• April 15, 2009

A video created and posted on YouTube by two rogue Domino's Pizza employees early this week is negatively affecting the perceptions of the brand being expressed online, according to BrandIndex, the daily online consumer brand perception service from YouGovPolimetrix.

Not terribly surprising, given that the video shows one of them inserting cheese into his nostril and waving meat under his rear end, then putting both on a sandwich supposedly destined for some "unlucky customer." (The Associated Press on Wednesday reported that both employees have been fired and that arrest warrants have been issued for them after the franchise filed a criminal complaint.)

BrandIndex shows Domino's Pizza's "buzz score" -- which measures response to the question: "If you've heard anything about this brand in the past two weeks, was it positive or negative?" -- as dropping from 22.5 as of April 10 to 13.6 as of Tuesday. The drop was mainly driven by negative perceptions expressed by women, the service reports.

A score can range from 100 to -100, and is compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. Any score over zero represents a positive perception, and any score under zero represents a negative perception. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.

Between Monday (the day the video was apparently posted) and Tuesday, the separately measured quality perception score dropped from 5 to a -2.8 -- also driven primarily by negative ratings from women, BrandIndex reports.--Karlene Lukovitz