DoorDash has achieved phenomenal growth marketing and growth strategies that have been both innovative as well as disciplined. They took note of where competitors’ lacked and where they could excel.
We’ll delve into their marketing and growth strategies in more detail in this article.
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DoorDash’s Growth and Marketing Strategy
DoorDash offers on-demand restaurant delivery, as well as facilitating restaurant orders for pick-up, via their app, and utilizing independent contractors as delivery drivers. DoorDash focused on filling in the gaps in the service of other big companies, such focusing as suburbs and smaller cities rather than larger urban areas.
DoorDash Marketing Strategy
One strategy that DoorDash utilized very effectively was noticing their competitions’ gaps in service and marketing. One major such gap was which markets were being served and – more importantly – not served.
Originally, as a small and local company themselves, they focused on other small, local companies.
The founders of DoorDash stated their mission was to, “build the local, on-demand FedEx.”
DoorDash emphasized marketing in areas such as smaller cities and suburbs, which still had a lot of potential for deliveries but were not as saturated and dominated by big delivery companies as the larger and urban cities.
This solved a big problem for restaurants in smaller areas. It also provided money-earning opportunities to people who wanted or needed them in the form of flexible work where the worker has control over when and how much they work.
DoorDash Success Factors
In addition to DoorDash’s marketing strategy, they have also steadily and tirelessly worked on continuous improvement.
They have famously required every one of their employees to spend some time working as a driver during their employment, no matter what their title is, so that each employee experiences first-hand the real-life experiences and challenges of DoorDash’s primary service.
DoorDash’s program and platform is also always collecting data, which the company analyzes and uses to continue improvement, as well.
DoorDash successfully researched and then fulfilled major pain points and challenges of restaurants, and was aware of pain points within the employment field as well.
Their platform uses technology and logistics innovation to solve problems for both groups, as well as, of course, for their customers.
In many ways, DoorDash succeeds when their partners (restaurants, independent contractor drivers, and customers) do. The more DoorDash contributes to their partners’ happiness, satisfaction, and success, the more DoorDash’s success grows as well.
This creates a powerful synergistic growth for DoorDash as they help restaurants serve more customers, provide alternative or additional income for independent drivers, and provide a valued service for more and more customers.
DoorDash’s ever present focus on improvement also allowed them to quickly optimize the increased demand brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing shelter-in-place and quarantine orders, as well as people’s aversion to being in public or in crowds.
These strategies are all within DoorDash’s clear and focused business model, which is explained in more detail in the next section of this article.
DoorDash’s Business Model
DoorDash has a relatively straightforward business model. Their revenue streams include fees from deliveries and subscriptions, commissions for food sales, and also income for logistics services and catering.
The delivery drivers are independent contractors, and both they and the customer use the DoorDash app for almost all of their interaction with DoorDash’s systems.
This is sometimes referred to as a “Y-structure business model.”
This system provides convenience and flexibility for both the customers and independent contractor drivers, as well as greatly simplifying logistics and labor costs and other issues for both the restaurant partners and DoorDash itself.
There are also employees of DoorDash who continuously develop, support, and improve the technology and logistics of the company, as well as tend to customer service and marketing.
DoorDash’s Growth Strategy
DoorDash grows in large part because of the successful foundation they have created and their commitment to continuous improvement.
As they help more restaurants serve more customers, their restaurant base grows. As more independent drivers see the opportunity to make additional income, DoorDash’s fleet of independent drivers grows. In turn, customers become more and more used to having food delivered to them from a greater variety of restaurants and locations.
COVID-19 Pandemic’s Role in DoorDash Growth
DoorDash, of course, also capitalized on additional needs and pain points brought about the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants’ business suddenly collapsed, people did not want to go out, and at the same time, many people were laid off from their jobs.
DoorDash’s model solved many of these problems. People who did not feel comfortable going out – or who couldn’t go out due to shelter-in-place or quarantine orders – were still able to access restaurant food by using DoorDash and other delivery services, especially DoorDash’s new “contactless delivery.”
Restaurants, in turn, were able to service many more customers using DoorDash’s delivery services that they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to help. Even better, these restaurants did not need to hire and oversee the delivery services themselves, a part of restaurant management that was known to be a major headache and challenge.
Additionally, working as an independent contractor driver for DoorDash gave many people an opportunity to earn much-needed money for many people who experienced a lay-off from their own job or for another household member.
The pandemic lasted much longer than most people anticipated, especially with fresh surges caused by the many different variants of the original virus.
Will the lifestyle changes created or accelerated by the pandemic continue even after the pandemic itself wanes?
Much like working remotely might continue for many people long past when it the time that it is required, so to ordering more food for delivery via services such as DoorDash may become a service that more people have come to enjoy and expect and continue using well into the future.
Marketing and Growth Strategy of DoorDash
The on-demand restaurant delivery and to-go ordering service, DoorDash, utilizes their app and a huge fleet of independent contractor delivery drivers. DoorDash has grown tremendously by focusing on filling in the gaps of other big companies’ services, including focusing on smaller cities and suburbs instead of larger urban locales.