Domino’s Pizza Evolves and Wins

Having graduated from college in 2008, I’m well aware of Domino’s Pizza’s benefits and shortcomings. Domino’s was always a great food alternative when the main goal was not to actually enjoy the meal, but rather to receive and consume it in the quickest manner possible. The complaints were always in the back of my mind (crust like cardboard, overall processed taste, etc.) but it hardly made sense to express them because that is what their pizza had always and would always taste like. It seemed that the poor taste and eventual heartburn was the price we had to pay for cheap, fast pizza at 3 a.m.

I was not alone in my perception of Domino’s, and the company apparently knew it. Tired of hearing the same complaints, they launched an enormous “focus group” exercise, not just relying on interviews with random candidates, but also using Social Media platforms like Twitter to listen in on what people were saying about their brand. Comments like “pizza was cardboard”, “mass produced, boring, bland pizza”, “processed cheese” and “microwave pizza is far superior” poured in from Twitter. Interviewed candidates added “Domino’s pizza crust to me is like cardboard”, “worst excuse for pizza I’ve ever had”, and on, and on, and on. It became abundantly clear to the management of the company that these were not trivial phrases that some were using to describe their product; over time, it had become a fact and the widely accepted image of their brand.

However, Domino’s decided to make a move that most of their peers would be very averse to making: they went completely transparent. They understood that their flagship product, somehow, had become completely unacceptable and no amount of “special offers” or “discounts” were going to fix it. Instead, they embraced Social Media, honesty and most importantly, overall customer care to bring them back to life. They bought in to something that we believe very highly in; to quote Gary Vaynerchuk, “The days of being able to con the customer without repercussions are pretty much over, so however how you shape and color your personal brand, honesty has to be at your core.”

“You can either use negative comments to get you down, or you can use them to excite you and energize your process of making a better pizza. We did the latter” says Domino’s President Patrick Doyle on their site, PizzaTurnAround.com. The site features a video that completely chronicles Domino’s journey from A to Z throughout their rebuilding experience; it shows the displeasure of the customers, the initial reaction of the company (complete with a clip depicting a boardroom full of executives watching a focus group, all the while wearing pained facial expressions), the overall response of the company and clips of Domino’s chefs bringing their new pizzas to formerly dissatisfied customers who testified in the focus groups. The video Domino’s put together is great because it not only shows that they care about what is said about them, but also that they are willing to seek out those comments no matter what medium they happen to be in. What is equally compelling is the live Twitter feed on the side of the page; named “Live new pizza Twitter feed”, it displays tweets made about, you guessed it, the new pizza, displaying an honest mix of good and bad comments. It allows curious, and probably jaded, customers who haven’t tried the new version an opportunity to browse unbiased and generally unfiltered reviews.

The result is that Domino’s is back on track. They essentially talked directly to the public in an honest and organic way, apologized for their transgressions and vowed to make it right. But in this day of verbose, written apologies flatly read by CEO’s, a simple “we’re sorry and it won’t happen again”, even if it’s wrapped in a pretty website like the one Domino’s built, usually gets shrugged off as corporate crisis-management protocol. To avert this from happening, Domino’s followed through with their commitment to change, going so far as to hand deliver pizzas to people that had previously voiced their displeasure, all the while filming their responses and posting it on the “Turnaround” site. They also have maintained their very active Social Media presence, most notably interacting with Twitter users who have questions and comments about anything related to their brand, specifically customer service (side note: as I was writing this, I @replied Domino’s to see if they’d respond and they wrote back within 4 minutes. Check the screen-shot below).

From an ROI perspective, Domino’s stock has risen substantially amidst the enthusiasm surrounding their new recipe, commitment to customer satisfaction and their ongoing story-telling website. In fact, the stock turned around at such a rate that “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer, who had previously bashed Domino’s stock and product, raved about them on Jan. 13 saying “It looks like everyone used to hate Domino’s. On this show we slammed the company a couple years ago…but now things are changing”, adding “Domino’s Pizza is beginning to deliver with a new recipe, a great ad campaign, fabulous international business that dominates India thanks to its great vegetarian offerings and a competitor that’s falling apart. Don’t believe me? Go look at the Domino’s presentation on its terrific, robust website.” Cramer goes on to say that he is reversing his “negative opinion on the stock and going positive.”

Domino’s completely buying in to transparency, honesty and Social Media obviously make us at VaynerMedia very happy, as it’s something we try to instill into every brand that we work with. It makes us even happier that a corporate powerhouse like Domino’s put in the work, trusted the process, followed through and is now reaping tremendous rewards that are positively impacting their brand image, customer relationships and overall value as a company. It’s probably safe to say that we’ll be having an office pizza party in the near future.