An Online Presence for Little Caesars
A mobile app that enhances the unique convenience of Little Caesars pizza.
Challenge
Design an online presence for Little Caesars that increases user engagement and incorporates the company’s business model.
Role
UX designer in cross-functional 3-person team.
Duration
2 week project
Methods/Tools
Qualitative user interviews, surveys, competitive & comparative analysis, interactive prototypes, 360 feedback, MarvelApp, Sketch3, audio recordings
Deliverables
Mobile Wireframes, clickable interactive prototype, presentation of approach, documentation of iterations
Problem: Customers will not use the Little Caesars app for the same reasons they use other pizza apps.
Little Caesars customers have unique needs.
Little Caesars has a unique entry point in the pizza market, serving customers who are often in a rush and have an unexpected need for food that is quick and cheap. They go for the “Hot N’ Ready” pizza.
Little Caesars has a unique business model.
Little Caesars does not offer typical pizza services, such as delivery, online ordering, and a wide selection of different pizzas. Their business model hinges on their low price, which is made possible by minimal manpower as well as mass-producing a limited selection of pizzas: cheese and pepperoni.
Little Caesars has a significant youth customer base
The unique price point of Little Caesars makes it attractive to youth (ages 10–17) who appreciate that they can have an affordable large pizza on what is likely a meager allowance. Can a mobile app experience appeal to people of all ages, including youth?
Solution: Focus on Little Caesars’ core strengths: Make the Hot N’ Ready experience quicker and cheaper.
Our target audience wants more convenience.
Our solution focused on regular Little Caesars customers, which we defined as people who eat there at least once a month. Their primary motivation for going to Little Caesars is for the convenience of the Hot N’ Ready pizzas. Based on our surveys, we found that while Hot N’ Ready is usually available, there is still room for improvement.
Make the Hot N’ Ready experience quicker.
Our solution features a Hot N’ Ready locater which lets customers know which nearby Little Caesars location has Hot N’ Ready available now.
Make the Hot N’ Ready experience cheaper.
A secondary feature of our solution is a rewards program, where users can earn free pizzas as well as fun toys and prizes to appeal to the youth audience.
Process: Refining our assumptions
Hypothesis #1: Draw inspiration from the features of other pizza apps.
After our initial comparison of the Little Caesars app to other brands such as Pizza Hut, Dominos and Papa Johns, our first hypothesis was that Little Caesars’ app should try to match the features of other brands. We were totally wrong!
Hypothesis #2: Be yourself Little Caesar. Focus on convenience.
Our competitive analysis of the business models and branding strategies used by the major pizza brands helped us understand that Little Caesars positions itself in the market very differently than other pizza brands with a huge emphasis on convenience. It’s online presence should therefore have a similar emphasis.
Hypothesis #3: Add online ordering to reduce wait times especially for custom pizzas. Also, people want deals.
After a round of customer interviews at a Little Caesars location in Daily City, an interview with a former manager of Little Caesars, and a survey to regular Little Caesars customers, our findings confirmed that people did not care for online ordering or custom pizzas. People did confirm, however, that they wanted deals.
Hypothesis #4: It’s all about the Hot N’ Ready.
Our next approach was to simply improve the Hot N’ Ready experience and offer deals. We did one more round of surveys to confirm this hypothesis and we succeeded in narrowing down two features that people wanted: a Hot N’ Ready locator and a rewards program.
Initial Sketch
Prototype
Interactive Prototype
Reflections: 50 Shades of Pizza
Going into this project, I thought that pizza was simple: It was just a food I ate when I was hungry. Sure, maybe there was “good” pizza and “bad” pizza, but not much more to the story than that. Now I realize how much complexity and color there is to the pizza story. There are many different players in the pizza industry, each with their own angle and entry point in the market. Their online presence must reflect their uniqueness.