Dominos Pizza is doing something really amazing. They are listening to their consumers and making adjustments based on customer feedback! They’ve gone so far as to change the pizza recipe they’ve been using for the past 50 years. I can see it working out well for them, but part of me is a little worried they might end up with a “New Coke” on their hands. We’ll see soon enough.
They are making these changes as part of a social media outreach program called Pizza Turn Around which includes twitter feedback on the main page and a Youtube documentary:
The line from the documentary, “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,” is a great example of a company taking charge of their brand and their consumer experience.
Kudos to you, Dominos, for listening and (more importantly) responding to the feedback from your customers. Always a good idea to listen to the people who put money in your pocket and keep your business open.
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A good PR campaign doesn’t mean you’re listening or even listening to the right people. If you knew the industry better you’d understand this has little to do with listening to consumers and much, much more to do with the fear of becoming irrelevant in your segment.
Domino’s has serious disconnects inside this effort, not the least of which is the extremely mismanaged price point for the rollout.
Using social media in an attempt to push your message will backfire as well since it runs counter the very nature of the platforms they chose.
It’s also premature and a bit naive to write about Domino’s success when it’s only been a few days since the campaign was launched.
This is just another coat of paint in a long line of attempts to whitewash a bad product strategy in a segment full of them.
I know the digital PR industry quite well and digital PR has everything to do with listening. If you’re not listening and responding to your consumers, you fail, you are irrelevant and you are done.
Domino’s has no “serious disconnects” that I can see. They are watching the feedback from their customer base and responding. Their prices are in line with the prices of every other pizza restaurant AND they are making an attempt to make a better pizza.
Using social media to help promote your message will not backfire (unless you do it very very badly), because the consumers are there waiting for the companies to step up and speak up with human voices. Domino’s is in fact doing a very fine job of this.
I don’t say anyplace in that article that they’ve succeeded. What I have said is that they are heading in the right direction and that this campaign has every chance of succeeding. Which they are and it does.
Changing the pizza recipe that the company has used for 50 years in an attempt to impress and bring back customers is far more than a “coat of paint” and shows a real attempt at adaptation.
There’s a huge difference between being in the digital business and understanding the context for using digital in a specific industry that you have absolutely no experience in. So at best, you can only talk about theory here, which would have been a better basis for your post and one I would have appreciated more.
Digital has everything to do with listening but you’re assuming they are listening correctly and that the result of that listening led to this effort. This is simply wrong and if you were more experienced in the industry, and this segment in particular, you would know better.
They have serious disconnects that would be apparent to anyone and everyone in the industry – as well as most out of it. Do you really think that reconfiguring a product to incorporate “better quality” equals a lower price point in the consumer’s mind? All you have to do is read the reviews from consumers across the spectrum and you’ll see several disconnects.
Average price? Are you serious?
This isn’t an attempt to make “better” pizza. It’s about attempting difference for difference sake. If they had been truly listening to their consumer base, they wouldn’t have waited 50 years to change.
Using social media “very, very badly” is the point. As for Domino’s doing a good job of speaking with a human voice, how do you come to that conclusion after just one YouTube video and a Facebook page? This is the ultimate disconnect. On the one hand, they want to appear as though they are, but the rest of their marketing culture runs entirely in the opposite direction.
Adapting to what? If your corporate strategy is to play “keep up” then you lose. Successful innovation is based on exceeding expectations not playing keep up with the Pizza Hut’s and Papa John’s of the world.
You can talk about “listening” all you want but in this situation, it’s more like selective hearing.
The use of social media is not that different from one industry to another. People want to be heard. They want to know that the companies they spend money on are listening.
Reviews like these? (via twitter)
Yes, very average price for pizza. No, they are not expensive. Let’s see, one large hand tossed pizza for $12.48 (I’m placing an order on the site right now) yeah. . . yeah that’s average price. Here, in Michigan, it is in fact a dollar or two less than average price. . .
They are listening now. They are making a change based on customer feedback and that’s something to be applauded, even if they were a little slow on the uptake. They are in fact fully invested now.
The Youtube video, the Facebook page, the twitter activity, and the fact that they are monitoring what is being said, all of these are key pointers to the fact that they are striving to reach out to their customer base with a human voice in the social sphere.
By taking steps like this, to actually meet the consumers in the social sphere, Domino’s has every chance to surpass Papa John’s and Pizza Hut.
It’s obvious that they are listening.
For the record, folks, Domino’s is NOT a client. I just recognize good work.
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