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1/ The Enemy Within: How brand value can be undermined by the failure of two cogs in their 125,000 cogs.
2/ People Power Creates Brand Power: How emphasis on staff training and behaviour can lead to brand strength or brand destruction.
3/ The Most Important Word: How ‘trust’ is the most important word in the marketing dictionary.
4/ Social [Network] Security: How the internet lets people make sure the brands they love don’t fuck up or get fucked up.
5/ Monkeys & Peanuts: How can you expect people to care as much about your brand when you pay them so little?
Not sure, but I think Domino’s swift, effective and honest approach is a good one … almost up there with the Kings of crisis management, J&J.
And to think their first thought was to ‘keep schtum’ so as not to alert more people to the negative publicity.
Look I know that’s the strategy encouraged by certain PR firms [Hill & Knowlton anyone?] but in situations like these, I think honesty is most definitely the best [and only] policy and it’s nice to see Domino react as quickly as they claim to deliver.
[If Domino’s have removed the clip, the story and their response can be viewed here]
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im never ordering mayo on my fucking pizza again
Comment by andy@cynic April 17, 2009 @ 8:08 amYou know what we should be doing don’t you Andy. It would be the PERFECT time to launch it too … and a guarantee of never adding any mayo, ha!
Comment by Rob April 17, 2009 @ 8:23 amHow can anyone think keeping issues like this quiet would be an acceptable strategic move?
Good on them for acting quickly, all they have to do now is make their food taste like food and I might consider ordering from them sometime.
Comment by Pete April 17, 2009 @ 8:49 amI think the second point Pete raised should have led to similar apology videos from the CEO a long time ago.
Comment by fredrik sarnblad April 17, 2009 @ 11:03 amHaving not seen any of the offending Youtube videos, I initially thought this was a spoof documentary piece akin to CP+B’s Coke Zero Lawyers spot.
With people as earnest and dull as the guy in the interview it’s no wonder Domino’s are, er, falling.
Monkeys & Peanuts get my vote.
Comment by thehumaneyecorporation April 17, 2009 @ 11:35 amEven though that kids boogers were probably the most “natural” ingredient on that disgusting Domino’s food, I do appreciate the (open, honest and believable) reaction the organisation has taken.
Comment by Age April 17, 2009 @ 2:21 pmshould have fired himself that ceo or been fired by the board.
failed to install a culture that inspires, failed to install a culture that rewards the frontline like it should
failed at the biggest taks at hand for a ceo; getting the right people hired and letting them do the right things that makes them and shareholders money…
fish stinks at the head
Comment by the most badass one April 17, 2009 @ 3:08 pmI think it’s very easy to blame him – but Domino’s, like most fast food chains – is run as a franchise and so in most cases, the individual store manager is the business owner. That means that person can make their own decisions about hiring policies, business standards, incentives – regardless of what their ‘head office’ say’s or tries to enforce.
Don’t get me wrong, I think there are things the company could do to help influence a better ‘standard’ of professionalism, but when you put the future of your brand/business in the hands of teens [seemingly without decent supervision] you’re always going to walk a fine line between success and nightmare … because lets face it, teens will be teens.
Fuck, one of my partners is in his 40’s and he acts like a twat when his ‘controling influence’ is not around [read: Katerina and George … in that order!] so why the hell would a 19 year old being paid $2.67 an hour on a Friday night care?
Comment by Rob April 17, 2009 @ 4:18 pmYeah, yeah, yeah. Heard it all before. The problem with all this argument is the assumption that anyone and I do mean anyone will look at that video and suddenly think that Domino’s make terrible pizza.
It’s not a hygiene inspection, it’s a video on the tne internet and people are accustomed to knowing that they’re usually sppofs (remember the rats in the KFC in NY last year? – no you don’t really and that’s my point).
Domino’s did the right thing, as you say, they acted quickly and fired the offenders for unprofessional behaviour. By doing so they emphasised their concen for their image and indirectly their customers. Their “brand” would have been damaged if they’d done nothing – it wasn’t damged by the video.
