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The Reinvention of Domino’s: A Marketing Success Story

17 Dec
Mmm, Domino's Pizza

Mmm, Domino's Pizza

The new rebranding campaign by Domino’s has achieved something truly remarkable- it has made me want to eat Domino’s pizza. As marketers, it can be easy to watch brands like Nike, McDonald’s, and Apple coast their way to brand dominance.  But it is much more difficult to resuscitate a failing brand, and I admire those who do it without tricks or gimmicks.  Ok, call Domino’s full-on effort to improve its product a bit gimmicky.  But, like the brilliant Old Spice Guy commercial, it takes a once-popular product now considered very passé, and rebrands it.  And it does so using the essentials of social media marketing.

Domino’s has convened focus groups of people who are not fans of its pizza, listened to their feedback, and implemented changes to its recipe.  They have since gone to great lengths to ask consumers to provide feedback on their Domino’s experience, and taken skeptics to the dairies and tomato farms where their toppings are produced (for the purposes of his article, we’ll leave aside the controversy surrounding the Department of Agriculture boosting cheese production by encouraging Domino’s to put more cheese in its pizza.  We’re looking at marketing, not government cheese.).  Surprise! Domino’s is listening.

Yes, they show the most critical members of the focus group having their concerns personally addressed; the customer in Minnesota who sent in a picture of his too-cheesy pizza stuck to the top of the pizza box is personally assured by the CEO of Domino’s that it will NEVER happen again; and focus group participants who wonder aloud where Domino’s pizza toppings come from are told that-voila!- they are in the middle of the dairy and tomato farm, respectively, where Domino’s ingredients grow in the Earth. Now, these are all TV commercials in constant rotation.  But they all take from rule number one of social media marketing: listen to your customers.

Starting a corporate Twitter account is one thing; starting a corporate Twitter account to respond to customer complaints is another thing.  It is good to see a brand willing to revamp its product to improve lagging sales. There are no spokespeople, no taglines, no gimmicks (certainly no disgusting cheesy bites like at Pizza Hut. Yuck). Just a pizza chain telling customers it is listening to them and using their feedback to actively improve its product and service. It’s refreshing to see.  And it may even make a convert out of me.

 

Why Gap Should Have Stayed With the New Logo

20 Oct
Old Gap Logo, Meet New Gap Logo

Old Gap Logo, Meet New Gap Logo

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That was the prevailing wisdom when Gap recently suffered backlash from its unveiling of a new logo (to the right in the image at left).  The ensuing Gap flap left people wondering not only why Gap would abandon its old logo, but also why it would roll out the new one in such a hasty manner- and then backtrack, calling the whole debacle a failed experiment in crowdsourcing. Oh, if I were Gap’s Director of Social Media Marketing.

For one thing, I would have had a better idea of why the new logo was replacing the old one. Was it as part of a broader rebranding strategy? Targeting a newer demo -people who like sparse, Nordic design? Surely the new logo was part of an overhaul of old aspects of Gap brand marketing. A new ad campaign would be announced, new in-store materials, perhaps new spokespeople? And at a time of year that was natural for big pushes from retailers (back to school or Christmas, when Gap’s campaigns excite)?

Nein. Nyet.  No. Unless I missed something, Gap simply introduced the new logo, waited to hear feedback from people who are online all day (not that there’s anything wrong with spending all day online- some of us do it for our jobs!), and thought things would work out well? Naturally, people didn’t like it.  Cause it was new and people don’t like change.  But, rather than defend its bold new logo as the first step in a bold new direction for the company, Gap retreated. Big time. So long, new logo, hello old logo.

This indicates to me that Gap didn’t have a strategy in mind. It was reactive rather than proactive. On defense rather than offense.  And claiming that the whole effort was an experiment in crowdsourcing? Lame.  I won’t venture to guess what is going on in the marketing department at Gap, but I will say that the logo didn’t get a fair shake.  If you’re going to begin a radical redesign, stand by it.  In my opinion, the new logo is light years better than the old one.  The old logo has a font out of the 1600’s, whereas the new one has a refreshing white background, allowing the light to dark blue swatch to stand out.  And the slimmer font in that very black black is just what the Gap needs: a shot of boldness.

Next time, know ahead of time why and how you are executing your brand redesign, and by all means, stick with it.  Your reputation is on the line. ESPECIALLY online.

Latinos Networking : Thoughts on Latino2

20 Sep
Latino2

Latino2

Though I am feeling tired after 5 hours on Highway 5 from L.A. back to the Bay Area, I write this from my home in San Francisco with a sense of pride and contentment that I am working, though in a small way, to improve the landscape for Latinos in social media.  I feel like I ended up in this field almost by accident, but I’m so glad I’m here, participating in the conversation.

Held at the L.A. Convention Center, Latino2 brought together the efforts of blogueras, like Ana Flores of  SpanglishBaby, ad agency executives representing firms such as Sensis, and culminating in awards presented to top contributors to the California Latinosphere (I helped assemble the awards, woohoo!).  Despite valuable presentations by the different panelists, I always feel at professional conferences that the best part of attending is meeting interesting people who are passionate about the same things I am. And in this sense, Latino2 did not disappoint.

