Communication Management at Dominos Pizza - Case Study Example

Crisis Communication Management By Student’s Name Course + Code Class Institution Date Abstract Domino’ Pizza, one of the biggest pizza restaurant chains in the USA, was involved in viral situation. Two indiscipline employees posted on You Tube a video of adulterated food in April, 2015. Communication’s vice president, Tim McIntyre, was part of the team that designed the communication plan of the company through You Tube and Twitter[Ash15]. The management of the crisis and its social media aspect is what makes this issue compelling. This paper uses the Dominos' case study to analyze communication management especially during crisis in the era of social media. Background How different organizations communicate with different stakeholders is changing rapidly. Communication executives including public relations practitioners are striving to maintain control of the message flow by crafting messages within this changing landscape. As explained by [Car15], while communication executives of corporate are preparing for delivering statements in times of crisis, simultaneously customers are posting photos, emailing, and blogging out of desperation and rage since the individuals who should be addressing and listening to them are not. According to [Ven15] assertion, stakeholders become, in organizational crisis contexts, interpretive communities. They are capable of nurturing the reputation of the organization through receiving cyberspace information. Stakeholders through social media are able to control where, how, and when the meaning of reputation are disseminated and born. Since the reputation of the firm is founded on the stakeholders' stories which are disseminated among the networks[Uni]. Apart from the video sharing websites such as You Tube, there are no other place where there is this dynamic between the public and the organization, and which encourages bloggers and citizens to be the messages' co-producers. [Fre15] states that the users of You Tube utilize this channel as a platform designed specifically for them and therefore, it should serve their specific needs. As a result, this can have significant negative or positive influence on firms involved in the management of crisis. This includes but not restrained to incapability of boundary spanners to supervise this space's vastness[Fre15]. The organization can utilize social media to drive its reputation by managing effectively the crisis, just the same way the customers use it to interpret and create crisis for the affected firm. The president of Domino's Pizza, Patrick Doyle can understand this concept better, after the impact felt when the two employees uploaded vulgar video on the You Tube. The incident of Dominion Pizzas began when two employees who were bored to work in the store and decided to defile the ingredients sandwich. Then they recorded the video while in the act and posted it online. The total number of video they created were five. One of the video showed one of them blowing his nose on the mozzarella cheese[Fre15]. This was just one among other unsanitary activities. Before these videos were removed, two million people had already viewed them. The Dominos' vice president in charge of corporate communication, Tim McIntyre, used the first 26 hours to assess the situation and verify that the videos were not fake. He started to communicate with both the external and internal audiences he deemed to be relevant, these included the senior management, people on social media, and the company's head of security. The rogue employees were identified as Seltzer Michael and Hammond Kristy through the collaboration of Domino's Pizza and GoodAsYou, a consumer watchdog association. Few hours later, the firm was responding the concerns of the customers on Twitter. The customers were wanted to know whether the firm was aware of the videos, how the firm was addressing the situation, and why they have not issued their position[Fre15]. One day later, the president of Domino's pizza apologized through a video recording that was latter uploaded on the YouTube. This case study next discusses the firm's communication strategies through the application of the Management Communication drafted by [Uni] as an academic viewpoint and a base for this analysis. According to (Jacques, 2008) from a perspective of communication, case studies are incidence’s' narratives which are analyzed critically in respect to the theories and models of public relation so as to appreciate fully what occurred and the best outcomes and strategies to be used as the alternative[Fre15]. These strategies are documented to provide to the practitioners and the managers the practical value that can be used in the situations where they are struggling to control and manage the message flow in the digital environment. Research Situational Crisis Communication Theory explains how an organization chooses a strategy to respond to a crisis [WTi14]. Basically, a crisis calls for attention of responsibility from the company owners. A response strategy has the following dimensions: If the crisis has occurred before or if there is a likelihood of the crisis repeating itself. Was the event controlled or not controlled by an organization or an individual. Is the crisis internal or external? For the case of Domino’s, the company was not responsible for the event since it happened internally and it had never occurred at Domino’s. The shareholders will communicatively respond through cycling a four-stage procedure. Events observation Interpretation of information for relevance and accuracy Selection of alternatives Implementation of the solution[WTi14]. Generally, the selected approach will be in line with the principles and practices outlined above and according to the four-stage procedure. Did the company observe the highlighted principles? What was the overall brand’s decisions, strategies and actions in the management of the crisis? It was not the ascriptions of Domino’s consumers that initiated the strategy but the company president’s decision to release an apology video on YouTube[Ven15]. Patrick Doyle’s decision brings about the question, how does social media influence or impact the process of decision making? And what kind of lessons regarding crisis communication were learned in the event? Execution Strategies The text book on management [Uni] provides the principle of tell the truth, this principle brings out an aspect of