Comment by John April 17, 2009 @ 4:45 pmagain I hear what you are saying (fuck me that sounds like phil) but if YOU know this, then surely they know this. so why do the appologies. it’s smoke and mirrors then. since they can’t control anything
plus all he is doing is being restrictive and guilt trippy.
look how well that works for fathers and catholic priests who wanna stop their girls/flok from smoking or dating…
but…I should be humble and behave..it’s good friday. anybody seen my purity ring somewhere?
Comment by the most badass one April 17, 2009 @ 5:12 pmDoing it was the right thing to do … if only for the sake of all their franchisees.
Personally I don’t think he’s being guilt-trippy … I think he is actually quite good. Sure putting out a warrant seems a bit harsh, but his response is way better than the way Maccas handled the scandal of PAINTING ON grill marks on their ‘healthy chicken’ in Oz.
How did they handle it? They didn’t … thinking it would go away, except it didn’t and once the media picked it up, the issue snowballed and suddenly it was a shit storm of their own making.
Comment by Rob April 17, 2009 @ 5:22 pmI would have believed him if he had actually looked into the camera.
Good afternoon.
Comment by Marcus April 17, 2009 @ 6:40 pmHe couldn’t look at the camera because he was reading the speech placed beside the camera lens. Whatever. Lesson – brands should take up social media seriously and give me more money.
Comment by I am not a media buyer April 17, 2009 @ 8:16 pmgood fucking job stevie fucking wonder isnt ceo or you miserable fuckers would crucify him for his camera technique.
i fucking hate the fake pizza fucks but slagging him off for his shit presenting style is a bit fucking much. hes a chino wearing ceo for a shit food company not warren fucking beatty. at least he fucking spoke up rather than got some pr lacky to do it. then hed be accused of hiding. youre the fucking simon cowells of something or other
Comment by andy@cynic April 17, 2009 @ 9:37 pmI bet he manages to look into the fucking camera when he’s doing a fucking shareholders meeting.
I bet he practices everything he needs to say and knows most of the stuff off by heart.
Yeah, well done. They did something. Doing something is better than doing nothing at all. And this is close, real close but not close enough. Sorry, but I don’t think he really means he’s sorry. I think it just looks like he’s sorry that he has to talk about it in the first fucking place.
Your reaction surprises me actually Andy but maybe I have misunderstood what cynic has stood for all along. I thought that professionalism, attention to detail, trust, honestly and just being human where at the core of what you guys stand for.
I’m sorry. You know I love you like the brother that I’ve never met but I’m going to call you on this.
Just because Dominos have reacted, just because they have done something and it’s on youtube to see – and to be shared – and be discussed – doesn’t mean that they necessarily mean what they say. I think it’s calculated. It’s damage control.
And to put Doyle into a clueless, chino wearing fast food dumbass box mearly underestimates him – and you should know better.
Comment by Marcus April 17, 2009 @ 10:34 pmInteresting point Marcus. Let me qualify my earlier comment. Hardly anybody will pay any serious attention to and/or believe the orginal video, ardly anybody will pay any serious attention to and/or believe the CEO video. It’s a PR dance in response to a storm in a teacup. Damage control yes – of course it is. Platitudes of course. But it’s all in response to a silly prank, not a real health scare or a Tylenol event.
Given that triviality level – maybe you disagree on that – what else should they have done – other than have better camera technique and faker sincerity?
Comment by John April 18, 2009 @ 12:42 amyou can say what the fuck you want marcus i couldnt give a shit. not every fucker is blessed with your camera confidence and i have fuck all idea if he can look directly into a camera at shareholder time and if he can maybe its because hes had more than a couple of hours to prepare without the media, shareholders and franchisees ringing him up every 2 fucking seconds demanding a comment.
being able to look into a camera doesnt automatically qualify as honesty and even if this video might be damage limitation overkill its better than him doing fuck all especially as the online community would get their frilly fucking pants in a twist because theyd think hes disrepected the all encompassing power of social fucking networking and then blog about it onfuckingmass.
well see if the guy is talking as much shit as you and even i think in time but going on video and declaring what youre going to do should at least provide more reasons to do some of it than a quiet fucking pr notice but you and dodds think he shouldnt of done anything so youll disagree with this as well.
i agree with you on one thing though marcus, you know fuck all about us but not for the reasons you describe
Comment by andy@cynic April 18, 2009 @ 5:43 amLadies … ladies … come on, play nice.
