The (Pizza) Giants Fall Short on Super Sunday: Decision Analyst Study Reveals Local Pizzerias Score Big on Super Sunday

ARLINGTON, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)– It looks like smaller pizza shops have something to boast about after Super Sunday. The local pizzeria served pies to as many customers as the biggest chain on what industry executives call the biggest pizza day of the year. A nationwide study by Decision Analyst, a leading marketing research and marketing consulting firm, reports that one out of five Americans had pizza on Super Sunday, and one in four of those pizzas came from a local store.

Local pizzerias came away with a bigger piece of the pie than either Domino’s or Papa John’s.

Go Big Or Go Get It. It’s not all bad for the big guys. Pizza Hut served up over a quarter of the pizzas and Papa John’s and Domino’s each accounted for 15% of sales on Super Sunday. And, the big-three chains appear to have a distinct advantage in terms of order placement options and delivery. One in three pizza orders for the major chains were placed online, with Papa John’s leading the way at 38% of orders placed through their website. Local stores took their orders over the phone (79%) or in person (12%), and their customers were about twice as likely as those from the major chains to pick up their orders rather than have it delivered.

 
Orders Placed
 
Method of Order Placement
 
Order Type

Online
 
Telephone
 
In Person
 
Text

Delivery
 
Pickup
Pizza Hut

28%

33%
 
58%
 
7%
 
1%

66%
 
31%
Local Favorite

25%

7%

79%

12%

0%

42%

57%
Papa John’s

15%

38%

58%

3%

0%

66%

32%
Domino’s

15%

29%

70%

1%

0%

74%

27%

It’s A Pizza Party. About three-quarters of the U.S. population watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, making it the most-watched game ever. Decision Analyst reports that about 38% of viewers attended a Super Bowl party. Gen Y respondents were more likely (59%) to attend a party than Gen X (46%) and Boomers (32%). Partygoers were almost three times as likely as nonparty goers to order pizza (41% to 15%).

 
Watched the Game
 
Viewers Attending A Party
Total

74
%
 
38
%
Gen Y (18 to 28)

82
%

59
%
Gen X (29 to 42)

80
%

46
%
Boomers (43 to 62)

72
%

32
%
Silent (63 to 82)

68
%

24
%

Charting The Pie. Customers may be choosing the local store because the product is more satisfying. Delivery time satisfaction was similarly high for the local store and Pizza Hut, but the local store came out slightly ahead on food temperature. Domino’s and Papa John’s scored slightly lower on both delivery time satisfaction and food temperature.

 

Extremely Satisfied

With Delivery Time

 

Served At Perfect

Temperature

 

Order Filled

Perfectly

Local favorite

36
%
 
80
%
 
89
%
Pizza Hut

37
%

76
%

89
%
Papa John’s

25
%

72
%

89
%
Domino’s

31
%

74
%

90
%

Plan Or Wait? So, should you order ahead of time? Well, it depends on what you want. Ordering early gets it there when you want it’those who preordered before Sunday were much more satisfied with their delivery times. But, it doesn’t seem to help them get your order right. Orders placed early on Sunday were less likely to be filled perfectly or to be at the desired temperatures.

 

Extremely Satisfied

with Delivery Time

 

Order Filled

Perfectly

 

Served at Perfect

Temperature

Preordered

42
%
 
86
%
 
65
%
Sunday

Morning

31
%

79
%

59
%
Early afternoon

34
%

90
%

81
%
Late afternoon

32
%

90
%

82
%
Evening

30
%

91
%

69
%

So, what does this mean to the pizza enthusiasts? Well, if you’re planning a pizza party for the big game, you might want to place your order during the afternoon and allow for a longer delivery time. Chances are you will be more satisfied with the outcome. And, you might spend the next year trying those local shops in your neighborhood’they may be a great option, even if you have to go get it yourself.

Methodology

Decision Analyst’s Pizza study is conducted online via its proprietary American Consumer Opinion® online panel. Participants are a nationally representative, statistically balanced sample of 5,002 American adults. The data was collected on Monday, February 4, 2008. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.2%.

About Decision Analyst

Decision Analyst (www.decisionanalyst.com), based in Dallas-Fort Worth, is a leading international marketing research firm specializing in advertising testing, strategy research, and advanced modeling for marketing decision optimization. Decision Analyst owns and operates the American Consumer Opinion® online panel, with more than seven million participants worldwide.