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TOP 100

Business communication
Final Assignment

Fight Viral with Viral (Case Study)

Student Name:
ID#
1
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Av. Blanc 53, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland T: +41 22 906 94 94 F: +41 22 906 94 90 E: info@gbs-ge.ch W: gbs-ge.ch
I certify that this assignment is my own work, based on my personal study and/or research, and
that I have acknowledged all material and sources used in the preparation of this final case
study whether they be books, articles, reports, lecture notes, any other kind of document,
electronic or personal communication.

I also certify that the final case study has not previously been submitted for assessment in any
other course or at any other time in this Course, unless by negotiation, and that I have not
copied in part or whole or otherwise plagiarised the work of other students and/or persons. I
have read the GBS policy on plagiarism and understand its implications.

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Table of Contents
Introduction______________________________________________________________________4

Background______________________________________________________________________4

Objectives________________________________________________________________________5

Scope____________________________________________________________________________5

Q1.______________________________________________________________________________6

Q2.______________________________________________________________________________7

Q3.______________________________________________________________________________8

Q4.______________________________________________________________________________9

Learning Activities-01_____________________________________________________________12

Learning Activities-02_____________________________________________________________13

Learning Activities-03_____________________________________________________________14

Conclusion______________________________________________________________________15

Reference_______________________________________________________________________16

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Introduction

Background

For modern companies, development is characterized by constant changes, in which unstable


or even crisis situations often occur. These changes are reflected on the corporate reputation of
the company, which is formed under the influence of social media, images of actions and value
systems of the company, as well as the methods of communication.

On 13 April 2009, two employees of Domino's Pizza published a video on YouTube where the
employees were playing cheese and put it with their nose then putting it on a sandwich that was
to be delivered to a customer, everything that is contrary to the health and cleanliness of the
restaurant and where they were doing so out of laughter and fun and then they posted the video
on YouTube as it included several violations of the basis of health agreed by the Ministry of
Health at that time and he was indicative On the existence of viruses with food, since after the
download of the video on YouTube has been seen nearly a million times and also spread the
video on several pages and this made the situation worse on social media. According to the
New York Times, Wednesday, April 15, 2009, references to this incident ranked fifth out of 12
news in search and browsing on the Google page.

What’s happening in Domino’s HQ?

Domino’s was first alerted of the video on Tuesday, April 14 and immediately identified the
two employees and dismissed them from the company and put a warrant out for their arrest.
Domino’s executives did not take an aggressive approach to responding because they didn’t
want to let more people know about this issue than already had visibility to it. Domino’s didn’t
even issue a formal press release to mainstream press. What they did not realize was by not
responding they were just adding fuel to the fire. The company could not get the video removed
from YouTube right away because they were not the owners of the video. YouTube told
Domino’s that a signed statement from one of the employees in the video was needed for the

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removal of the video. After nearly 48 hours had passed since the video was uploaded, Domino’s
finally responded. To address the concerns on Twitter Domino’s created @dpzinfo account.
They also created a YouTube video of Patrick Doyle, president of Domino’s USA, reassuring
customers of the safety and cleanliness of Domino’s.

Objectives
This assignment will discuss the following points:

- Understanding the impact of social media on public relation practices.


- Understanding the concept of crisis communications.
- Understanding the challenges faced by PR practitioners, marketers or corporate
communicators.

Scope
- Access to social networking sites and survey work to learn how to use modern means of
communication in the dissemination of rumours and spread very quickly.
- An external survey of sites that have a significant impact and follow-up to identify the
contribution of modern means of electronic communication in the validity of the news
or anything that is published.
- Determine the nature of physical, human and legal requirements that must be met to
benefit from the means of communication.

The materials used to solve questions are all study materials, textbooks, case studies and some
other versions referred to in the reference part of this document.

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Q1. What impact does social media have on public relations practices, particularly crisis
communications and reputation management? How significant is it for organizations today to
monitor content on social media sites, including hash tags and other signs of internal and
external dialogue?

There is great effect of social media on the practices of companies and the service or product
provided by them so there are a lot of definitions of crisis that may occur as a result of these
means and the rapid spread, and know the crisis here as a major threat to work or reputation that
results in negative consequences if not solve in Right way. In crisis management, the threat is
the potential harm that the crisis can cause to the organization, stakeholders, and industries.

Some researchers and specialists stressed that communication plays an important role as an
important variable that affects the essence of social relations, especially at the level of
management and management of the institution's relations in the society, where it has been
devoted to a lot of theoretical and field studies in most developed countries. The success and
stability of the institution is linked to its communication policy and the extent of its ability to
achieve balance in society; through the rise of media technology and the strength of its
influence as a system that controls the activity of organizations and their movements on the one
hand, and what the institution wants from the masses and their ability to meet the interests of
individuals and groups on the other.

