Name: Qudsia Shahid
Registration number: FA18-RBA-009
Domino’s Pizza Crisis 2009
One of the first companies to experience a serious and global damage in its reputation due to the
spread of bad news in social media is Domino’s Pizza. The crisis started when two employees
produced and uploaded a vulgar YouTube video in [Link] Sunday the 12th of April 2009, two
Domino’s employees from a branch in North Carolina upload a film on YouTube. The footage is
filmed while they are at work, showing disturbing images of themselves violating health codes
with unsanitary actions, whilst preparing food e.g. putting cheese up his nose before putting it into
sandwich etc.
The video becomes a viral sensation with more than a million hits on YouTube 3 days after it was
uploaded (source [Link]). Hoax has ripple effect in social media bleeding into
conversations in twitter, other social media forums and mainstream media. 65% of respondents
who had visited Domino’s Pizza say they would not visit Domino’s Pizza after seeing video.
Nature of crisis
In this case, Domino’s is facing a reputational crisis because it threatens to inflict serious damage
on the organization’s reputation, but unlike operational crisis, it does not impact Domino’s
operations in any meaningful fashion. The idea is that the crisis will cause stakeholders to perceive
the company much less favorably. Domino’s Pizza, as a corporate company, did not have physical
responsibility, but rather more of a reputational responsibility for the incident that took place in a
North Carolina location.
Target Audience
Target audience in this case were
Domino’s customers
Organizational stakeholders
Pizza lovers
Strategies of Dominos Pizza regarding this case
Domino’s used both the denial and the victim focus responses strategy. The apology video was
spread through social media. Domino’s is also the sufferer and the company acknowledged that
their brand was the victim in this crisis, and the corporation as a whole was not responsible for the
act of these employees. The original prank video was removed from YouTube because of a
copyright claim, but its aliases or copies remained both inside and outside the YouTube community
and continued to circulate. The company prepared a civil lawsuit, and the two employees were
faced with felony charges for delivering prohibited foods to customers.
Steps in Crisis management:
First, when a company makes a mistake and bad news starts to spread in social media, crisis
managers should react quickly, admitting mistakes and apologizing appropriately. Several recent
work confirmed the positive effect of CEO’s apologies in social media, Twitter and YouTube,
both in the US and in Korea (HCD b; Efthimious 2010; Park et al. 2011).
Second, companies should start conversations in social media during normal times, not just after
a crisis hits the organizations.
Third, considering the speed at which bad news spreads, companies should prepare to respond
within hours, not within days.
Steps Taken
Dominos took following steps:
Dominos management caught the situation pretty early. They kept their customers updated
on their website.
The VP of Communications, Tim McIntyre, implemented a social media plan that included
an apology video which was uploaded on YouTube, and shown on NBC and New York
Times. It was found that Domino’s did not break the top tweets that week on Twitter.
“Domino's initial reasoning was that it didn't want to act too hastily and alert more
consumers to the situation it was attempting to contain” (York). Therefore, the executives
responded too late, about 48 hours after the hoax, which has damaged the brand negatively.
According to an HCD Research using its Media Curves Web site, 65% of customers who
would previously visit or order Domino’s Pizza were less likely to do so after viewing the
offending video (Flandez).
According to Domino’s, the employees told executives that they had never actually
delivered the tainted food. Still, Domino’s fired the two employees on Tuesday, and they
were in the custody of the Conover police department on Wednesday evening, facing
felony charge
CEO comments:
“Recently we discovered a video, two Dominos team members who thought that their acts would
be a funny prank. We sincerely apologize for this incident. We thank members of online
community who quickly alert us and allowed us to take immediate action. Although individual’s
questions and claims; it’s a hoax. We are taking this incredibly seriously. This was an isolated
incident in Conover North Carolina. The two team members have been dismissed and their felony
warrants are out for their arrest. The store has been shut down and sanitized from top to bottom.
There is nothing, nothing more important to us than our customer’s trust. We are reexamining all
of our hiring practices to make sure that people like this don’t make it into our stores. We have
auditors across the country in our store, every day of our week, making sure that our stores are
clean and we are delivering high quality food to our customers day in and day out. There are so
many people who have come out in support for us and we are thanking them and we will work to
regain your trust.”
