Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Dominos Pizza: "Inspired by our harshest critics"

One of the biggest advantages of social media is often the reason many companies don't engage with it.

Networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow consumers to share their thoughts on well-known brands. More often than not those opinions are likely to be critical. A number of companies have yet to come to terms with the importance of engaging with your critics, listening to what they have to say and demonstrating that you can take their comments on board.

The winners are those brands who do 'get it'. Your customers will be talking about you on these sites whether or not you want to participate. Joining the conversation allows you to both learn and to educate. Hiding away leaves you with no control over the conversation.

Domino's Pizza have launched a new social media campaign to say that they are listening. A viral video, opening with criticism of their product on Twitter, together with a 'Pizza Turnaround' website, aim to spread the message that they've listened to customers and changed as a result.



Focus groups are shown criticising the crust, the cheese and the sauce in Domino's Pizzas. They then go on to show the changes they've made as a result.

I can't judge the difference the changes have made to the product, I haven't had a Domino's Pizza for quite a while (it was pretty lousy last time I tried!). I have to take my hat off to them for an inspired campaign based on listening to their customers, engaging in the conversation and recognising the power of social media.


*Thanks to @BookMarkLee for originally flagging this up on Twitter - another example of how viral social media is!

2 comments:

  1. A great example of how to deal with negative PR.

    They've certainly learned since the time when a Domino employee famously posted a 'gross-out' video on YouTube. Then, it took the company 2 days to respond, by which time 1 million people had seen it. I believe that store was shut down and the owner arrested.

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  2. Thanks for your comment Jackie.

    The previous experience you mentioned may well have influenced this new approach. Domino's received a lot of criticism for not being able to pick up on the social media conversation more quickly at that time.

    It's a shame companies have to experience the pain of not engaging before taking a more positive approach to social media.

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