This statement revolutionized the pizza business and made Domino’s a household name. It’s probably one of the best examples of a Unique Marketing Identity that I’ve ever seen, There’s not one wasted word, there’s no mystery about what they offer. They don’t claim to have the best ingredients or the best service, just this simple claim.
When teaching people how to develop an identity that makes them unique, I frequently use it as an example.
Last week I was speaking to about 150 life insurance agents and one of the members of the audience put up his hand to ask a question. However, it turned out not to be a question, but a point of view.
He believed this statement was immoral as Domino’s forced their drivers to pay for the pizza if it was late. This forced the drivers to drive dangerously and several had accidents. These accidents resulted in some hefty law suits. As a result of this he felt that somehow firms should not develop Unique Marketing Identity Statements..
I don’t know to what extent the lawsuits are true, but irrespective of that I believe he completely missed the point. This is one of the most fundamental elements of marketing. Without uniqueness or differentiation, you market as much for your competition as you do for yourself. You make it impossible for the customer to decide who is best for her needs and you undermine your own profit margins.
It’s not the identity that caused the problem. The Unique Marketing Identity worked. It created a flood of business and did exactly as it was intended.
In any business you can become entirely self-serving or a cause for good. The choice is yours. It is possible that as a result of his great success, Tom Monaghan lost his way and overlooked some important values. I’m not going to debate that.
But to indicate that creating a Unique Identity is somehow bad because the company got sued, is like saying democracy is bad because some politicians are dishonest or to say that the Catholic Church is bad because some of their priests molested young boys. This is not even logical.
The problem lies with both the organization’s value system and the value system that brought about the law suits.
The key word here is integrity. As a marketer, I believe it is your job to always leave the customer in better shape than you found him. This goes for the community in which you operate. If you operate from integrity then it is less likely but not impossible that you’ll get into trouble.
This brings me to the second part of the problem. The value system of the people that brought the law suits. North America is fast becoming a society where no one takes responsibility for their actions and big corporations are seen as fair game. As a result, I believe we will see more of this type of law suit, not less. However that does not mean we shouldn’t keep pushing forward and striving to build better businesses that do a better job of serving customers. The dangers of doing nothing and standing still are far greater. If you stand still you don’t grow, you don’t learn. Your business becomes stagnant and your frustration level rises.
I personally would far rather be moving ahead successfully, knowing that I might encounter someone who will envy my success and see me as fair game, than commit myself to the status quo and fight off mediocrity and frustration. How about you?
Tell me how this tip helped you. I will add your comments to my website. Email me directly at [email protected]