What can I say? Latinos who are passionate about technology, about connecting, about pride in their cultural heritage and in helping brands and marketers reach us in the best way possible- this is what I found at Latino2. Intelligent, passionate creative individuals who are doing their part to advance the conversation around Latinos, marketing, and social media.  I met some great people- young, old, male, female, Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and more. And all Latino.

Still Waiting for That Latino Revolution…

14 Sep
San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro

Last week, I just missed the Thursday night chat on Twitter for Latinos in Social Media, and so was grateful to be able to peruse the transcript that was later posted by Elianne Ramos, one of the forces behind LatiSM.  I admit to perusing the chat and not reading it all (4 hours or so worth), but I noticed a trend.  When will we Latinos become a force in politics? When will our voices be heard? When will we stand up and be heard?  When, when, when.

I don’t know if this strain of self-pity/self-questioning is unique to Latinos, but I have always noticed it- and I admit, I’ve participated. A lot.  We tend to look at the African American community and wonder why we don’t have an Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson (to which I say, THANK GOD).  We tend to look at the Asian American community and wonder why we don’t have similar levels of success (i.e. college graduation rates, test scores). The mainstream media often speaks breathlessly about the impact Latinos will have on elections, entertainment, sports, and more.  And yet we still feel invisible.  Por qué?

Perhaps it’s because we feel that our power in numbers is not reflected in mainstream media news stories (an abysmally low number of stories are about us).  Perhaps it’s because we watch mainstream American sports and don’t see ourselves reflected in the teams (I mean American Latinos, not foreign-born Latinos.  But we still love you, Big Papi). And my theory as to why we seem invisible politically? Time zones.  By the time Pennsylvania and Ohio had helped put Obama into the win column in the 2008 presidential elections, the heavy get out the Latino vote campaigns in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico were an afterthought.

My personal pet peeve regarding the national dialogue about Latinos? This constant idea that we’ve just arrived.  And hey, many of us have.  But many of us, perhaps even most of us, have roots in the United States that go far back. My maternal grandmother was born to a Mexican family in Garden City, Kansas.  My Mexican-born mother grew up in East L.A. listening to Elvis (sorry to reveal your age there, Mom). Her friends all grew up in the barrio and all have deep roots in this country.  So we have been a part of the fabric of this country for a long time. When will our impact be felt?

Who knows.  I sympathize with those who wonder when it will be our time.  I still see portrayals of Latinos in the media that make me cringe (most provided by Carlos Mencía).  I wonder when our political impact will be felt.  Yet I feel hopeful.  Poco poquito, we’re making our presence known.  We’ve got Sofia Vergara on Modern Family. Zoe Saldana in the highest-grossing movie of all time. Robert Rodriguez making a movie starring the most feo actor in Hollywood.  And in the political arena, mayor of San Antonio Julian Castro is impressive.  No se preocupen.  Organize and act.  Our day is coming.

472 Ways to Go Viral, or, What makes you a Social Media Expert, anyway?

1 Sep
Social Media Marketing Expert

Social Media Marketing Expert

I’ll be the first to admit it- though I work in social media, I am far from an expert.  Before December of 2009, I had no idea how to use Twitter, and thought it was for narcissistic loners.  I’ve come to embrace Twitter as a business tool, and it seems as though every day in the Twitter feed there is a steady stream of links to blog posts with names like “How to Maximize your Facebook Page as a Tool for Converting”, “My Top 10 Ways to Increase the Impact of Your Social Media Strategy”, and on and on.  Which makes me wonder, what is with the proliferation of social media experts? And what, exactly, makes one an expert?

The very nature of social media is democratic.  My 14 year-old second cousin is on Facebook…as is my 52 year-old first cousin.  Everyone can figure out the basics, but what many of us seek guidance for is how to BEST use social media.  How to find influencers and become influencers…how to generate business leads…seek the latest industry news…and read what Dwight from The Office is posting on Twitter (for reals, he is funny.  Check out Rainn Wilson!).

I recently attended a professional conference on search engine optimization and social media strategy, and the conference program was filled with the smiling faces of a litany of…experts.  I appreciate technical advice, but when a social media expert instructs me to “focus on what you know” or “use these tools to connect with others”, I can’t help but think…isn’t this obvious?  And who is listening to any (or all) of these social media gurus? I suppose there are people out there who really need the reminder that social media is about being…social.  And listening.  But who can tell amidst the chatter of all of these experts?

Now, it’s my turn to listen to you.  Am I being overly cranky here? Is there a way to tell who is a truly valuable social media expert amidst the many out there in our newsfeeds? Is this generic advice about the importance of communication not that obvious to others? How do YOU think social media should be used?

Inaugural Post

30 Aug

Bienvenidos!  What do I envision with this site? Not a self-indulgent list of what I ate, thought, drank and otherwise consumed, media and food-wise, throughout the day (that’s what Twitter’s for, silly).  This site is for thoughts, reflections, analysis and pithy musings on Hispanic culture, Hispanic marketing in particular, and of course, the mixed-race experience, both my own and that of others.  Mixed? Gee, what’s your mix? See name of blog, above.

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