Marketing VP Raymond steps down at Domino's

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 7, 1992 by Theresa Howard

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Only one week after Domino's second-in-command abruptly quit, top marketing executive Michael Raymond has resigned from the 5,600-unit pizza delivery chain.

As Domino's employees and franchisees gauged the impact of the latest executive departure, founder and president Thomas Monaghan named replacements and announced that Domino's now will have separate operational heads for company and franchised stores.

Former vice president of operations Philip Bressler -- who left his post last month after less than a year to spend more time with his family family -- had been responsible for both company and franchised outlets.

Under the new alignment, Nickep Romyananda, a 19-year veteran of the pizza company and most recently the Southwest regional vice president, will head company operations. Stuart Mathis, formerly the Northeast regional vice president, will oversee franchise operations.

At the same time Larry Sheehan has been named interim marketing director until Monaghan appoints a formal replacement for Raymond. Sheehan, who has been consulting for Domino's during the past year, is a former Little Caesars vice president.

Some franchises expressed dissatisfaction with Domino's marketing efforts, while other observers viewed Raymond's departure as new evidence of strife within the executive suites of the privately held company. Raymond insisted that the move is not indicative of anything other than his having received a better offer elsewhere.

"There is no question that in the restaurant industry today the market is very different, and there is a lot of stress that goes with it," Raymond said. "Certainly, that may be a piece of it. But had I not gotten another offer, I would still be here."

Although he would not disclose specifics, Raymond said he is negotiating a position in a friend's advertising agency somewhere in the Midwest.

But unlike Bressler -- who said he left to spend more time with his family -- Raymond was not recruited by Monaghan to join Domino's board of directors.

The company said the departures of Raymond and Bressler are unrelated and do not signify a general discontent within the executive ranks.

"This is just coincidental," said company spokesman Michael Jenkins, who added that the company did not believe Raymond's departure stemmed from any dissatisfaction or frustration with his role at Domino's.

Raymond joined Domino's in 1987 as national director of marketing. He was named vice president of marketing in 1989 and was appointed to the company's executive team in 1990.

He was instrumental in the push to improve Domino's quality and service image and oversaw the first ad campaign to break away from the 30-minute delivery marketing strategy. To make the change, Raymond had also demanded an advertising agency review that selected Grey Advertising, New York, replacing Domino's longtime hometown firm of Group 243.

For the campaign aired last fall, Grey created the "quality" spots containing the tag line "Nobody knows like Domino's how you like pizza at home."

But franchises contend that Grey's new ad campaign has failed to generate the positive spike in sales the chain desperately needs -- a setback, several claim, that had "frustrated" Raymond. Systemwide sales reportedly have been down for more than two years.

And since many view Raymond as the man ultimately responsible for staging a turnaround he did the right thing by exiting, according to some franchisees.

"Domino's Pizza is obviously in a marketing war, and we are obviously losing the battle," said Frank Meeks, owner of 42 stores in the Washington, D.C., area. "His efforts were well-intentioned, but I think he just saw the marketing wasn't working."

Another franchisee echoed that thought. "There is a lot of pressure on marketing," said Jeffrey Litman, an 18-year franchisee who owns 16 stores in the Denver market. "The pizza wars are marketing-driven, and Domino's marketing is not measuring up to our biggest competitors."

Litman, who sat on the review committee last year when Domino's was looking for a new advertising agency, said: "There was so much optimism placed in our switch to Grey. But the chemistry just doesn't seem to be working."

But while some faulted Grey, Raymond and the company's new marketing direction, others rose to his defense, saying it is not the marketing department's role to provide a good product and customer service.

"From our sales trends, it is obvious we have been missing something," said Michael Chiodo, a Chicago area franchisee. "Mike is in the hot seat. Everyone wants to blame marketing and advertising first.

"But, overall, we need strategy, some goals and some serious objectives. Times change, and we have got to change with the times."

Reluctant to cite any single reason, franchisee Mack Patterson voiced a similar philosophy. "It is easy to point at [Raymond], but I won't do that," observed Patterson, who owns and operates 20 stores in Charlotte, N.C. "It is such a tough, tough job. I am in an area where I used to be the only pizza delivery service for 5,000 to 10,000 people. Now there are seven to eight pizza delivery restaurants."