1 OVERVIEW

Dominos Pizza is the No. 1 Pizza Delivery Company in the world and the undisputed pizza
delivery expert. The Company has a unique business and operation model and is a pioneer in
the fast food industry. Since 1960, Dominos Pizza has successfully expanded from 3 outlets in
the United State to 9,350 stores operating in seventy countries. Dominos operation in Malaysia
and overseas uses the franchise model. The parent company, Dominos Pizza LLC is head
quartered in Michigan, United State of America. It maintains overall control on the sourcing and
supplying of raw materials to the master franchises and enforces quality of the service and
products sold.

2.0

HISTORY

The legend of Dominos Pizza dates back to December, 1960 with the purchase of a small pizza
shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan by brothers Tom and Jim Monaghan. The brothers bought the
restaurant from friend Dominick DeVarti for USD500 cash and assuming the stores USD8,000
debts. Neither Tom nor Jim had the intention of making the restaurant business their career, but
rather saw the opportunity as a part-time venture to help cover the cost of their studies at the
nearby University of Michigan. By June the store was earning a profitable USD400 a week but
briskly fell off when students at the University went home for summer. Faced with the prospect
of a slow phase, Jim sold Tom his half of the business in 1961 and changed the name from
Dominicks to Dominos. The same year, Tom decided to quit school to devote more time to the
business.
Aware of his lack of experience in pizza making and operations and management, Tom spent
much of his time visiting many similar pizzerias around the state acquiring advice on operations
and recipes. By the mid 60s, Tom had restructured the interior of the store, rearranged all areas
and systems, ultimately improving the flow of work in all facets of the operation from ordertaking to delivery. Monaghans system was reminiscent of those developed by the managers of
White Castle Hamburger in the 20s and the McDonald brothers in the 40s. The implementation
of this system formulized the production process as a unified whole, and included the
standardization of materials, clever and thoughtful placement of equipment, and detailed
division of labor; all geared to achieve the continuous production of its limited product line. By
1967, Dominos emphasis on uniform quality and rapid delivery proved a successful system for
operating a pizza shop and therefore provided opportunity for expansion through franchising.
The company landed in Malaysia in September 1997. Launched by its founder, Tom Monaghan

himself, Dominos Pizza became an overnight sensation. It was so well-received that Dominos
Malaysias commissary was recognised in the Annual Dominos International Audit as the Best
Commissary in Asia Pacific.
Malaysia's bullish food and beverage industry coupled with Domino's promise of quality food
and delivery service was highly accepted and gained new customers nationwide.
As at June 2015, there are 134 stores operating all over Malaysia with 44 in Selangor, 23 in
Wilayah Persekutuan, 3 in Putrajaya, 15 in Johor, 7 in Negeri Sembilan, 9 in Pulau Pinang, 12 in
Perak, 3 in Malacca, 6 in Kedah, 6 in Pahang, 2 in Kelantan, 3 in Terengganu and 1 in Perlis.
With the healthy growth in Malaysia, Domino's extended its presence to neighbouring Singapore
in 2009. There are currently 13 outlets operating in Singapore and growing aggressively.

3.0

DOMINOS MENU

Dominos Pizza offered numbers of topping such as Ultimate Hawaiian, 7-Meat Wonders,
Meatasaurus, Prawn Passion, Chicken Perfection and etc. Dominos Pizza also allowed their
customers to customize their pizza by offering 2 options which is Make Your Own and Half &
Half.

They have 5 unique pizza crusts which is Classic Hand Tossed, Crunchy Thin Crust, Cheese
Burst Double Decker, New York Crust and Extreme Edge.

Besides that, Dominos Pizza comes with 3 Signature Pizza Sauces such as Dominos
Signature Sauce, Spicy Sambal Sauce and Top Secret Sauce

Dominos Pizza also served varieties of side orders such as Chicken Wings BBQ, Spaghetti
Bolognese, Chicken Lasagna, Garlic Twisty Bread, Garlic Cheese Onion Rings, BreadStix,
Banana Kaya Desert, and etc

4.0

THE IMPORTANT OF CULTURE TO DOMINOS IN MALAYSIA

Attitudes, Beliefs & Value

Every society in each country around the world has their own attitudes, beliefs and values
towards a product which is enter their marketing. Attitude is a learned tendency to respond in a
consistent way to a given object or entity. Attitude also the mental dispositions that people have
towards a product before making decision that results in behaviours. Attitudes are also clusters
of interrelated with beliefs. Belief

