Domino’s Pizza Case Report

Case report on the 2009 Hammonds and Setzer crisis at

Domino’s Pizza

Abstract:
Two employees of Domino’s franchise of Conover, North Carolina shot a prank video of
contaminating the food set for delivery. This video got viral all over the web, along with the
past criminal records of the employees on almost all platforms. This deteriorated Domino’s
reputation and posed a lot of questions for Domino’s administration to answer.

History of Domino’s:
In 1960, Tom Monaghan and his brother, James, took over the operation of DomiNick's, an
existing location of a small pizza restaurant chain based out of Michigan. Tom expanding
through franchise stores. Through successful expansion, Domino’s had spread to countries
of the likes of Canada, England, Japan and Australia b 1990s with more than 1000
franchises.

Case Summary:
On 13th April, 2009, two employees, Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer, working at the
Conover franchise of Domino’s Pizza, North Carolina, shot a prank video during their duty
hours. In this prank video they mishandled the delivery orders on purpose by stuffing cheese
in their nose and sneezing on pizzas, rubbing slices on their backs and putting it back in the
boxes. While Setzer was un-sanitizing the orders, Hammonds also declared happily, while
holding the camera, that now these orders would be served and delivered. This video was
posted on YouTube by her. Within 24 hours, the video had attracted half a million views on
YouTube and many other websites, blogs, vlogs and other platforms.
On April, 15, 2009, Tim McIntyre, Vice President of Communications for Domino’s Pizza, got
a mail from McInTyre about the video. Turning a blind eye, publicly, didn’t work. Statistical
analysis of Exhibit 1 suggests that on an average, there was an increment in viewership on
YouTube by 27,241 views per hour. They got the video removed from YouTube, but that
proved out to be a half measure. The video was already on so many regulated and
unregulated platforms that it was difficult to control its reach now. Internal action again the
2 employees was taken but matters got worse when their criminal background was
unearthed which further complicated things.

Discussion:
Domino’s Pizza was a brand which was close to 50 years old. In such a long time, Domino’s
had managed such a rapid expansion with loyal customers based on its established
reputation of a true American fast-food legend. The customer trust on its services was
established and was a major contributor to their worldwide success.
As McIntyre rightly stated, this indeed was a bad one. They were in uniform which basically
meant that they were representatives of Domino’s in that video, which basically meant
whatever they did, Domino’s as a whole did. This was a huge problem. The internet
although wasn’t what it is today, then. Number of platforms and exposure to them was less,
but be that as it may, word of mouth is a powerful agent which can make and break brands.
‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’. Going by that theory, even the smallest of taint,
can hamper their position bigtime. The REAL problem here was how to re-establish
customer loyalty on the service, the product and the hires after such a fiasco. To assess that
we need to granulize the paint points. Possible solutions to these problems can be:
The first step is to publicly apologize for this event. Inspect more into the case and ascertain
if the un-sanitized food was actually delivered or not. BUT, be that as it may, those 2
employees remain fired.
1. Regain loyalty of customers:
 Expose the kitchen so that everyone can see what happens inside.
 Give customers a tour of how the pizzas are prepared in the kitchen thereby
encouraging more employee engagement.
 Faster delivery ensures no hooliganism with the said orders.
 Get celebrities who exhibit a brand value of ‘trust’ to vouch for their services.
For example. Amir Khan for Coco Cola.
These measures need to be marketed to the customers a loyalty building
initiative.

2. Regain trust on employees of Domino’s:

 Set up a team which tries to go analyse how they missed the criminal records.
REMEMBER, it won’t be that easy as the internet in 2009 did not have all the
data digitized.
 Post that set up specific targeted measures in the form of background checks
through proper channels and agencies to mitigate any such blunder in the
future.

Conclusion:
Any worldwide giant should have specific measures. Slightest ignorance can pull them
down. Therefore, turning a blind eye towards them and hope for it to settle down is an
intolerable measure. In this age of internet, information sharing and communication has
expanded and become easy. Companies must understand its power which can bring
dynasties to its knees. Loyalty building is a slow process but the same internet can be
leveraged to bring it back on track. ‘Its not about how you fell. Its about what are you going
to do to/when you get back up.’