Seasonal products and collaborations: 6−10 new releases a year — no need to panic!

Every month, all Dodo Pizza locations offer seasonal items to their customers. These new items remain on the menu for several months before being replaced by the next seasonal offerings. As a result, the menu consists of a core selection and seasonal specials.

Product concepts, recipes, photographs, and product advertising campaigns are developed at the central office. The Dodo & S digital system allows seasonal products to be rolled out simultaneously across the entire network: upload an advertising banner to the system in Moscow, and it immediately appears on a digital sign in Azerbaijan.

We also began launching collaborations to attract specific new audiences: to appeal to gamers, we released a Cyberpunk pizza to coincide with the game’s launch; for movie lovers, we released Dune and Batman pizzas to coincide with the films' releases; and for anime fans, we released a Naruto pizza.

We seek out partners who share our values — caring for fans, attention to detail, and a strong visual identity. For products, packaging, and merchandise, we build a separate world within the brand: recipes are inspired by the characters' universe, and visuals are based on our principles but incorporate key motifs — colors, shapes, and references.

Pizza, boxes, stickers, Instagram filters, in-app stories, and sometimes toys or clothing — everything works as a single narrative where the fan first sees the story in the media, then orders the product, picks up the box-artifact, and takes a piece of that world home. For us, a collaboration isn’t a special promotion, but an expansion of the Dodo universe and our metrics.

A video in which Tamara Shaydulina discusses the results of the Cyberpunk 2077 + Dodo Pizza collaboration, 2021:

Hi everyone! My name is Yulia, and I’m in charge of the menu you see on the Dodo Pizza website and mobile app. My team works with the chefs in the R&D lab to develop new recipes, decide which ones to roll out across the entire chain, and which ones it’s time to remove. It’s a task that’s not only a big responsibility but also quite challenging. I’ll try to explain everything in detail now.

In our search for new ideas, we go on a food safari: we visit different restaurants, look for interesting flavor combinations, and explore unconventional ideas. We also keep an eye on external sources: what’s popular in other countries or what new products suppliers have introduced. Often, our pizzeria staff and partners come up with ideas. But we still need to rely on data, so we analyze the market and conduct research on taste preferences. Basically, we gather all kinds of information, without ruling out even the craziest ideas. For example, pizza with cactus or shark.

Now the question arises: which of these should we launch? A pizza with shark or cactus is certainly interesting, but it’s impossible to predict whether customers will like it. Since our goal is to choose something that will appeal to many people, we need to use proven tools.

We use concept tests to select the ideas with the greatest potential. To do this, we visualize them and create an ad layout as if we were preparing for an actual launch. We then present the resulting concepts to our target audience — people who have purchased pizza in the past few months.

For each concept, we simply ask just 5 questions. The main metric is purchase intent, but it’s also important whether people like the pizza’s name and if it stands out from the rest. Let’s say we’re developing pizzas with both shark and salmon. We ask, «Guys, which one do you like better?». Most people prefer the salmon. That means the shark pizza isn’t for us.

We launched the Carbonara, Country-Style, and many other pizzas based on the results of concept tests. Here, for example, is the concept for the Pesto idea and the test results. The blue column is the target — the goal we need to reach.

Since most of the metrics were higher, we decided to give Pesto a try. It’s now part of our main pizza lineup.

Here are two pizza concepts featuring cactus and the results of their concept tests. Despite the unusual idea, most people would not buy such a product.

Once we’ve settled on an idea, we start working on the recipe. For example, following a concept test, the winning concept was called Pesto. We know that the sauce is its key ingredient, and the R&D team is responsible for determining what else goes into it. Different recipes can be developed for a single idea, and we need to choose the right one. The main criterion is whether it tastes good or not, but we also conduct surveys, ask our colleagues in the office for their opinions, and listen to the expertise of our chefs.

Making a single pizza in the R&D lab isn’t hard—the team knows how to create a great product. Whether suppliers can produce the necessary ingredients for an entire chain is another matter entirely. You know, cooking borscht in a small pot and in a fifty-ton tank are two completely different things. The volume changes, and with it, the formulas, consistency, and proportions. It takes anywhere from three months to several years to achieve the flavor created in our lab. If you thought launching a pizza was easy, it’s not. On average, it takes 9 months from the idea to its appearance in pizzerias. And that’s actually a pretty quick turnaround for a new product.

Once all the ingredients are selected and suppliers are found, we start testing in pizzerias. This is necessary to ensure that nothing burns in the oven, the pizza makers don’t run into any problems during preparation, and all processes are working smoothly. Basically, it’s a mini-rehearsal before the nationwide launch. If something isn’t right, there’s time to fix it, and if everything is good, we calmly move on to the next stages.