is an organized pattern of knowledge that an individual

holds to be true about the world. Meanwhile, value can be defined as an enduring belief or
feeling that a specific mode of conduct is personally or socially preferable to another mode of
conduct. Based on Hofstede that notion culture as the collective programming of the mind, this
was make sense to learn about culture by studying the attitudes, beliefs and values shared by a
specific group of consumer which is a group consumer or society that represent their culture.
Dominos Pizza that came from other country which is United States that entering
Malaysian market need to mix with Malaysian cultures that different with United States cultures.
In order to mix with Malaysian cultures, Dominos Pizza need change the perception of
Malaysian and indirectly come out the attitude towards Dominos products. To do so, Dominos
were done many ways which is represent their product and services. For example, the four
guarantees that Dominos give to their customers. One of the guarantees that Dominos give
which is product satisfaction guarantee will make their customers believe in their product and
services. This also changes the Malaysian perception towards Dominos. Malaysian also think
that Dominos are provide free delivery and they claim the only pizza company who provide
delivery within 30 minutes from delivery have been made, they can get their pizza in front of
their doors. If they fail to do so, their customers, will get free regular size of pizza. This indicates
that Dominos are fast, high quality pizza and services.

Next is what Dominos pizza can do in order to gain belief toward Malaysians pizza lovers. They
wanted to create their customers own opinion and feels about their product and services. Either,
their customers happy or sad, satisfied or dissatisfied with their services and products. Each
people in Malaysia, have their own opinion toward certain things. For example, the pizza lover

would tell their opinion about Dominos pizza. What make the difference is Dominos customers
that are satisfied or dissatisfied with what Dominos provide which is having different opinion.
Lastly is value that Dominos wanted to show towards Malaysian pizza lovers. The
values that Dominos wanted to give to their customers are their product and services. For
example, the Great Pizza Services (GPS) Tracker that keeps their customer to keep up to date
from the moment they place their order to the moment their pizza leaves the store. They also
provide coupon to their customers in order to get special price from Dominos pizza. This shows
that Dominos always understand Malaysian culture which is like the low prices of any product in
Malaysia. For examples majority of Malaysians like to ask about discount or price cuts when
they spends for shopping. Thats why dominos can provide coupon to their loyal customers and
new customers.

Religion
Religion is the one of the important aspect that must be consider in the culture. It reflects on the
sources of the societys belief, attitudes, and values. In term of religion, it can be define on a set

of belief which concerning the cause and the purpose of the universe. In addition, it consider as
the creation of the superhuman involving ritual observances towards human affairs.
In Malaysia, there are variety of religion where direct reflection of the diversity of races living
there. However, Islam is the state religion of Malaysia and freedom of religion is guaranteed
based on the Malaysian policy. As related on the religion aspect towards Dominos Pizza in
Malaysia, all the menu where been provided was been tested by the JAKIM and finally passed
in getting the halal certificate. This describes on to ensure about foods and drinks is safe to eat
for Muslim consumers without feels anxiety about the foods ingredient. For example, there are
non-halal ingredient or pork where may found on the menu Dominos Pizza.

Next point is in way to attach with the religion in Malaysia, Dominos Pizza had done some
promotion by following on the religious observances and example of the promotions are The
Ramadan Take Away Special. Thus, the promotion also give one extra pizza during that
promotion time. In this situation, it automatically helps on encourage Malaysian to come to the
restaurant at buka puasa at the end of each days fast. In addition, other festivals also had
been done through the promotion like Christmas promotion and Chinese New Year promotion.
This kind of promotion may help on creating a friendly relationship between the company and
customer.

Aesthetics

The Three Dots

The very first Dominos logo, which was created in the 1960s, was created for two reasons. First
it sought to attract more customers due to the bright and cheerful colors of the logo. The red,
white and blue colors were meant to be highly noticeable so as to appeal to the largest amount
of people possible. The three dots on the logo symbolize the three original Dominos locations
that were open at the time.

The Current Logo

The current Dominos logo was created in early 2012. This logo kept the famous dominos icon,
but removed the word pizza from the slogan, only showing the company name Dominos. This
showed how powerful the Dominos brand has become

Dietary Preference
As an international food company, Dominos Pizza must concern about each of their target
market. This means that the company should know enough how the culture are apply in certain

country in order to grabs the target market attention. This is important for most food company as
it may affect the purchasing power of consumer.
As for example in Italy, what happen is that Dominos Pizza has pull out from the country as the
menu is to American. As mention by B. L. Nadeau, she criticized the food where the whole
funny-flavoured, thick chewy-crusted, dripping American-style pizza pie, the idea of anonymous
online home pizza delivery is as foreign here as stuffed cheesy bread. Perhaps it was a fail back
then as they lack of research and development before starting in different country,
As for Malaysia, Dominos Pizza did at their best in providing various food toping and excluding
non-halal food since most of Malaysian are Muslims. Not only that, they also has spicy sambal
sauce topping which cant be seen in other country. Then there is also seafood topping which
made out of prawn and anchovies which also cant be found in American outlet. Not only that,
but they also add a special dessert that adapt with the culture, and it is called Banana Kaya
Dessert. It is mainly made of pizza dough with a pandan kaya, banana slices as a topping, and
a sprinkle of sugar.
As from here, we can see how important it is in identifying the right dietary preference when
doing a global marketing. This is due to a different culture have different dietary that they
adapt , hence the new market to must know enough about the culture, Otherwise, it mind turn
up badly like what happened in Italy.

