Domino’s

Pizza
Case Study
2018

AUGUST 22

Rohan Oscar Noronha

PGP/23/226

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Table of Contents
Domino’s Pizza Case Study .................................................................................................................. 3
A Case in Company Reputation Management .............................................................................................. 3

The Incident ........................................................................................................................................ 4

Executive summary ............................................................................................................................. 5
Solution ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 7

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Domino’s Pizza Case Study
A Case in Company Reputation Management

Reputation management is one of the most important steps in ensuring that one’s
brand is protected in the eyes of the consumer. With the advent on social media and
faster exchange of information through messages and videos, it has become even more
important to keep a positive image of the product. Trial by public is a real threat to any
company looking to expand upon their reputation and any small event may trigger an
avalanche of consequences resulting is irreparable damages to their public image.

Online reputation management also involves crisis management in the advent of

accidents or major incidents to ensure a positive image is being portrayed online to the
public. Any untoward incident involving the products or employees of the company will
directly affect its image in the public. In such cases, the negative publicity could result
in the form of loss of sales, trust and various other issues.

In the following analysis we focus on a particular incident involving Domino’s Pizza and
their hygiene issues in the public image. The entire chain of events started from a
simple viral video of two rogue employees which ballooned into something monstrous.

“You know what, this is a bad one… we need to do

something about it.”

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The Incident
On Monday, April 13th 2009, two rogue employees of a North Carolina chain of
Domino’s, posted a video of themselves contaminating the food of the customers, on
YouTube. The employees in question, Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer were in the
Domino’s back kitchen, wearing identifiable uniforms of the company. Their film
completely exposed their identities and their mischief was captured clearly as well.
Hammonds was the one filming the incidents and Setzer stuffed cheese, up his nose
and then proceeded to sneeze on a customer’s order. Hammonds encouraged the
behavior while filming while Setzer packed the contaminated orders insinuating
dispatch of these orders to the customers. Several sever health codes were violated in
the video and the acts kept escalating. Setzer proceeded to wipe a dish sponge on his
posterior and washing the pots and pans with the same sponge. Over the entire video,
many orders received from customers were tampered with before being packed and
sent out for delivery.
In a short span of 24 hours, the video attracted half a million views on the video
sharing site and through other similar sites. The video was being referenced in all
online searches for the company and among the first 5 searches on Google. By the end
of the day, millions of Americans had viewed the ghastly video and the Domino’s brand
name had been smeared significantly.

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Executive summary
The Domino’s pizza viral video case is one which highlights the importance of social
media in both the spread and the combat of the crisis. Both rogue employees have
been filmed in during working hours in company uniform. There is no mistake about
their identities and also the intent of their actions. This was no random unintentional
mistake. It was a serious offense and a gross violation of ethics and morals. This is a
major blow for Domino’s, who have built their reputation as not just a pizza giant but a
fast food legend in the United States. The issue for Domino’s now is twofold – first they
need to stop the spread of the video and or combat it with a response of their own.
They need to stop the story from getting out of control and set the narrative. This is to
ensure that the general public associate the Domino’s brand as reliable even through
the online mentions of the incident. Secondly, they will need to gain back the trust of
their customers. When such a video goes viral, the fear of the public is not just
contained to the incident occurring region. All clients of the company would now share
the same concerns - is the food they consume hygienic? Hence this problem is time
bound. The longer it would take to respond to the incident the worse it would get.

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Solution
We will divide our solution into two separate strategies which can be simultaneously
executed. One is the control of information to the public and the second is the damage
repair of the Domino’s brand.
For the first action, Domino’s should take is damage control. They have to respond
quickly or the customer might receive false information and if their response is not
adequate enough it will bring more attention to the issue than handle it. Domino’s has
to reach out to all its customers through the very same social media that attempted to
destroy it. Since the perpetrators have already been taken care off, Domino’s needs to
release its response specifically mentioning the company is separate from the mischief
mongers. They should release short videos apologizing for the act and promising the
public that the actions were in no way associated with the Domino’s customer service.
This was only a one-time occurrence at the company. All subsequent advertisements
should portray customer service employees as reliable and trustworthy people. They
should also indicate the sever quality and hygiene testing that goes on at every facility
and try and ensure the public that the contaminated food never reached any customer
at all.
In terms of repairing the Domino’s Pizza brand built over 50 years, Domino’s will have
to assure the public that the incident is very hard to repeat and that the wrongdoers
are not indicative of the brand. They will have to improve their hiring process and
screen the candidates not just on their priors but on their behavior as well. Any simple
behavioral analysis like OCEAN/MBTI would suffice to judge the emotional capability of
the candidate. They should implement online and offline feedback to ensure that the
pizza quality is up to customer standards and engaged with those giving feedback
aggressively. This will win back its lost trust as a company who delivers on their
promises.

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Conclusion
This incident served as a wakeup call not just for Domino’s but also for other customer
service related companies on the power and reach of social media. It has changed the
way in which organizations reach out to their customer base. Companies now re-
strategize their crisis management actions in order to reflect the current trends. Major
incidents are responded too instantly and online in the most professional manner
possible. Companies now also focus on the emotionality of the client online towards a
particular brand. This has built up the importance of Search Engine Optimization and
Sentiment Analysis – tools which are now able to gauge the customer feeling towards a
particular brand and product. All in all, this redefined the way we look at crisis
management from an online point of view.

“We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera

and an awful idea.”