October 1989 - The road to success seemed to have come to a dead end. Johnny Huntsman sat at his kitchen table looking at the front-page headline in disbelief. "I just wanted to be a football coach," he thought, "How in the world did I get in this situation?"

     In front of the 48 year old pizza operator was a hot-off-the-press copy of the Monroe Times with a full color Johnny's Pizza House logo on the front page and in the largest type he had ever remembered seeing he reread the words; "Johnny's Pizza Files Chapter 11". This was a public relations disaster.

     Of course he knew he had some very challenging financial problems in front of him, and it was true that they had just filed Chapter 11, but the former diehard-football coach had been optimistic about his chances. He had a solid restructuring plan and had been working hard to get out of trouble.

     At the most vulnerable moment in the chain's 33 year history he faced a public relations problem beyond any he could have imagined.

     The damage was done and the phones at Johnny's Pizza stopped ringing. Most of Northern Louisiana assumed his stores were closed and that Johnny's Pizza House was officially out of business.

     So it went as the public thought, sales came to a screeching halt, just at the time when Johnny's Pizza needed cash the most. . . and with no money available to advertise, Huntsman pondered over how to get his customers to know that he was still in business. He needed to come up with a super plan and he needed to come up with it immediately before the next truckload of collect-on-delivery food showed up.

Last Minute Idea Saves Pizza Chain From Certain Failure

     Now, from his debt-free office building, Huntsman recalls his business saving idea safely removed from the reality of 11 years ago.

     "The only thing I could think of was to get some free publicity," Huntsman said. "I didn't want to make a big stink and sound bitter like I was whining about what the newspaper did to us. I went down to the Wal-Mart and paid $9 for a plastic barrel and cut out the bottom of it. I already had the suspenders, so after stealing a post from a neighbors yard sign all I had to do was to hand draw my sign. Before I went to the busiest intersection in Monroe, I called the media and told them that they could find me there waving at traffic, causing a commotion and pleading with the public to eat at Johnny's Pizza."

     Fortunately, the media showed up in full force and for two days Huntsman got more publicity than he could have hoped for. One father came up to Huntsman in the outrageous get-up and said, "Johnny, my son played ball for you and we're having dinner at Johnny's Pizza tonight." Another customer said "you're a local guy in trouble who's always done a lot for the community and now you're in trouble, by golly we're going to help." Sales immediately came back.

     "It was just like a faucet had been turned back on," Huntsman said. "Then I went to our other major market in Shreveport the next day and repeated the same thing. Sales came back there as well. I'd like to say that it had been a brilliantly thought out plan but in reality it was a complete act of desperation.

     It was an amazing thing as it turned out. We were able to pay our way out of bankruptcy status in less than one year by closing some of the more expensive out of state stores and focusing and recommitting ourselves to our own backyard of Northern Louisiana. Since then sales have rebounded stronger than ever before. Our focus changed from expansion to survival and we ended up coming out fine."

     Huntsman is modest when he talks about coming out fine. Johnny's Pizza has earned a reputation for pizza and community service that gives them an incredibly rare 50% market share of the pizza dollar in their home market of Monroe Louisiana. They are strong competitors and spend a great deal of effort to stay on top.

     They have aggressively battled with Pizza Hut, Dominos, Little Caesars and even Shakey's and prevailed. Three years ago when the seemingly invincible Papa John's came to town they too learned how tough it was to compete against the marketing savvy and entrenched Johnny's Pizza organization.

     Much of the marketing power comes from CEO and acting marketing director Bernie Lear. Huntsman hired Lear over 30 years ago.

     "Bernie used to play ball for me," Huntsman said. "I always tease him that he was the worst football player I ever saw, but he's the marketing genius around here. His footprints are everywhere."

Johnny's Pizza Marketing Approach

     If there is one word that best describes Johnny's success its "consistency." Not just in their product and in their operations, but in marketing as well.

     Lear has always believed in scheduling and following through on marketing.

     "It's part of our budget and we do it consistently," Lear said. "We always have something going on. We plan using a calendar and each month has a budget and a plan of action."

     It has been this way for years as Johnny's has defended their position as the dominant market leader.

     Lear's first and only job has been with Johnny's Pizza as manager, operations director, marketing director and now CEO.

     He started over 30 years ago. He thinks like a common sense pizza operator, but has added the business theory of an MBA which he earned some years ago. As a result he is thorough and systematic with the marketing effort. He believes strongly in his RPODC method.

     RPODC is an acronym for 1) Research 2) Planning 3) Organizing 4) Directing and 5) Controlling (measuring results and making adjustments)

     These are the systematic steps that the Johnny's Pizza takes to make sure they are spending their dollars efficiently.

     The idea is to learn as much as you can about your market. Then come up with a marketing plan that accomplishes the goals you set. Then organize personal and other resources to follow the plan. Then direct the marketing operations. And finally after the marketing has been executed, find out how the marketing worked so that adjustments can be made.

     Most marketing people do steps 2, 3 and 4 but not steps 1 and 5, the marketing 1(research) and 5 (controlling). That may very well be one of the big reasons that Johnny's marketing has been so potent.

     Lear employs a University Marketing Professor to conduct a detailed annual marketing survey to determine market share, popularity and other strategic questions.