Language and Communication

Mostly Malaysian tend to use non-verbal communication because it is a part of Malaysian
culture. Non-verbal communication are defined as communication without words. It includes
apparent behaviors such as facial expressions, eyes, touching, and tone of voice, as well as

less obvious messages such as dress, posture and spatial distance between two or more
people.

For example, the advertisement above shows that they use the word tapau that represent the
word take away. The word Free also in their advertisement because they know the culture of
Malaysia that like that catchy words when buying something.

High- and Low-Context Culture

Cultures can be conceptualized many ways and one of it focuses on communication. The idea
was suggested by Edward T. in understanding the basic form of communication. It is made of

High and Low messages. Basically the High context message means that it is mostly
internalized by the person, which means it might not deliver a direct message. Usually a country
that rich with its culture will have a high context message as each action have its own meaning.
As for low context message, it would have more direct message to deliver, no hidden meaning
to understand. From here, tit can be develop a high and low context culture to define how the
culture is.
As a country that full of ethnic and culture, Malaysia is one of the high context culture. This
means that Malaysians are more likely to rely on implicit communication rather than explicit
messages. For most Malaysians, there will always be a hidden message behind what is actually
said directly. In Malaysia, meaning is usually communicated indirectly. As a result, Malaysians it
is hard to hear a Malaysian to say no when ask for a help. It is just being part of the culture in
respecting other when in need.
In other perspective, we can see that how giving a present symbolize or give a new meaning as
Malaysia is full of different races. As for example, from the article Wrong Gift May Trick off
Potential Trading Partners by Philipidis (1999). In the article we see how Chinese have an
understanding when giving a clock as a gift will symbolize in wishing the receiver for a short life,
but as for Malay it shows a good friendship. Just only in Malaysia we can see how different
culture have a high context culture in communication, which may give a wrong perception if not
study properly.

Hofstedes Cultural Typology

Power Distance
This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal it expresses
the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. Power Distance is defined
as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a
country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

Malaysia scores very high on this dimension (score of 100) which means that people accept a
hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification.
Hierarchy in an organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is popular,
subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat.
Challenges to the leadership are not well-received.

Individualism
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society
maintains among its members. It has to do with whether peoples self-image is defined in terms
of I or We. In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their
direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to in groups that take care of them in
exchange for loyalty.

Malaysia, with a score of 26 is a collectivistic society. This is manifest in a close long-term

commitment to the member group, be that a family, extended family or extended relationships.
Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount and overrides most other societal rules and
regulations. Such a society fosters strong relationships, where everyone takes responsibility for
fellow members of their group. In collectivistic societies, offence leads to shame and loss of
face. Employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms (like a family link), hiring
and promotion take account of the employees in-group. Management is the management of
groups.

Masculinity
A high score (Masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by
competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner/best in field
a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organizational life.

A low score (Feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring
for others and quality of life. A Feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success

and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. The fundamental issue here is what motivates
people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do (Feminine). With an
intermediate score of 50, a preference for this dimension cannot be determined

Uncertainty Avoidance
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact
that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This
ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in
different ways. The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or
unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected
in the score on Uncertainty Avoidance.

Malaysia scores 36 on this dimension and thus has a low preference for avoiding
uncertainty. Low UAI societies maintain a more relaxed attitude in which practice counts more
than principles and deviance from the norm is more easily tolerated. In societies exhibiting low
UAI, people believe there should be no more rules than are necessary and if they are
ambiguous or do not work, they should be abolished or changed. Schedules are flexible, hard
work is undertaken when necessary but not for its own sake. Precision and punctuality do not
come naturally, innovation is not seen as threatening.

Long Term Orientation

This dimension describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while
dealing with the challenges of the present and future, and societies prioritize these two
existential goals differently. Normative societies. which score low on this dimension, for
example, prefer to maintain time-honored traditions and norms while viewing societal change
with suspicion. Those with a culture which scores high, on the other hand, take a more
pragmatic approach: they encourage thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare
for the future.

The low score of 41 in this dimension means that Malaysia has a normative culture. People in
such societies have a strong concern with establishing the absolute Truth; they are normative in
their thinking. They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for
the future, and a focus on achieving quick results.

Indulgence
One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the degree to which small
children are socialized. Without socialization we do not become human. This dimension is
defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the
way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called Indulgence and relatively strong control
is called Restraint. Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained.

Malaysia's high score of 57 indicates that the culture is one of Indulgence. People in societies
classified by a high score in Indulgence generally exhibit a willingness to realize their impulses
and desires with regard to enjoying life and having fun. They possess a positive attitude and
have a tendency towards optimism. In addition, they place a higher degree of importance on
leisure time, act as they please and spend money as they wish.