Where we are now in these days we are seeing some of the who are specialized in a general
department called public relations or communication department where they cost one or more
employee to carry out the tasks of preparing and implementing public relations programs and
preparing a work strategy to implement these programs in order to build and build a good image
, and relations of trust with the masses that deal with this institution, and is also called several
titles, such as the of public relations department. Domino's crisis shows us the importance of a
strong follow-up to social media, because when companies do not incorporate social media into
their business strategies, they may be at risk of a reaction that could increase their material

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losses. So that the lack of business to these means difficult to exacerbate any problem and that I
was very small. The institution finds itself in the face of a circumstance that may turn to better
or worse because it holds the possibility of opportunity and danger at the same time. Therefore,
in our belief that public relations is an important aspect in enabling institutions to control the
various situations and events that threaten their existence and interests, it is necessary to pay
great attention to the means of social communication and the allocation of sections and staff to
this section so as to facilitate the process of following up and publishing the correct image of
the institution and the positive impact that would Transfer any institution to another location
and raise its reputation and prestige to the consumer.

Dominoes failed to reach their customers and their initial response was very ineffective on their
website. Dominoes' message reached a wider audience only when an apology was loaded with
an explanation by the CEO on YouTube, which was the same as the media carried viral video of
cheating food.

Q2. How should crisis communications preparedness plans address the proliferation of social
media outlets?

The careful planning and training in dealing with crises will help to deal effectively and
quickly and make the right decisions in a short time and with little resources during the
confrontation, and then the assessment and taking lessons and the adoption of past experiences
and the exchange of experiences and information and the use of competencies and equipment
and awareness of those exposed to the crisis will inevitably give positive results in dealing with
the crisis. In contrast, the adoption of randomness in dealing with crises and their management
methods, the lack of planning and improvisation in decision-making during crisis response and
the lack of resources to reduce the impasse can make the impact of crises acute and devastating,
and may have long-term implications, directly or indirectly.

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Key activities in managing the crisis effectively are problem sensing and diagnosis, response
resolution, resource mobilization and rigorous implementation of pre-crisis preparedness plans.
In the attempt of specialists to support the decision maker of information and fluid systems and
the procedures that put it in full readiness for the immediate confrontation of emergency
situations and crises, grew the science of crisis management and is a modern science that
imposed itself on the reality of our modern world, and with the development of modern
technology and means of communication, The need for emergency situations and crises and
taking appropriate decisions timed and supported by modern technological means, as increasing
the level of globalization and the emergence of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube,
which facilitates the process of information transfer very quickly threatens all organizations that
do not have live and developed plans and strategies for the ability to control such phenomena.
Today, it is appropriate to create operational crisis categories and reputation crises.

Q3. From the perspective of crisis communicators concerned with social media, what else could
Domino’s have done or said to prove with action that its key messages are sincere? What other
messages could Domino’s have delivered?

The wrong was to publish the apology video on the company's website, which was not seen by
many people. After that, the situation was rectified by transferring the apology video to
YouTube, as it was the best way to publish the apology video and deliver it to the largest
number of viewers, where it was the same way that viral video was spread. Domino's Pizza has
done a lot of things to prove that its main messages are honest:

 Domino's Pizza was not hesitant to clarify the course of work within the kitchen and the
ways it used to maintain the health and safety of its products.
 Domino's Pizza has posted a video explaining the apology of the two people who caused
this problem and they were only meant to entertain and have a little humor. Also,
Domino's Pizza invited people to take a tour of their kitchens to ensure the quality and
safety of their work.

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The other messages could Domino’s have delivered:
 An apology was soon posted to its website, before an official statement was released.
Then they asked their followers on Twitter to help them spread the word by resending
the link.

This was helped calm the storm until they were ready to release their official statement.

 Domino's Pizza can show transparency by writing an apology, letters from employees
must be public that clearly recognize their mistake, and consider it a personal act and we
should not circulate it to all employees.

Q4. What other types of traditional media and social media could Domino’s have used to reach
its stakeholders?

It is important to introduce communications from the outset in all businesses to facilitate the
ability to control the bad situation in some crisis situations, which help in support of the crisis
and the speed of resolution, and the issue of social media requires integration in crisis
management and communication in order to accelerate access to information and cease of
Dominoes can reach out to the public via Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook and make them sure
that their messages have reached the public.

To increase the participatory space, they can also conduct campaigns on Snap chat and
Instagram, as well as traditional media such as magazines, television and radio, that there is a
large audience still Following (instituteforpr.org).

Q5. What other challenges do you think that PR practitioners, marketers, or corporate
communicators could have in telling the truth in the digital age?

