans and invested all their money in their first pizza shop. Darya dreamt of living on a sea. Denis wanted to start his own business. Now they live on a sea and deliver happiness to their customers every day.

Daria and Denis are deeply involved in their business. They do everything—from buying fresh vegetables to working at the cash desk and doing deliveries. They work 24/7 but don’t look tired—they look happy.

It’s an utmost pleasure to work with such partners as Denis and Darya. It’s a blessing—and a huge responsibility. Thank you for your trust in our brand, Denis and Darya!