You are right; “hopping on Domino’s Pizza” wasn’t the point. The point was that the ability of low-level and front-line employees to damage a good reputation (or build a an even better one in the example of Marriott, Zappos and others) through their actions means that companies LIKE Domino’s need to rethink how they hire, treat, and compensate/reward those employees. Ultimately those people can have – and indeed, in Domino’s case have had – a bigger impact on an organization’s marketing than executives undergoing a much more stringent recruiting/hiring process than is normally spent on what many executives think of as “low wage drones” or “working stiffs.”

Could this have happened to other fast food joints? Yes. Is it unfair that Domino’s has been singled out? Maybe, but I’d have a hard time imagining this happening to Cick-fil-A due to how that organization hires and treats its people.

- Jeff

To the culprits it’s funny, to the company it damages a good reputation that has been years in the making.

Simply because you can doesn’t mean you should appears to be one of the rules of mature adults missed by many.

but..I’ll have to see that video elsewhere cause of copyright..

I love this, Jeff! Well said. I think that’s your best defense against the very real risk. Word spreads really fast online.

This NYT article covers the basics:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/business/media/16dominos.html

- Jeff

I think the point of the post is that a company’s reputation can now be created (or severely damaged) by the actions of its employees – right down to the lowest, front-line level.

You can’t divorce the function of “reputation management” from hiring practices and overall corporate culture. The very nature of a media-saturated world and hyper-connected social media means that your lowest-paid employee can potentially have more impact than (and potentially un-do the the efforts of) your senior PR Executive.

That’s what’s scary about the idea of the strategic corporal/strategic minimum wage worker – except for those organizations willing to put the effort into building superior cultures and pushing responsibility (along with dignity and recognition) all the way down to the lowest levels of their organizations.

Much of the love that people have for Zappos is built upon decisions and actions made by service-center employees. Marriott hotel staff similarly uphold the reputation of their organization. Neither one could generate these results apart from their cultures and their people. You can’t fake that by hiring some expert in online reputation management.

- Jeff

But I think you’re missing the larger point of the post: it’s not about the video itself, but rather about the harm (or good) that a minimum wage employee can now do to a national or global brand and whether or not most marketers and companies are willing and able to come to grips with that.

- Jeff