Although public relations have changed dramatically over the past period, the commitment to
the fundamentals of public relations and the involvement of stakeholders, and their response to
events accurately and efficiently, has not and will not change until now.

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And that the crises that occur at the social level, as a result of reckless behaviour of employees
who are not afraid of the consequences are likely to be the result of official policies and
guidelines in the social media, where they publish an offensive video to the workplace from the
task of destroying a complete facility, as the digital world is currently changing significantly.

Some of the challenges that facing the PR practitioners, marketers, or corporate communicators
as below:

1) Tell the truth: When an issue arises, you must take the time to monitor the facts and
respond appropriately to the incident, create a clear contact line to provide as much
information as you can to the public.
2) prove this with work: If an error occurs, there should be a dialogue between the
employer and the employee causing the problem to find out the merits of the problem
and this strengthens the outlook for the rest of the employees and the employer's concern
to resolve any problem may appear in the work environment, develop a clearly defined
strategy for the public to correct any mistake and so in order to maintain credibility.
3) Designate an employee to manage the company's public communications in order to
monitor the responses of the social media to see if they are positive, this means that you
should be prepared to change your message when you receive negative feedback from
your target audience.

Q6: How important is speed of response rate in a digital world, particularly when an
organization is facing a crisis situation?

There is no organization would like to be in such crisis situation, however if they are forced into
one like the scenario with Dominos it is very important for it to retain the brand image as well
as the trust of their customers. With the pace of how information is spread through media or
social networking sites it is an uphill task for the company to regain the trust of most of their
customers. Most of them accessing the different websites and scanning through different media
would be aware of the current crisis that the company is going through. At this moment, the
organization is on a back foot and will have to do all the hard work to get back on track for silly

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mistakes made by their employees to bring down the image. Below are the few things that need
to be taken care of before responding:

 It is important to understand and analyze the situation.


 What caused the issue?
 The extent to which the information has been leaked.
 Target audience.
 Figure out the networking medium that has most number of viewers.
 How are these users responding the situation?

In the above case, Domino’s relied on its traditional technology (the Internet) to upload a video
response on its corporate website to tell the public the truth about the situation. The medium
that was used to create such a situation was in turn used as a method to lessen the impact. When
it comes to public, the organization must know where there is more negative impact and to what
extent of their knowledge is. Response time is very critical to regain the trust of the customers
as they would be waiting to also hear the other side of the story. The sooner the response better
are the results considering the fact that the prank video had over 1 million views in 24hours and
the response would at least get close to that or even more as it is good to Fight Viral with Viral.

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Learning Activities-01
1-According to its website, Media Curves “is the leader in public perception of topical issues.”
This communications research company uses its patent pending technology to evaluate the
“believability” of a particular video, such as the apology posted on YouTube by Domino
Pizza’s President Patrick Doyle. To see how Media Curves’ technology captured people’s
perceptions of Doyle’s apology video, watch Doyle’s apology video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFiXWboPD5A. Discuss the specific moments in the video
that people found most believable and least believable and what public relations practitioners
can learn from studies like this. Visit the Media Curves website to watch other assessments of
video apologies.

Most believable things discussed in this video are:


Serious and harsh procedures against the employees who published the video and published a
bad image of the company. Domino's has implemented all international procedures and
standards in all its restaurants to maintain public health and safety. The future recruitment
process will take serious considerations of employees to consider that the irresponsible
behaviour of any employee may lead to the collapse of the company.

Least believable things that are discussed in the video are:


Employees around the globe are humans and the organization cannot take guarantee of each and
every one even after stringent rules applications. Thus, it is rather impossible to consider that no
human resource will make any kind of mistake. People sending support are at least believable
thing. This is so because that time of revelations majority waits for the true story to come ahead
in the limelight. Therefore, support at such time is hardly expected. However, after explanations
and clarifications, support may be possible.

The public relation, practitioner can learn the followings from this video:
Clarifications are very important after the emergence of any kind of issues or problems you
want a quick and radical solution. Make immediate efforts to resolve this issue. Make sure that
the problem does not occur again and continue to follow the staff.

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Learning Activities-02

2-Using the framework presented in this article, apply the Arthur W. Page Society’s principles
(“Vision, Mission & Goals,” n.d.), Seeger’s (2006) best practices, and Veil, Buehner, and
Palenchar’s (2011) suggestions for integrating social media to United Airlines and its handling
of Dave Carroll’s “United Breaks Guitar Video” or to Providence Renaissance and its
handling of “Joey Quits” video. What lessons can be learned about social media and crisis
communication from analyzing these organizations’ strategies?

The following lessons can be learned about social media and crisis communication from
analyzing the organization strategies following the video of “Joey Quits”.
 Spread the truth continuously, listen to the client.
 Hotel managers should take notes continuously and effectively because they play an
active role in social media. This is because these actions affect the brand image of the
hotel.
 Unsatisfactory employees can easily use social media to display their bad experiences
and may frustrate others.

