Transcript e-WOM Case Study Domino's Pizza Prank

e-WOM Case Study
Domino's Pizza Prank
MKTG 437 – Digital Marketing
Scott W. Flexo, Ph.D.
About Domino's Pizza
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Was founded in 1960 in Ypsilanti, Michigan
Corporate headquarters are in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Has more than 10,000 stores in 70 countries around the world
Menu offers pizza, chicken wings, sandwiches, pasta, and a
variety of sides and desserts
Best known for under 30 min. delivery
Pizza Market Share
Domino's Pizza Target
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Age 10-45
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Primary Target Teens/Young Adult
Males
Domino's Online Ordering
Launched online pizza ordering in 2007
 In 2008, Domino's revolutionized the
online delivery experience with the Pizza
Builder and Domino's Tracker tools.
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https://order.dominos.com/en/pages/track
er/#/track/order/
Domino's Pizza Problem
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In April 2009, two Domino's Pizza
employees filmed themselves violating
health code standards and pranking
customers foods.
The video went viral on Youtube and
was eventually picked up by the
national media.
This caused a sensation – Domino's
Pizza Sales Took a Significant Hit!
Prank Video - Youtube
Domino's Responds
Domino's acted quickly to the prank video by
creating a twitter account to address customer
concerns
 Domino's CEO made a statement that was
posted to Youtube
 By doing this they showed they were
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concerned and were able to inform their
customers of the steps being taken to correct
the situation
Domino's Responds to e-Wom
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Significant Outcomes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRuzjl9YhJA
http://blog.seattlepi.com/techchron/2009/0
9/30/youtube-prank-forces-dominos-pizzafranchise-to-close/
Domino's Monitor's Social Media
Began to monitored user comments about
pizza on social networking sites and blogs
 Domino's gathered data on customers
taste preferences from focus groups
 Customer reviews stated that pizza
was "boring, bland,
mass-produced cardboard"
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The Pizza Turnaround
Campaign
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Domino's decided to reinvent their pizza
from the crust up
An integrated campaign with broadcast
and Internet, Youtube videos, social
networks, and public relations taste
tests, pizza reviews on popular shows,
and press coverage.
Pizza Turnaround ONLINE!
More Action!
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Show Us Your Pizza Campaign!
Designed to create transparency in
marketing its food, show quality,
and deliciousness
● Winning entries win $500
(based on viewer votes)
Lesson's Learned
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Marketers seek to "influence" consumer
decision making. To achieve this
objective digital marketers need to
recognize the ease and speed with
which people can share brand
experiences, recommendations, and
product related opinions with others,
both positive and negative.
Influence and WOM
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Marketers seek to "influence" consumer
decision making. To achieve this
objective digital marketers need to
recognize the ease and speed with
which people can share brand
experiences, recommendations, and
product related opinions with others,
both positive and negative.
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Characteristics of WOM
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WOM is a Two Edged Sword
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Both positive and negative WOM influences
purchase intentions.
In fact, consumers weigh negative WOM
more heavily than positive WOM.
Consumers remember and remember
correctly negative WOM more than they do
positive WOM.
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Which means negative WOM is more likely to
be passed on correctly than positive WOM.
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Digital Marketing and Forms of
Social Media
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Social Bookmarketing Sites: Amplify exposure and
traffic by encouraging and making it easy to book mark
your site.
Social Media Sites: Listen and understand what's
"hot" modify product/brand communications
appropriately and contribute "hot" content.
Forms and Discussion Sites: Participate with targets
and listen for "bad" comments – Negative WOM passes
fast!
Media Sharing Sites: Create content and upload for
rapid distribution among target market
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Digital Marketing and Forms of
Social Media
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Review and Ratings Sites: Paid advertising, write
and upload reviews and supply ratings.
Social Network Sites; Get on Facebook, get likes,
supply "hot" content, make friends, offer ways for twoway communication between company and customers.
Blogs/Micro-Blogs: Write and upload content, listen
to what others are writing, get on twitter and build a
twitter "brand."
Wikis: Build a collaborative online community of
product/brand advocates.
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