Page 1 of 1

Crisis management and reputation defense at the speed of Web

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2024 5:51 am
by asimd17
Masterclass in Social Media Marketing taught by Carlos Víctor Costa. (International Marketing and Communications Teacher).

It deals primarily with the case of the Domino's Pizza crisis. It analyses the company's response and provides a model for crisis management and online reputation.


THE DOMINO´S PIZZA CASE:

A few months ago, the Domino's Pizza business owner data chain experienced a real nightmare due to two employees who posted a video in which they were playing in an unhygienic way with the food they were supposedly preparing. What started out as a joke has ended with a criminal complaint, millions of angry consumers and a communication crisis for this great company, according to a report in The New York Times.

The impact of the video was unimaginable for its creators. In just 24 hours, the video had 760,000 views. Days later, it had already surpassed one million on YouTube. References to it occupied five of the twelve positions on the first page of Google when searching for “Dominos” and debates about the video were widespread on Twitter.

Image

Domino's fired the employees, who were arrested by the police, thanks to clues provided by Internet users to identify them. But the crisis did not end there.

One of their spokesmen, Tim McIntyre, complained that “even loyal customers of the brand for as long as twenty years were questioning their relationship with them”, which he described as “unfair”. Within a few days, Domino's reputation was damaged. Consumer perception of its quality went from positive to negative in just a few days, according to the research firm YouGov.

You may also be interested in: Marketing 2.0 Confessions
Domino's Pizza had to post a statement on its website saying: "The opportunities and freedom of the internet are wonderful. But with it comes the risk that anyone with a camera and an internet connection can cause great harm, as in this case, where a couple of individuals have suddenly overshadowed the hard work carried out by 125,000 workers across the country and in 60 other countries around the world.