The pizza launch is accompanied by an advertising campaign involving a large team of creatives, designers, copywriters, and so on. Here, the product marketers' task is to assemble the creative team, present the idea, and work together to figure out how to communicate it to customers. At the same time, other colleagues double-check the quality of the ingredients and handle distribution and logistics. For example, delivery to the Far East takes up to two months. And since all new products at Dodo are launched simultaneously on the same day, everything must be planned down to the smallest detail.

To sum it up, a product launch manager should:

• choose a flavor,
• ensure that all teams work together seamlessly,
• and launch a pizza that will be a hit.

Every pizzeria is a 3-in-1 space. First, it’s a small-scale operation. Just like in a factory, there are limitations here: the size of the space, the number of ingredients that can comfortably fit in the kitchen, the number of staff, and so on. Second, it’s a restaurant where you can grab a bite to eat and charge your phone. And it’s also a display case — like a shelf in a store, only with Dodsters, fruit drinks, snacks, and coloring books for kids. That’s why we have a rule: if something is added, something else has to go. But honestly, when a certain pizza is discontinued, we feel just as sad as our customers do.

Dodo’s menu is structured as follows: there’s a core selection and new items. For example, Margarita, Arriva, and Ranch Chicken are classic flavors or our signature items that have become hits. But the fate of our seasonal pizzas depends on you. If a new item becomes super popular, it replaces one of the items in the main lineup. In other cases, it adds variety and is eventually phased out. We evaluate the results based on sales. If demand is average, it becomes clear that the pizza hasn’t become a customer favorite. It’s better to say goodbye to it and create something else: something even more interesting and delicious.

Another equally important tool for evaluating new products is the taste rating. In our mobile app, we ask customers to share their feedback on their order. Customer feedback and a quick response from our product marketing and R&D teams help us monitor the situation and make decisions. If a pizza’s rating is below 6, we immediately remove it from the menu and then decide whether to tweak the recipe or remove it entirely. A rating between 6 and 6.5 is acceptable, but there are some concerns. When the rating is closer to 7, everything is great — we’ve done a good job and are happy that you like it.

In 2020, the R&D team came up with a pizza topped with potatoes. Everyone loved the idea, and it looked really interesting — almost 3D. Since we already had the recipe but no name, we ran a reverse concept test. That is, we showed people a picture of the pizza with different names and asked which one they thought fit best. That’s exactly how we chose the name Derevenskaya (Country-style pizza), and it worked! If it had been simply Pizza with potatoes or Pizza with potatoes and chicken, it probably wouldn’t have made it to the top of the charts.

So, the Derevenskaya pizza made its debut at Dodo Pizza and quickly won over customers. Like any new item, it was seasonal — meaning it was only available for a limited time. We saw that customers really loved the pizza, and sales didn’t drop even after some time had passed. We wanted to keep it on the menu permanently, but it didn’t work out. The Derevenskaya pizza is difficult to prepare. The potatoes took up a lot of time and effort, but we couldn’t do without them, since they’re the pizza’s main feature. We said a sad goodbye to the Derevenskaya, but it turned out that wasn’t the end of its story.

We received a lot of comments asking us to bring back the pizza with potatoes, and we thought, «Why not?» But launching the exact same thing would be boring and uninteresting. Over the years, we haven’t stood still: we’ve tried new meat ingredients and searched for great suppliers. That’s how we found people who know how to make smoked pork that’s suitable for pizza. And that’s really difficult! The products you see on store shelves definitely won’t be edible after going through a 240 °C conveyor oven. We tried replacing the chicken with smoked pork — it turned out great. So we brought back the Derevenskaya in this version for a short time and delighted its loyal fans.

We take note of all the customer feedback about which pizzas they’d like to see back on the menu. For example, the Chicken Bomboni was a really cool concept. Unfortunately, the supplier stopped making that particular sauce, so we had to remove the pizza from the menu. But we know that many customers loved it, and we plan to bring it back someday.

I genuinely love how well our entire process is organized. I’m so proud of the team’s work — after all, every launch is like a quest! Just imagine: at least 50 people work on a new product, then thousands of pizza makers prepare it, and just as many delivery drivers bring it right to our guests' doors.

Even nine months to launch a new product from scratch is an incredibly short timeframe. But our team manages to introduce 6 to 10 new items a year — without any panic! Every pizza is conceived and developed with care, love, and enthusiasm. I hope that when customers order a favorite item or try something new, they can feel that.

Check out the video for more details on how we launch new menu items: