Discuss about the Analysis of Communication Crisis at Domino.
The report would highlight a major communication crisis in the popular company Domino’s. The analysis would give a clear picture how the company handled the issue by understanding the problem first and taking its time for the action plan. The discussion would revolve around the company’s strategies to resolve the problem by identifying the source of the issue and then addressing it tactfully.
Domino’s Inc. is a US based restaurant chain which is known for selling pizzas across the world. The vision of the company is to “Be the number one Pizza Company in the world and in every neighborhood” (Dominos, 2016). Domino’s offers variety of pizzas to its customers such as chicken fajita, creamy prawn and hollandaise, creamy chicken carbonara, tandoori chicken, peri peri chicken and others (Domino’s Australia, 2016).
Domino’s has established around eight thousand and seven hundred stores across fifty countries (approximately) through its licensing based model (Smith, 2009). The company has developed its reputation of one of the trusted brand through its door to door services and effective marketing strategies. Domino’s has established effective distribution system of food though strategically partnering with the suppliers (Smith, 2009).
Domino’s Pizza went through its infamous publicity of food adulteration in the year 2009 and faced a viral crisis. The two employees of the company posted a video of the domino’s kitchen online which became viral with the power of social media (Clifford, 2009). The public was outraged after watching the disgusted video in which health-code standards were violated in the kitchen of Domino’s (Jacques, 2009). The viral video tarnished the image of the company through negative publicity and degraded its perception of quality among the public. There were several apologies and statements given by the company but it did not work because the crowd was not ready to hear anything (Young and Flowers, 2012). The crisis was publicized by journalists and bloggers during the entire event.
The filmed video of the kitchen, which was posted online by the two company employees Hammonds and Setzer, damaged public relation of the Domino’s by publicizing that the company does not abide by the health code and standards while preparing the food (Young and Flowers, 2012). The employees were sneezing on the mozzarella cheese which was an unethical practice and degraded the quality perception of Dominos (Clifford, 2009).
Public relation is a method through which an organization communicates with the target audience to develop a relationship with its customers (Bernays, 2013). The company thrives hard to develop and maintain its brand image among the consumers. Public relation can be built and maintained through newsletters, internet, television and other forms of media. PR is generally used as a marketing strategy by the firms to create new customers and retain the existing customers through differentiating and positioning strategy. PR strategy is used to create a positive image of company’s products and services to influence the minds of consumers to buy their products and services.
Domino’s has very strategically positioned itself for its delicious, quality and healthy food in the minds of the consumers. It reinvents its products to meet the demands and requirements of the customers. Its specialty chicken pizza was a great hit in Australia and witnessed huge product sale at Domino’s outlet. Its other innovated products include sandwiches, pastas and other dishes (Lutz, 2015). Further, its door to door delivery and quick services have reconnected the company with its consumer base. The company consistently launches new schemes and offers to maintain its grip on its existing customers and maintain its public relations. The company has integrated the latest digital practices within its process to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction (Pierce, 2015).
The video damaged the public relations of Domino’s with its external customers and affected the sales of Domino’s. The quality of the Domino’s was under scrutiny and people were asking for the justification of the same. The public became very angry with the video and felt cheated with the fact that the Domino’s was offering adulterated food to them (Gregory, 2009).
Dominos immediately fired its employees who filmed and posted the video online and they were charged with the allegation of distributing prohibited foods (Daily Mail, 2009).