what particular truth needs to be told and to who. During the situations of crisis, many events of social constructions or truths wants attention at the same time. In the Domino's case, watchdog organizations such as Consumerist and GoodAsYou were also establishing their version of the event. The truth that the vice president of corporate communication wanted to communicate was that this event was an indiscipline activities of individuals who were stupid to think that by doing so they were being funny. That those two individuals did not represent the Dominion brand[Bur15]. The vice president wanted to assure the audience that those were individuals were not a representation of 100000 individuals working for the company all over the world[Fre15]. On his part, the president of Dominion's Pizza wanted to specifically point out that they did not participate and that they were sincerely sorry. Nonetheless, in their urge to be candid and open about the event, the company wanted to take responsibility for the actions of their employees. On the other hand, by taking responsibilities the company could have been exposed to legal vulnerabilities including a law suit, copyright claims, and freedom of speech[Bur15]. So as to minimize the organization's reputation damages and mitigate the effects of being truthful, the firm coordinated and collaborated with the sources that had a credible reputation. The firm also collaborated with the public to interpret and observe the incidences, so as not to alert more consumers by their rush actions[Car15]. Unfortunately, by trying to follow the right course of actions, the hour elapsed quickly before the firm implemented the planned measures. At that moment, the consumer had already began tweeting the video.[Fre15]argues that the communication power is not in the technology but it remains in the organizations that communicate their narrative and behaviors. Nonetheless, after listening to the public tweets of the customers, the firm was forced to hasten the social media plan implementation[Fre15]. A verdict was arrived at to change the course of action and counter with a viral video. Domino's president apologized and appreciated the effort of the online community of bringing to his attention the issue of the video[Fre15]. The president announced the prosecution of criminals and distinguished the company from them. The president also highlighted steps the company was taking to address and make sure that the incidence does not repeat. The decision and strategy to confront the viral nature of the crisis through the use of You Tube by the company, helped to cool down the negative reaction of the consumers on social media[Fre15]. The company's decision and strategies demonstrated that it has the capacity to manage the crisis in the future. This crisis was dealt with online because it happened there. The company was able to break the ground in the ongoing crisis communication evolution. Discussion Based on Evaluation According to [Uni] practitioners in the public relation should tell the truth. However, in today's digital era, this is increasingly challenging thing to do. The company relied on its conventional technology of uploading to its official website, a video to communicate the truth to the public. Nonetheless, the number of viewers of the You Tube prank surpassed the number of the viewers who saw the video on the corporate website, with a huge margin[Fre15]. After seeing the results of the performance of both videos on the different internet platforms, the company had to accelerate and implement the social media plan. The most significant lesson that can be learnt about communication crisis comes in the form of aligning and extending the theory of Situational Communication Crisis, with the best social media integration practices[Uni]. According to (Coombs, 2014), the attributions of the stakeholders can be triggered by the crisis in respect to the level of responsibility of the organization. In turn, these ascriptions affect the organizational strategy to be used in reducing the negative impacts[WTi14]. However, in this case, Domino's strategy was not dictated by the attributions of the stakeholders, but the social channel, You Tube, where the crisis happened that shaped the company's strategy and its response decision. [Ven15]suggests that the only way of combating and lessening the social media effects like what the Domino's Pizza experienced is through the creation of techniques that can be used to monitor dialogue of social media and to integrate strategies of crisis communication into social media. Similarly, [Car15] agrees that those brands that will use same online tools as their clients, will be the brands that will perform better. Domino's was able to successfully influence social media and learned a lot on the impact of social media. Above all, the company was able to learn about the crisis communication realities and how to deal with it in the future. Currently, the truth about crisis communication is contradictory and complex[Uni]. The rate at which consumers are generating information in organizations is exceeding the rate at which public relations practitioners are monitoring and verifying the legality of such information[Ven15]. Due to the existence of social media there has been creation of textual and visual dialogue which encourages organizations to respond promptly to a crisis[Bur15]. Also, it is necessary to verify the information and come up with appropriate and effective responses to avoid legal concerns and other issues. Conclusion How different organizations communicate with different stakeholders is changing rapidly. Communication executives including public relations practitioners are striving to maintain control of the message flow by crafting messages within this changing landscape. the users of You Tube engage with this channel as a space designed specifically for them and therefore, it should serve their specific interests. As a result, this can have significant negative or positive influence on firms involved in the management of crisis. Situational Crisis Communication Theory explains how an organization chooses a strategy to respond to a crisis. Basically, a crisis calls for attention of responsibility from the company owners. Due to the existence of social media there has been creation of textual and visual dialogue which encourages organizations to respond promptly to a crisis. 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