A case study of domino's pizza crisis communication strategies

1. Please use the Case Study format (use own words): Problem, Background, Solution, Outcome.

2. Answer the question in the Solution section:

What would happen using Tim McIntyre’s explanation?

What would happen using Patrick Doyle’s explanation?

3. Please do not do any research about this case. Use your own excellent critical thinking skills

to imagine how you, a Domino’s customer, would think if you had focused on McIntyre orCase Study #3: Crisis Communication Problem Fight Viral with Viral: A Case Study of Domino’s Pizza’s Crisis Communication Strategies “As Schiller (2007) explains, in “times of crisis, while corporate communication executives are preparing manicured [ written to be perfect] statements, customers are [simultaneously] blogging, e-mailing and posting photos out of rage and desperation because the very people who should be listening to them aren’t” (p. 16).” “…This can have enormous positive or negative impacts for organizations involved in crisis management…” Essentially, a crisis triggers attributions of responsibility to the organization from stakeholders, along three dimensions: 1) whether the crisis has happened before or will likely happen again; 2) whether the event was controllable or uncontrollable by an individual or the organization; and 3) whether the crisis occurs within the organization or external to it. In this case, Domino’s as an organization was not directly responsible for this crisis, as the event occurred internally at the hands of employees, and this type of crisis had never happened before. Domino’s Pizza was embroiled [involved in] in a viral crisis situation when two rogue employees posted videos of adulterated [ruined] food on YouTube in April 2009. Tim McIntyre, Vice President of Communications, was part of the internal team that delivered the company’s crisis communication plan through Twitter and YouTube. What makes this story so compelling [powerful] is the social media aspect of both the crisis itself and the strategy for managing the crisis. Bob Garfield (2010), a writer for Ad Age Blogs, recounts in an online article how this incident began. On Easter Sunday in April 2009, two Domino’s employees who were bored “working in a North Carolina store figured it would be just hilarious to post a video of themselves, defiling sandwich ingredients” (para. 2). The duo created five videos in total, one of which showed an individual sticking mozzarella cheese up his nose and then blowing the cheese on a sandwich, among other unsanitary and stomach-turning activities. An estimated 1 million people viewed these videos before they were pulled two days later. During the first 24 hours, Tim McIntyre, Vice President of Corporate Communications, surveyed the situation and determined that the videos were not a hoax [joke]. He then began to communicate internally and externally with “relevant audiences at that time [including] our social media people, our head of security, senior management team,” according to Amy Jacques (2009) in an article published in The Public Relations Strategist (para. 4,7). McIntyre collaborated with the consumer watchdog organization GoodAsYou.org, which first alerted Domino’s of the employee video, to identify the rogue [dishonest] employees as Kristy Hammond and Michael Setzer. By Tuesday, according to McIntyre, the company was responding to customers’ queries on Twitter about whether the company knew about the situation, what the company was doing, and why the company had not issued an official statement (Jacques, 2009). By Wednesday, Patrick Doyle, President of Domino’s Pizza, recorded an apology that was then uploaded onto YouTube. The truth that Tim McIntyre, VP of Communications, wanted to convey was that this incident was “a rogue act of two individuals who thought they were being funny. That they do not represent this brand. That they do not represent the 100,000 people who work every day at Domino’s Pizza all over the world” (Flandez, 2009, para. 6). The truth that Patrick Doyle wanted to articulate was that “We didn’t do this. We’re sorry. And we want to earn your trust back” (Peeples & Vaughn, 2010, p. 3) Case Study #3 Assignment 1. Please use the Case Study format: Problem, Background, Solution, Outcome.