     Each year Johnny's Pizza is able to know how successful their marketing has been and if they are on the right track. That's the big look. In addition Lear uses PizzaSmarts (662-283-5037) to combine each store's POS data from various POS systems and then maintains an unduplicated database of his entire market allowing him to mail to various groups of customers and noncustomers alike. He also does control group mailing that allows him to measure the success of an idea with highly accurate results. This allows him to test many ideas before investing too heavily in hunches. Lear said he believes in mearsuring results on a return on investment basis. For example, he doesn't care that solo mail costs five times that of marriage mail, if it works.

     "The most expensive advertising is advertising that doesn't work. You get what you pay for," Lear said.

Johnny's Best Marketing Tips

The Seasonal Pizza Strategy

     Lear repeats some marketing programs annually that have gathered sales momentum and have become a tradition over the years. One example, is their "Kajun, Sweep the Swamp Pizza" that makes an annual appearance during the Lenten season otherwise known around here as the 40 days after Fat Tuesday. It is popular since it is something that fits the Catholic diet and it has grown in popularity year after year.

     The idea actually came from McDonalds which is known for offering temporary menu items which are operationally tolerable but build a momentum over years which stretch marketing dollars and tend to bring in a certain niche group of customers that may otherwise not normally come in.

     That is what makes their recent "Guilt Free Pizza" a success. This diet pizza tends to bring in customers that would otherwise not be buying pizza. It is a way increase sales by enlarging the customer base.

Kid's Community Soccer Strategy

     Soccer fields are filled with the perfect mix of pizza customers, hungry kids and moms. Using a variation of the successful Mug-O-War campaign, Lear was able to find some sport drinking mugs in the shape of a soccer ball that were irresistible to kids.

     Lear got a list of all the soccer coaches in town and got a count of the number of players each coach had on their team. Then on Saturday after the game, the coaches distributed the cups. Inside each mug was a note inviting each mug owner to come by and get a free fill of fountain coke, compliments of Johnny's Pizza House.

Supporting the Non-Profit Organizations

     When Lear gets one of his daily calls from a group asking to help an organization with free pizza he always takes the call.

     "We believe in the rule of reciprocation", Lear said, "90 percent of people have a sense of loyalty and will feel obligated to return the favor. It all comes back to you eventually. Free pizza is the cheapest advertising possible and we are glad to help just about anyone, as long as they are a legitimate not-for-profit organization".

     For years Johnny's Pizza has been involved in the March of Dimes, charity golf tournaments and other causes. As a local celebrity, Huntsman does a lot of walking and plays a lot of golf.

     The Mug-O-War campaign recently played off the rivalries between area Universities, raised money for a worthy cause, while also bringing more customers into the stores. No one sponsors more little league teams than Johnny's Pizza. And as Johnny Huntsman says, "That's something the big boys don't do."

Direct Mail Strategy

     Lear directs mail in two ways. First, to support his regular promotion schedule throughout the year and to deliver strategic messages to specific customer groups. Lear has mass mailed coupon books to the general market with the predictable success but his biggest impacts have been when he has sent a more expensive mailing or special gift specifically to his list of customers.

     One special Valentine's day mailing worked far better than anticipated. Although the gift was only a small jar opener, the response was surprisingly strong and sales felt an impact well beyond the cost of the mailing.

     People really appreciated it. They took it personally. Other big winners in the Johnny's Customer Mailing Hall of Fame seem to have something to do with magnets and refrigerators.

     Lear once sent a heavy duty magnetic clip that his customers loved and used. Because of the success he also sent a magnetic dry erase notepad with a pen. And, at that moment of hunger, customers are able to find Johnny's phone number fast, when it is attached to their refrigerator. What would you be able to find quicker? Your phonebook or your refrigerator?

Grand Opening Strategy

     This March Johnny's Pizza opened a new store on Greenwood Road in Shreveport to replace an existing store. Unlike most of the stores that are in the 28-store system, this store has no POS system. Since Lear wanted to be able to track his customers to decide whether to close the other store, he designed a postcard coupon which is redeemed by returning the whole postcard. That way, the customers mailing label comes back to the store. Then, the addresses will be entered into a database, and plotted on a map. If most of the customers are coming from new neighborhoods Lear may decide to keep both stores open.

"Wonder Pizza" Creates Irresistible Urge To Eat Pizza

     According to "Scientist Klaus Heinrich," the 25-foot tall East German Wonder Pizza' is capable of overriding the free will of customers so that their need for pizza becomes as important as heroin to an addict. According to "Heinrich," it works in three ways.

     "The subject must stand directly in front of the Wonder Pizza and watch it for between 25 and 35 seconds. Visual stimulation from watching the pizza is only one part of the magic. The other is a static electricity technology called cerebral magnetics. In combination with a highly focused radio-like signal called a brain beam it stimulates and raises human pheromone and endorphin levels and focuses the human pleasure centers towards the object on their mind. In this case, pizza." Heinrich was interviewed during a radio remote during the grand opening of Johnny's Pizza. He challenged any listeners to come by and see if they could stand in front of the Wonder Pizza for more than 30 seconds without breaking down and having to buy a pizza. If they could, he promised to give them a voucher good for a free Johnny's Pizza. Listeners showed up from all over the Shreveport area to challenge the scientist and every contestant was unexplainably able to withstand the power of the Wonder Pizza. Heinrich said that he apparently used the wrong crystal when calibrating the machine but said he would be back again to vindicate the reputation of his invention. However, Johnny's provided free pizza for those challenging the "professor."