The Domino's Case: How employees can harm a brand through Social Media

Please, if you are having dinner, my apologies. Good news? This case is from years ago and it happen on the other side of the world.

We all know Domino's, the multinational fast food franchise specialized in pizzas. Well, what happen to them a few years ago has to be a company's worst nightmare... A couple of their employees in a restaurant in the U.S. decided to make a very distasteful video of them adding 'extra' disgusting ingredients to the food and messing with it in the kitchen, and then uploaded the video to Youtube. After finding out about this incident, Domino's fired the employees and closed the restaurant for sanitation. They were also sued for delivering prohibited food, even though the employees stated that none of those products were sold.

Thanks to the velocity with which news travel in the Internet, the video got over a million views in hours. "References to it were in five of the 12 results on the first page of Google search for 'Dominos', and discussions about Domino’s had spread throughout Twitter." (The New York Times).

But the mistake was that the CEO reacted late and began publishing apologies on printed media, instead of social media, where everything was still happening. Eventually, he released his own Youtube video, and even though it was a good call, it did not have the expected impact.  Because... Why would I think everything is all right now? There are hundreds of restaurants world-wide and there has to be another pair of crazy pranksters in the world that could mess with my food, right?

I would rather not to think about this anymore. 

So, what were the consequences of this prank video? As usual, I leave you with a little graphic below.
As for tangible consequences, I think the expenses made in legal proceedings against the former employees and the risk of the company being sued, which luckily did not happen. In addition, there is the loss of income from that particular restaurant because it was closed and the costs of sanitizing it. 

But Domino's is a big company, that amount of money must have been nothing for them, what I think were the outcomes that really hurt them at the time, were the ones related to their customers. Although they kind-of gain publicity from the incident, it was bad publicity, and in this case I do not think there is such thing as 'bad publicity is better than no publicity', no way, we are dealing with health here. 

The fall in the company's reputation, the loss of customers' trust in the brand and all the negative comments on Twitter and other social media were motives enough for Domino's to improve their social game.

Domino's decided to double the stakes and face a brand reposition strategy and reputation management, by using Twitter to hear what their customers had to say and reach out to them, in campaigns such as Domino's Pizza Turnaround, where they expected customers to say anything bad about the pizzas so they could work on that. It had a great amount of feedback from Twitter and they actually change the products, but the questions in some customers still remained, 'How do I know it is for real?', well, hopefully Domino's will prove itself.

That was a case of poor ethics from the employees, and the 8 Ethical Principles (Rogerson & Fidler, n.d) were violated in some way. The actions were not correct, even if the employees did not put the items for sale, it was a totally inappropriate behaviour and showed no respect for their company, customers and fellow employees, they were unprofessional and represented their organisation as one with low quality and health standards. Finally, they did not think about the huge consequences for the company and themselves, of posting the video online or, for that matter, making it in the first place.

Prevent this type of behaviours from employees in social media is really complicated, but as mentioned in the Key risks and concerns of E2.0 (Dawson, 2008), training and clear policies might minimize the risks of events like this happening. Also, keeping staff motivated and growing their attachment and commitment to the company could be another way of precluding this actions.

I think I extended this post a little, but I really enjoyed blogging about Enterprise 2.0 today, hopefully I will carry on with this blog.

So, tell me...

What do you think about employees behaviours on Social Media?

Don't forget to comment and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and even LinkedIn. (Links here and on the top right side, above my face). 

References

Dawson, R., Hough, J., Hill, J., Winterford, B., & Alexandrov, D. (2008). Implementing enterprise 2.0. San Francisco; Sydney: Advanced Human Technologies.

Rogerson, S., & Fidler, C. (n.d.). A practical perspective on information ethics. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/322961/A_Practical_Perspective_of_Information_Ethics

Want to know more?

Video Prank at Domino’s Taints Brand

Domino's: How One YouTube Video Can Ruin a Brand (Updated)

Caso Domino's Pizza: Crisis y Reputation Management

Domino's Pizza on the Today Show - Workers fired for Dominos prank video

Domino's President Responds To Prank Video

What happens in Vegas: ROI from Facebook

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Not anymore! Fancy gigantic resorts are using Facebook to increase visibility and revenues.This is actually the case for the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, USA, that used Facebook as their tool for success.

The ARIA Resort & Casino wanted to increase visibility in a city where standing out above other businesses is required, so, they came up with the idea of using Facebook Ads and their Facebook Page. The main goal was to increase bookings and sales, but also, to gain more followers in Facebook as a way to publicise their brand.

In order to achieve their goals, ARIA used their Facebook page, which at the time had 200k+ fans, to post daily updates and promotions for their followers. ARIA also ran a Facebook Offer posted on their page, which customers could get directly from the Facebook page and then share it in their own profiles. But how would one person get to that promo?

Well, to raise awareness of the Offer, ARIA used Premium Facebook Ads driving to its booking site featuring the promotion. The ads were displayed on the user's homepages and in the news feed on their mobile devices. To maximize the impact, they also targeted friends of followers by showing in the news feed of friends of people who claimed the Offer: “[Karen Mendoza] claimed an offer from ARIA Resort & Casino.”