Emergence of social media tools network have changed the method of interaction between a company and its stakeholders. The companies have started maintaining their social media profile and other updates on the social media networks such as facebook, twitter, youtube and other networks. The company has adopted the methods of blogging, emailing and posting on social media networks for the corporate communication. Corporate communication is used by the company to impart a message to the stakeholders of the company to maintain its credibility. It helps to develop long term relationship with its customers by creating trust amongst them (Cornelissen, 2008). During the viral crisis, when the people were supposed to be listening to the company, they were blogging, e-mailing and publicizing the negative image of the company. The users of the YouTube have engaged themselves so much into the medium that they are affected by every single activity of youtube. The video which got viral on YouTube had a very adverse impact on the public because of its great number of users. Social media network is equally used by the companies to connect to its customer base by enhancing their reputation and brand image. Domino’s Vice President of Corporate Communications, Mr Tim Mcintyre, analyzed the entire situation to take some action by communicating internally and externally. He identified the people who posted this video online to take legal action against them. The employees were fired and convicted by the Domino’s (Daily Mail, 2009). The first response of the company was an apology by the President Patrick Doyle which was recorded and uploaded on YouTube. Domino’s was hugely criticized by the journalists and bloggers.
During a communication crisis, the action suggested by Arthur W. Page Society (a public relations organization), are as follows:
Truth telling
Providing proof by action
Understanding and listening to the customer
Future Management
Reviewing the public relations
People management
Maintain calmness
Truth telling helps to normalize the situation by calming the customer or at least stop them from negatively publicizing. The Vice President of Corporate Communication department tried to convey the message that the two individual filmed in the video do not represent the company and the brand. The company’s President Patrick Doyle tried to communicate the message that Domino’s is being sorry despite the fact that the company did not do it. The apology was a method to earn the interest of the people back. Though in order to be honest and open the Domino’s should have been taken responsibility. On the other hand, being responsible could have exposed the company to legal vulnerabilities. Dominos collaborated with the watch dog organization and other local authorities to minimize the consequences of the event. Domino’s took the time to respond on order to not to fuel the audience which led to the viral of video and the people began to question the integrity of the firm.
The Domino’s had to postpone its social media plan because of the viral video event which was a huge decision for the company and affected its entire event chain. Though, the company launched its social media plan later when forced by the circumstances.
The steps taken by the Domino’s to handle the crisis and calm the customers are as follows:
Identified the source of problem
The company’s first step to deal with the situation was to identify the source of the problem by investigating the video. The two faces of the video were recognized by the company by sending a message across all the stores and outlets of Domino’s. Once the identity of the individuals was revealed, the owner of the store was asked to fire them (Smith, 2009). Further, the company charged the culprits with an allegation of distributing prohibited food to the customers (Daily Mail, 2009).
Removing the video from the internet
The company immediately called the YouTube to remove the video from the internet because it spoiled company’s reputation and its brand name. YouTube replied that the video could only be removed at the request of copyright owner and the lady who recorded the video of her colleague had the right to make a request (Smith, 2009).
The company then contacted the lady who was convicted of food adulteration charges and was sent to jail. She was asked by the company executive to give the right to YouTube to remove the video from the internet. The lady signed the letter after consulting with her lawyer and the video was removed from the internet.
Clarifying the public questions
The company moved with the strategy to not to make any public announcement to prevent the video from getting viral because a public announcement would alarm each and every person who are not even aware of the incident. The company clarified to those people who already viewed the video on YouTube. The company entered the forums or discussions of the people who were discussing about the event where it tried to defend itself by saying that the company is victim and not the culprit and is struggling to resolve the problem (Smith, 2009).
Later, when Domino’s realized that the news was spreading like a fire, the company posted a video on its official website to clarify the issue.
Fighting fire with fire
Domino’s handled the situation very calmly and patiently by posting its own video on YouTube 3 days after the incident. The company’s President Patrick Doyle apologized the audience for such a disgusting incident through the video. He tried to convince the people that Domino’s would never let such an incident happen because it prioritizes its customers’ trust above the rest (Smith, 2009). The issue was addressed very calmly and sincerely so that people listen to the President Doyle.
The company strategically used the word disgusting so that the video’s ranking gets above the original video. The video was marketed by posting the links on Twitter and Facebook.
The overall strategy used by Domino’s was good enough to handle the audience, but the incident has a great impact on the brand image of Domino’s and the company had to invest money and manpower to resolve the crisis. A small mistake by the employees of the company triggered the anger of the audience and social media played a great role in spreading the news.