Employees who leave the job must have an interview with them with the HR Manager to give
them a chance to talk about their problems and reactions as this is important for the
management to reach a higher level to enhance the company's internal environment. It must
prove that it has a system to secure and maintain passenger baggage for United Airlines, but for
Renaissance Providence, they need to prove they have fair employment policies and explain the
truth behind Joey's story.

 You must interact within 24 hours, show the truth and apologize for the error in dealing
with broken guitar, passenger, or the Joey quits
 All are asked to integrate social media into their strategy. And take advantage of social
media to deliver updates to customers.

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 They should remain calm and open to responding to media inquiries.

Learning Activities-03
3. To see how Domino’s has dealt with this crisis, consider some background information about
its Pizza Turnaround campaign. How does this compare with the best practices? How did
tweets like #newpizza help?

Dominos has dealt firmly and seriously with the crisis, but it took too long to respond to the
incident after the help of the public who has loyalty to the restaurant. They acknowledged flaws
and made quick fixes. The administration had quick action by separating employees and taking
firm action against them. They also posted a video showing the company's concerns about
customer health and promised to take action against employees trying to influence the
company's image as they destroy the company's reputation for irresponsible and unjustified
behaviour.
The company's CEO - Patrick Doyle - explains, “We're proving to our customers that we are
listening to them by brutally accepting the criticism that's out there. We think that going out
there and being this honest really breaks through to people in a way that most advertising does
not.”
The director of Crispin Porter's advertising group - Tony Calcao - defends Domino's Pizza
apology this way: “We realized that we couldn't just come out and say we have a brand-new
pizza, because no one's going to believe Domino's. The first thing you need to do is own up to
the fact that you had to make a whole new pizza.”

The Domino's Pizza apology actually surprised many industry experts—it included a clear and
explicit acknowledgement of the poor quality of the pizza by describing the sauce as tasting
like ketchup and the crust as cardboard. The campaign was replete with employees reading
comments by angry customers, and several statements by the new CEO, accepting
responsibility and declaring that Domino's had no choice but to improve the product.

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Conclusion
This report aimed to answer the questions in TOP100 - Business Communication, where the
questions related to the case study of the final task "Anti-viral with viral: a case study of
communication strategies Domino's Pizza Crisis"

Domino’s Pizza was embroiled in a viral crisis situation when two rogue employees posted a
video of adulterated food on YouTube in April 2009. The questions, answers and the learning
activities cover the case study Fight Viral Which clearly highlight the importance of social
media in transferring the messages to different stakeholders and the importance of incorporating
the crisis communication into the organization strategy. In the past, social communication was a
disaster for Domino’s, but today it is an integral part of building its brand and gaining a large
audience and a solid base in the local and international market. This shows the importance of
integrating social media in the infrastructure of any existing work and wants it to continue and
develop.

The crisis management strategy must be done from two main dimensions, the management of
the crisis from the inside to the outside and vice versa, i.e. should not only consider the
management at the internal level of the organization but also at the external level. Crisis
management is done through a well-trained team. The need for a well-planned program or
system to be implemented immediately to reduce losses or confrontation.

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Reference

W. Timothy Coombs. 2014. Crisis Management and Communications. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.instituteforpr.org/crisis-management-communications. [Accessed 12 November
2017].

Susan Merryman. 2012. Domino’s Pizza and. [ONLINE] Available at:


https://brstull1.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dominos-pizza-case-study.pdf. [Accessed 11
November 2017].

Amy Jacques. 2009. Domino’s Delivers During Crisis: The Company’s Step-by-Step Response
After a Vulgar Video Goes Viral. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://apps.prsa.org/Intelligence/TheStrategist/Articles/view/8226/102/
Domino_s_Delivers_During_Crisis_The_Company_s_Step#.WggnU9JPqUl. [Accessed 10
November 2017].

Judy Gombita. 2013. Social Communication Crisis [online] Available at:


http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uTltE3-
82U4J:www.prconversations.com/2013/09/24/crisis-what-social-pr-and-communication-crisis-
a-rationale/+&cd=5&hl=ar&ct=clnk&gl=sa [Accessed 08 November 2017].

Kevin Johnston. 2013. Challenges of Public Relations in the 21st Century. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/challenges-public-relations-21st-century-
61155.html. [Accessed 12 November 2017].

Running head. 2015. Fight Viral with Viral: A Case Study of Domino’s Pizza’s Crisis
Communication Strategies. [ONLINE] Available at: https://100papers.com/images/pdf/Case-
study-22-Business-Communication-Business-and-Management-UniversityAPA19.pdf.
[Accessed 12 November 2017].

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