The results of the campaign exceeded expectations.  485% return of investment from the ads. Considering that the cost per click could be as little as one dollar, and that booking a night goes from 300 dollars (I checked it, I tried to book a room), we can safely say, that it was a successful campaign. 

It did not only showed tangible results, such as the increment on reservations or the revenue from the Facebook Ads, but also they won recognition among the resort circuit, more followers and likes in their Facebook Page and an overall distinction from their fans. It was a strong idea, but it was a prize for the few months the promotion lasted. Nowadays, Facebook is only one of the tools a company needs to build successful campaigns. There are so many different options, and ARIA has added a Twitter account and a Pinterest board. And after surfing a little in its profiles, they are keeping with the daily updates, which is a good sign of commitment to their community.

This case study was taken from the Facebook Studio page. All the numbers and statistics can be read in the ARIA Facebook Studio Case Study, ROI/Sales.

So this is it for today fellows. Feel free to comment below and tell me... 

What do you think of my tables and graphics? Do they help at all?

PS. Health update: I am fully recovered! Sunny Brisbane days brought my healthy and perky self. Do not forget to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and even LinkedIn.

Blurring the lines between physical and digital

I have been off for several days now. Certainly getting sick has not helped me with my assignments or my beloved E2.0 blog. But, I am feeling better now and it is time to catch up. So, here is the first blog for Portfolio #2.

The title of this post is borrowed from Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry and now Retail Chief at Apple.

Founded in 1856, Burberry is a global luxury brand with a distinctive British identity. The company designs and sell fashion and accessories for a diversified network of retail, wholesale and licensing channels worldwide.

Angela Ahrendts in the Burberry's Social Enterprise video states: "You have to be totally connected with everyone who touches your brand." And the iconic, fashion brand embraces the Web and social media to extend the brand and engage with customers and followers in entirely new ways. I think is better to start with this brief video so you can understand which 'ways' I am talking about.

Does this make you want to do a little shopping? Because it definitely makes me, want to break my piggy bank. But most importantly, it amazes me with all the innovative ideas that came from the heads of Angela Ahrendts and Christopher Bailey, Creative Chief Officer, to bring back what was thought as an old brand, described as just "British and plaid" by Maureen Mullen, the director of research and advisory for L2, a think tank for digital innovation, which named Burberry the top-ranked brand in its Digital IQ Index for two years in a row. "That brand now, in the minds of consumers, means British, plaid - and innovation", she stated for the Burberry, entrenched in the digisphere blog post.

I created this graphic with a summary of the Burberry strategies and the value levers to which I think they apply. Let's discuss how the social technologies are applied to the McKinsey value levers from two main areas, Marketing and Sales, and Customer Service.

One of the ways Burberry uses social technologies for Marketing and Sales and Customer care is with social media. It is the most followed luxury brand on Facebook, with over 17 million fans, and the numbers keep growing for the other 'usual' social media sites. But besides them, Burberry has created profiles to attract the Chinese market with an estimated audience exceeding 11 million users, according to Luxury Society.

All these social media buzz is monitored with technology provided by its partnership with Salesforce, which in my opinion, was what started it all. We can see here the sketch drawn by salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff on how Burberry could be a social enterprise overlaying Salesforce (CRM), SAP, Twitter and Facebook. The goal was the total integration among the company, its employees, its customers, and the brand. And they are succeeding at it. 

With Burberry Bespoke, they are deriving the customer insights on new ideas for their trench coat models, and also they provide assistance to the client that requires it, either with the live chat, or one can even make an appointment in the moment to make her dream trench a reality. Art of the trench and Runway to reality are initiatives in which Burberry is building the loyalty of customers using technology to make them feel closer to the brand. With their own social-networking site, they are engaging their customers and having them constantly thinking about the brand. 

The Burberry Kisses is an application I actually used a few years ago, and I thought it was the most adorable idea. To send an email to a loved one and actually see the travel of your card with Google technology was incredible, and I remember telling everyone I knew about it. So, for some this may have no actual impact on Burberry, but I think it was a way to put their name into my mind and build a sort of 'relationship' with me as a user.

Finally, customer care is provided but all the previous strategies, but what stands the most I think is the Burberry World Live. How incredible is that Burberry truly tried to blur the lines between physical and digital and create a store designed just like their site.  

These are all ways in which Burberry has embraced the social technologies for marketing, but also to interact and connect not only with their customers but also with people like me, who wait until the day we can afford a Burberry trench coat.

Did you enjoy this story? Don't you think that Burberry is really going for the social technology here? 

PS. During my sick days I gave my blog a more sophisticated look and included my social media, feel free to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and even LinkedIn; and don't forget to leave me some feedback.

Want to read more?

Burberry on Salesforce
How Burberry Does Digital
Burberry, the digital enterprise
Burberry: entrenched in the digisphere
How Burberry's digital strategy is boosting brand value
Burberry Struts Ahead With Tech Transformation Begun By Apple's Angela Ahrendts