Creative Impressions Management

It was Thanksgiving; there was no one in the store placing orders. The manager was in the back, reading the paper when the two Domino’s employees decided to shoot a video. He was making a sandwich as she narrated. As she spoke he stuck a piece of cheese up his nose then placed it on the sandwich. He then took a piece of pepperoni and placed it behind his but and shot air into it, he then carefully placed it on the sandwich. And there you have it. She decided to upload the video onto YouTube. The rest is history the video quickly went viral.  Thanks to Domino’s aggressive search programs, the video was discovered the very next day. What would they do now, should they call a press conference? According to Tim McIntyre the Vice President of Communications for Domino’s Pizza that would only call more attention to the damage that had already been done to them.

 Not everyone had seen the YouTube video. Tim McIntyre decided to call the CEO and one camera man. Together they shot a video and uploaded onto YouTube. The message was simple and given in a very informal manner by the CEO, An apology was given and an explanation, “This is not something Domino’s did; this was something that was done to Domino’s”. The tags used by the soon to be x-employees, on the video that was originally intended to be a practical joke were the same tags used by, so that anyone in search of that video, would also find Domino’s response to it. The message was repeated over and over to the press. The press was not granted any air time or a press release just a simple statement over the phone. The two were not hard to find because they used their real names. There deeds were frowned upon by the whole town and they faced criminal charges for tainting food.

The tactics used were very effective in the grand scale of things, because statistics showed that at least three times more people viewed the Domino’s video, than they did practical joke. And probably ten times more people view Charlie Sheen’s video than they did the Domino’s video. In addition those who did not know about the practical joke did not need to be subjected to those graphic images. Domino’s stores continued to be opened and increases in sales were documented. The Response by Tim McIntyre was a first, It was creative, and it was effective. I really enjoyed hearing Tim McIntyre speak. He is a very down to earth type of person. His points to us:

•  Be how you want to be perceived 
• Don’t do stupid stuff 
• Engage, don’t sell (Domino’s doesn’t sell any product online) and don’t retail on Facebook 
• Monitor everything, be vigilant. Respond honestly, identify yourself 
• Policies help, if you follow through and hold people accountable (i.e., no unauthorized video or photography allowed on the premises, or while in uniform.) 
• Your response says more about your reputation as much as the incident itself 
• Don’t Panic 
• Assess the situation as quickly as possible • Know your audience 
• Don’t hide, people will fill in the gaps 
• Be forthcoming, apologize, and say you are sorry take responsibility. (Sorry is not an admission of guilt, it means something happened and you are sorry that it did) 
• Focus on your Core Issues (This was not something Domino’s did, it was something that was done to Domino’s) 
• Keep it simple 
• Do it fast 
• Every Global or National crises has a local origin - Prevent them, fix them, and identify all things that can go wrong • Develop a culture of caring 
• Make every hire count 

Notes taken from: PRSSA 14th Annual Student Development Conference | “Inspire Your Passion” | Eastern Michigan University | December 2, 2011

Social Business and Personal Brands Opinion Editorial

As a student at the University of Michigan – Dearborn, studying Digital and Social Media Marketing, I couldn’t determine whether I should be reading articles about personal branding which is my current stage of development or articles about where I hope to be, which is developing solid skills in order to help businesses or organizations to develop their social media strategies or their “social business”. So I read expert articles on both subjects. I started with an article by Pam Moore “Defining Social Business is Like Eating Spaghetti With a Spoon” (click here for the full article). In this article Pam Moore talks about when she was researching for this article in an attempt to define social business, the concepts kept growing and growing like when you pick spaghetti with your fork and as you begin to twirl it keeps getting bigger and bigger, the noodles are longer than anticipated, until you find it will no longer fit into your mouth. So was the topic of social business it continued to grow, she compares it to being like eating spaghetti with a spoon. When developing social media strategy for business there is no one set strategy. An advanced business knows they need a fork and even with the right tool a good strategy will help to develop a scope for the project and what the company hopes to accomplish.

Developing your personal brand is just as unique as it would be for each company. According to Dan Schawbel’s blog (http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/), developing a personal presence in social media is about understanding your unique brand. The product is you. It takes time to research, and to know what people are saying about you and what you want to say about yourself. It is great when the two can agree. Let your actions and involvement in forums and on other blogs with similar interest speak for you. According to Schawbel, “position yourself where you want to be, not where you are”. It involves a lot of work and personal sacrifice. But if it is something you are passionate about, you won’t mind putting the work into it.

While there is a basic foundation for developing a social business or personal brand, for example updating content every day, developing a network, being transparent, being open the content and context is different for every business as it is for every individual. Know what is different about you and then own it.
In my own opinion a successful personal brand is one where you can associate an images or style, a phrase, a sound or even certain emotions with a certain individual, because they have taken something and owned it. Some examples of strong personal brands are, Jeff Foxworthy, "You might be a redneck if". Jeff Foxworthy has taken something he has heard or perhaps something that has been said about him, and he owns it. Pablo Picasso Bad “artists copy. Good artists steal”. Pablo Picasso painted landscapes and people which was nothing new, but he gives each work his own unique flavor, he owns it. James Cameron “I actually started as a model builder and quickly progressed into production design, which made sense because I could draw and paint. But I kept watching that guy over there who was moving the actors around and setting up the shots.” James Cameron takes what he is good at, creating imagery and model building and incorporates that since of fantasy into real life scenes and takes us on an adventure.

With so many social media sites, forums, personal and business blogs, it is important to be unique, to be different, to stand out from the rest. Take the time to figure out what it is and then, "Own it".