Domino's

Okay, so I have already missed a day, sorry. However, today I would like to present my inner debate about Domino's Pizza and their "We fixed our pizza because you told us to." campaign.

On one hand, I LOVED the idea of Domino's Turnaround campaign when it first started out sometime last year. It publicized the company's focus groups, they accepted responsibility for making junk pizzas and they not only changed the recipe, but they started showing up at the homes and jobs of the focus group members who had the most negative comments and surprising them with the new pizza. (Which I must say has improved greatly. Yum!) I thought this was a great way to incorporate customer satisfaction into their advertising and show that they were listening to what their customers had to say. I loved the idea of the Show Us Your Pizza photo contest held by Domino's, as well as the public apology ad by the CEO of Domino's for a pizza that showed up looking like it was scraped off the side of the road. All-in-all, I thought this campaign was a brilliant strategic move for the company. It made customers feel like their opinion mattered, and I'm sure that Domino's sales have shot through the roof as a result.

On the other hand...okay. You know that friend who says something quick and witty in a conversation and everyone laughs, and then they feel encouraged by the laughter and start forcing more jokes that aren't organic to the conversation? Yeah. Domino's is being THAT guy right now. The latest Domino's ads have been centered around filmed "focus groups" consisting of people who claim not to believe that Domino's puts food in their food. Really? Come on, Domino's. I was able to believe that someone said your old pizza had rubbery cardboard crust...because that was kind of true; but I refuse to subscribe to the notion that people don't believe that there are tomatoes in your sauce. So much so, in fact, that in order to prove that there are real tomatoes in your new sauce and real milk in your new cheese, you have to take the focus group to an actual tomato or dairy farm in a car with blacked out windows.

 

It might just be me, but I feel like Domino's is taking this a bit far. Focus groups and customer polls about the old Domino's pizza were pretty bad, but pretty accurate. Now that the pizza has changed in recipe and flavor for consistently about a year now, the focus groups shouldn't be outlandishly worse. That isn't the logical progression of things. There are better ways to advertise the website and the interactive map of where all your new ingredients come from. I don't buy it, Domino's. Start filming your focus groups where people say positive things about your new delicious pizza, say something along the lines of "Mission Accomplished" and move on to a new campaign before everyone gets wise and goes to Pizza Hut.

Getting To Know You: Newborn Blogger!

Okay, let's get this little confession out of the way. I HAVE NEVER BLOGGED BEFORE! However, I find myself quite often nowadays happily browsing well-organized blogs that have a defined theme. While blogs about sports, recipes, travel, education and art are abundant and stimulating, I haven't found many coherent blogs that post regularly about Advertising! So, as a passionate and interested Advertising student, my goal is to post one observation per day that relates to Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Consumer Relations and Manipulations and other things of that nature in hopes of receiving feedback and learning something new each day about my future industry. Posts will probably consist of my opinions about specific ads, things I'm learning in my classes, observations about advertising in general and questions about things I don't really understand.

I don't claim to be an authority by any stretch of the imagination, so if by some chance anyone is actually reading this and you have legitimate knowledge or insight into something I'm just noticing (probably for the first time) post it in the comments! I'll do my best to cite my sources in an easily accessible format. Please, if possible, do the same! My plan is to treat the extensive blogging community as an educational resource that, in my case, has gone far too long untapped.

In the interest of actually introducing myself, I suppose I should probably do that. Ahem. My name is Alyssa. I am (technically) a senior year Advertising student at an undisclosed University in Pennsylvania. I'm currently also double minoring in African History and German Language. I'm fairly loyal to a few brands and I might occasionally allude to them, but please don't hesitate to recommend things. I'm interested in knowing a little about everything, so I often get distracted in my education. Some see this as a weakness, but I believe that it has ultimately made me more open-minded and well-rounded. I'm fairly nerdy. I enjoy things like music, herbal tea, sports, baking, reading, beer, technology, food, photography, and homework (really). I like to make bad jokes and puns pretty often, so if you find them cheesy...well...sorry. I also use a lot of commas. I'm not sure if that annoys other people or not, but my English teachers were just always really aggressive about the correct use of commas.

So, in honor of my very first post, let's all agree to act like adults, check our facts, express our opinions kindly, cite our sources, and keep our minds open!

[This might go without saying, but, if you, the reader, find something I post to be unpleasant, offensive, or just downright wrong, please try not to take it personally. Feel free to let me know in a calm, rational way. I may not be a seasoned blogger, but I am certainly no stranger to the dreaded comment section. While I'm not very easily offended, I'm hoping we can all present our disagreements in a way that doesn't try to hurt anyone's feelings, you know, like grown-ups. If comments start to appear that contain (excessive) profanity, spam, insults, threats, or anything I consider to be intrusive, offensive, or mean-spirited, your post will be deleted and you will be reported.]