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Eighteen
years ago, in
From
one
location, he saw the concept grow into a franchise system over 500
units
strong. The concept is CiCi’s Pizza and adding to its growing list of
achievements is PMQ’s 2004 Pizza Industry Enterprise of the Year (PIE)
Award.
In the past
year, Joe sold CiCi’s to a group of four individuals from within the
company
who have committed themselves to taking the company to even higher
levels of
success. I had the chance to talk to current CEO Craig Moore and CMO
Tom
Koenigsberg about where CiCi’s came from and where they are going.
History
Founded
in
1985, CiCi's Pizza is a family-oriented restaurant serving guests all
the fresh
salad, pasta, desserts and 16 kinds of pizza they want for only $3.99.
Craig
Moore, along with three others from within CiCi’s corporate offices,
took the
controls when they purchased the company from Joe Croce in September
2004.
Craig started as a store manager 12 years ago and worked his way up
through the
ranks. Tom Koenigsberg was hired as their marketing director at the
beginning
of the year and is one of the newest members of the CiCi’s team.
Concept
CiCi’s
operates on a simple, but critical plan. “When our guests walk through
the
door, we do whatever it takes to make them happy,” says Matt Johnson,
operator
of the 500th CiCi’s location in
Tom
said
the concept is centered on value. “We focus on value and once we
deliver it at
a set price that is low, customers experience the quality and service
again and
again,” he says. “Because our price point is very similar to fast food,
we can
compete on a level playing field on price but blow them away with our
extraordinary service.”
Marketing
Because
CiCi’s concept is built around the buffet, one of the strategies they
are
focusing on is promoting their extraordinary aspects of service—all
part of the
price at $3.99. In addition, the time in which customers can come in
and be seated
and eating is minimal because customers come in, pay first and then can
seat
themselves and start eating. Once they are finished, they can leave
when they
are ready, not having to wait on a busy serving staff to deliver the
ticket and
then wait to pay. “Customers can come in, be seated and eating faster
than they
can go through a fast food drive-through and get food,” Tom says.
CiCi’s
does
do some traditional marketing, such as direct mail, print, television
and
radio, but the concept, by nature, creates its own non-purchased
marketing.
Their primary demographic range is moderate-income households with
average
incomes of $30,000 to $65,000 per year. “When looking for locations, we
look
for tricycles and mini-vans,” Craig says. “Mid-level and low-income
families
don’t have a lot of money to spend on dining out. It’s not that they
are poor;
they just have a lot of mouths to feed and not a lot of disposable
income.
Because of this, they are not catered to as often. We provide a way for
the
entire family to eat at a lower cost, which creates repeat customers.
They can
eat at CiCi’s three times for the cost of eating at other places once.”
Tom
says
another reason their concept markets itself is because the parents can
have a
salad or pizza and allow the kids to choose anything they want.
“Parents don’t
have to tell the kids they can’t have this or that from the menu,” he
says.
“They can just send them to the buffet and tell them to pick as much of
whatever they want.”
Another
factor Craig says is key to their success is the locations they chose
to open
new stores. By positioning stores in the areas where their target
shops, they
don’t need to have A-locations like other chains aim for because their
price
points draw their desired customer base in to the stores and the
service and
quality keeps them coming back.
The
corporate offices handle advertising. Owners can call and the marketing
department will assist them in designing a marketing plan, mail drop
and
printed material. In areas where there are multiple units and can
support the
costs of television advertising, it is used, but those areas with a
smaller
customer base utilize cable television advertising, radio and printed
material.
The Numbers
CiCi’s
Pizza had a 13.53 percent rise in sales from 2003 and total units were
up 11.51
percent. It was a close race for the PIE Award between Hungry Howie’s
and
CiCi’s Pizza, but what helped CiCi’s tip the balance was their average
sales
per unit. CiCi’s averaged $815,959 in sales per unit. Currently, CiCi’s
has 500
units and has plans to have 525 units by the end of the year. “We
opened 65
units last year, are working on 71 units this year and plan to open 86
next
year and 100 the following year,” Tom said
“We
had two
tough years starting in 2000 and 2001,” Craig adds. “When everyone else
was
raising prices, we always kept our same price point. After much debate,
we
decided to go from $2.99 to $3.99 for our price cap. Those were the
only two
years CiCi’s saw a drop in sales from the previous 15 years.”
When
CiCi’s
opened their 500th store this year they hosted the World’s Largest
Pizza Buffet
in an attempt to set a world record at Texas Stadium. Over 3,500 guests
enjoyed
16,000 slices of free pizza from the 300-foot buffet and unlimited
Coca-Cola
products.
The
Team
Along with
CEO Craig Moore, the other three owners of CiCi’s are CFO Forbes
Anderson, Vice
President of Real Estate Bob Parent and President of JMC Distribution
Bob
Kulick. With the change of ownership, Craig says that it was key that
the
transfer went to people from within the company. He attributes part of
this
year’s success and winning of the PIE Award to Tom’s vision of focusing
on one
thing (value), and building a marketing plan around that. Tom also
brought in
Deutsch LA advertising agency to provide professional assistance with
marketing
and advertising.
Advice from the Pros
“Choose
the
right people to work with,” Tom says is the key to growing. “We get
3,000
requests for franchises each year, but we only opened 65 last year.
When
executed as designed, our economic model allows us to
hand-pick each person who gets a franchise.
Once we determine that they are the type of owner who is committed and
has the
people skills, they are brought in for extensive training at the
corporate
stores in
Craig’s
philosophy on growing businesses is that you have to find out what it
is you
are about before you can start to plan for growth. Once you do that,
then you
can start to work on being the best at it. He also says that you should
never
underestimate what people can do for you. Don’t just look at the
numbers and
make decision about who you want to be part of your business, but look
at their
personalities and skills. Choose the right one and they will work hard
and help
the group grow as a whole.
CiCi’s
hasn’t finished making waves yet. Right now they are in 23 states, but
plan to
be a coast-to-coast chain. Having already moved in to tough markets
like
Craig
Moore
will be present at PMQ’s New York Pizza Show to receive PMQ’s PIE
Award.
(Nov.
2-3,
2004, www.newyorkpizzashow.com)
– PMQ –