I think I disagree with all of you actually – I think the man is a kind, fatherly soul who probably lives with cats and does needlework.
OK I don’t …
Personally his ‘camera style’ means little to me … I appreciate he may of been able to present himself better, I appreciate this is possibly more ‘damage control’ than heart-felt motive … but when the media whip this seemingly trivial event into a weapon of mass destruction, then I don’t think he was really left with any other choice than to react and the fact he did it quickly and made some ‘claims’ of what he and the company would do to rectify this situation [rather than just say whitewash over it] is – in my mind anyway – a positive.
Could he of done it better? Maybe … he could of rehersed so he could have looked into the camera when he spoke but I personally think going on Youtube in such a short time was a good thing, because whilst his delivery may not be to everyones liking, at least he stood up and did it whereas most other organisations would of hidden behind some faceless PR person or – as has been demonstrated by companies from P&G to my beloved friends at Virgin who knew at the time my view on this behaviour – via some ‘press release’.
So whilst this sort of action would normally not require any response – the media, bloggers and twitters basically forced it to happen because a prank by 2 poorly paid kids developed into something that could – and probably will to a certain extent – affect the lives of the people who rely on Domino’s for their livlihood.
I get the distinct impression that this is a situation where he couldn’t win. Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.
And whilst Andy doesn’t give a shit about Marcus’ comment about our company – I certainly do – and to imply that because I/we think what the guy did [rather than how he did it] was better than ignoring it given the elevated circumstances means our company doesn’t believe in attention to detail, trust, honesty and just being human is bollocks … if anything I would say it highlights it … that and the fact we realise the realities of life sometimes don’t always marry well with the perfect world scenarios we all like to judge others by.
[You’ll note I didn’t include ‘professionalism’ in the list – we’ve never said that … we wouldn’t dare, ha!]
On an even more positive side, it’s nice to have a debate on here – but like Hayley’s comet – I think we’ll be waiting another 70 odd years for it to happen again.
Comment by Rob April 18, 2009 @ 7:34 amyeah marcus how fucking dare you use cynic in the same sentence as professionalism. anyone else would get a smack for that but you love me like a brother so ill let you off because blood is thicker than slander
Comment by andy@cynic April 18, 2009 @ 7:57 am“Their “brand” would have been damaged if they’d done nothing” – how does that translate into me thinking they shouldn’t do anything Andy?
Comment by John April 18, 2009 @ 6:57 pmGary Vaynerchuck’s view is worth a watch.
http://tinyurl.com/c82mt4
Comment by Charles April 19, 2009 @ 12:01 amnoted.
Comment by marcus April 19, 2009 @ 3:29 amits the weekend. why the fuck are people coming here on the weekend?
dodds. i cant remember what the fuck i wrote and cant be arsed to read the fucking boring comments so have your little dig with complete impunity, its my christmas present to you.
marcus. youre still my favourite brit living in germany called marcus. my blog brother which sounds fucking gay but im not afraid of my immense masculine sexuality
Comment by andy@cynic April 19, 2009 @ 8:29 amYou can tell you’ve been in SF this weekend Andy 🙂
Comment by Rob April 19, 2009 @ 9:23 pmnow i m late… i think doyle should have looked into the camera. though, i think he meant every single word he said. problem probably was he d been full of adrenaline up to his eye balls…
also think it s good that they have done something at probably the right time. if you don t react actively, it means what your customers might think doesn t bother you much. well, that s how i see it… and my bet is on very weird monkeys and peanuts. if they would have liked their job/employer a little, chances would have been close to zero for stuff like this to happen, i guess.
Comment by peggy April 20, 2009 @ 4:03 am