Welcome to the Kleber & Associates blog! Here’s the latest on Honest Feedback: Brought to You by Domino’s, Powered by Social Media
How confident are you in the product you make? Do you think it’s a winner? More importantly…do your customers think it’s a winner? Are you confident enough in what you sell to allow your customer feedback to be broadcast on a billboard in the middle of Times Square? Most companies aren’t. But Domino’s is.
Last year, Domino’s released its ad campaign that was perhaps one of the most self-attacking ads ever. Domino’s proclaimed that its pizza – the focus of the company – was terrible. Focus group participants listed off all the things they hated about the pizza in TV ads and online video. Even company executives were featured in the videos proclaiming how disgusting the pizza was. The company had created a buzz online of people agreeing with the pizza maker’s ads – people really thought the pizza was bad; and they weren’t afraid to talk about it.
Domino’s had an opportunity to improve, and it did. These ads were followed by another set of videos introducing the new Domino’s pizza, one that was (hopefully) tastier and more pleasing to customers. But Domino’s wasn’t satisfied with trusting their taste buds. To combat the negative opinions of their pizza that would live forever on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere, the Domino’s team needed to get people talking about how great the new pizza was. They knew when making product selections, customers rely more on others’ opinions than the advertisements of companies. And they also knew that in the digital age, people express their opinions online.
So Domino’s embraced their customers and asked for honest feedback about the new pizza. Customers are encouraged to leave feedback on the company’s website and mobile app and there is a live stream of tweets about the pizza on its website. Most recently, the company has taken the campaign a step further by broadcasting this feedback – both good and bad – in the middle of Times Square. They even set up a web cam so anyone around the world can watch the giant screen tick off customer feedback. Now that is confidence in your product!
And the campaign seems to be working. In financial reports released for the second quarter of 2011, Domino’s reported a 6.2% year-over-year increase in revenue. In reference to the Times Square billboard, president and CEO Patrick Doyle said, “Our customers deserve, and have come to expect, honesty from us…and it really doesn’t get more open and honest than this…Our hope is that most of the feedback is positive, but our top priority is that people are seeing what is real.”
