Print service providers who provide signage love generally company rebrandings. After all, when companies rebrand themselves—which may do with great regularity these days—it means a big new project, new graphics, and so forth.
“Brand management” can be challenge for just about any business owner, but maintaining quality control over a far-flung brand can pose additional headaches. And a rebrand—at least for the brandowner—is always a tricky proposition, especially for a well-established brand (imagine the confusion and consternation that would ensue if, for example, WhatTheyThink changed the iconic red question mark to an exclamation point). The problems increase exponentially when the brand is controlled by independent franchisees around the country.
Domino’s—a fairly well-established brand, methinks—is taking a unique approach to policing its rebranding. As you may or may not know (I didn’t, actually), Domino’s recently rebranded itself, removing “Pizza” from its name and logo. Whilst some may feel this is long overdue (and you can pick your reasons; I’m going to say it’s because the store offers more than pizza and leave it at that), it went into effect recently. What corporate decided to do, to track down recalcitrant franchisees, was start what can probably best be called a “shaming contest.” If someone spies the old signage, they snap a photo, post it on Instagram with the appropriate hashtag, and they are entered into the running for—either appropriately or ironically, I’m not sure which—a free pizza.
This could be asking for trouble (Domino’s has suffered at the hands, and other body parts, of social media in the past) and no word on what the punishment for un-rebranded stores is, but if shaming businesses is your thing, have at it.