Lesson to be learned from the case study is that a communication crisis is developed as a result of situational communication crisis and integrated social media. A communication crisis triggers the anger of stakeholders and questions the integrity of the company. This affects the strategy of the organization to minimize the impact of the crisis on the reputation of the company (Young and Flowers, 2012). In the Dominos case, the social media played a great role to build strategy to calm down the users of YouTube who were outrageous after watching the disgusting video posted by an employee of the company. Integrating social media with the communication crisis strategies was the only methodology that the company could deploy (Young and Flowers, 2012).
Thus, a communication crisis needs to be handled very calmly and patiently as demonstrated by the case study of Domino’s.
Conclusion
The report has successfully discussed and analyzed the communication crisis of Domino’s by evaluating the key factors that led to the crisis. Domino’s has maintained its brand image and reputation throughout the years and one video tarnished the image of the company and instilled anger among the public. The video was posted by two of the company employees who were fired and convicted by the company. The video got viral through social media and the public began to question the ethical practices of the company by writing blogs and articles to get some response from the company. Domino’s handled the situation very calmly and patiently by identifying the source of the problem and then addressing the public when it was required. The company postponed its social media plans in order to focus on the crisis. The Domino’s took the decision to remove the video from YouTube and posted an apology from behalf of the company’s President to calm down the audience.
References
Bernays, E.L. (2013). Public Relations. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.
Clifford, S. (2009). Video Prank at Domino’s Taints Brand. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/business/media/16dominos.html [Accessed Online 23 Jan 2017].
Cornelissen, J. (2008). Corporate Communication: A Guide to Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Daily Mail. (2009). Domino’s Pizza workers who filmed revolting video of themselves abusing takeaway food are charged by police. Daily Mail. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169881/Dominos-Pizza-workers-filmed-revolting-video-abusing-takeaway-food-charged-police.html [Accessed Online 23 Jan 2017].
Domino’s Australia. (2016). Domino’s Corporate. Domino’s Australia. Available at: https://www.dominos.com.au/inside-dominos/corporate [Accessed Online: 23 Jan 2017].
Gregory, S. (2009). Domino’s YouTube Crisis: 5 Ways to Fight Back. TIME. Available at: https://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1892389,00.html [Accessed Online 23 Jan 2017].
Jacques, A. (2009). Domino’s Delivers During Crisis: The Company’s Step-by-Step Response After a Vulgar Video Goes Viral. Public Relations Society of America. Available at: https://apps.prsa.org/intelligence/TheStrategist/Articles/view/8226/102/Domino_s_Delivers_During_Crisis_The_Company_s_Step#.WIXn7lV97IU [Accessed Online 23 Jan 2017].
Lutz, A. (2015). Domino’s made 3 changes to become the world’s top pizza chain. Business Insider Australia. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/dominos-turnaround-strategy-2015-4 [Accessed Online 23 Jan 2017].
Pierce, F. (2015). How Domino’s is setting the standard in marketing and customer satisfaction. Australia Business Review. Available at: https://www.businessreviewaustralia.com/marketing/1793/How-Domino’s-is-setting-the-standard-in-marketing-and-customer-satisfaction [Accessed Online 23 Jan 2017].
Smith, K. (2009). Case Study: How Domino’s Managed a Viral Video Nightmare. Marketing Profs. Available at: https://www.marketingprofs.com/casestudy/2009/9394/how-dominos-managed-a-viral-video-nightmare [Accessed Online 23 Jan 2017].
Young, C.L., and Flowers, A. (2012). Fight Viral with Viral: A Case Study of Domino’s Pizza’s Crisis Communication Strategies. Case Studies in Strategic Communication, Vol 1, article 6. Available at: https://cssc.uscannenberg.org/cases/v1/v1art6/ [Accessed Online 23 Jan 2017].
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