November-December, 2004 Idea Forum

 
Strategy #152b
Hitch Up, Tow, and Reap the Profits
Your pizzeria is doing a booming dinner business, enough that you want to look in other directions to increase revenues. So you decide to concentrate on your lunch business. You sit down, figure out the perfect deal to attract lunchtime customers to your shop and set out to advertise it.

Using the traditional methods of door hangers, box toppers, maybe radio, various print and/or e-mail, you let your regulars know about your specials. Unfortunately, your regulars patronizing your dinner business have “other plans” for lunch and don’t work nearby. Wouldn’t it be better to target potential NEW clientele for lunch? To expand your business base by targeting an area that has a high concentration of lunch-type restaurants whose current clientele doesn’t know you’re open for lunch and close by? Mobile billboard advertising is the perfect solution to effectively and efficiently target new business.

Customize your mobile billboard message and drive the mobile billboard near high concentrations of office workers nearby who will be hungry for lunch! Drive it in highly populated areas where restaurants already exist and remind those consumers that there are options for lunch – your nearby restaurant! You can avoid signage-zoning laws restricting stationary signage by using the most flexible form of advertising available–the mobile billboard! Can you image how expensive it might be to place a billboard right in the most highly concentrated area within your city? They probably don’t even exist - but now they do-with the mobile billboard. You can take it anywhere.

It’s a 3-sided, full-color graphic message that travels right where consumers live, work, play, shop and make eating-out decisions everyday. It’s impossible to ignore! “We experienced a 28 percent increase in traffic/sales within the first week of using the mobile billboard. It works!” - Todd Scherer Milwaukee,WI

The “pie-shaped” mobile billboard trailer weighs 1,800 pounds and hitches to the back of your vehicle just like any other trailer. The 2-sides are 8’ high x 16’ long and the back side is 8’high x 8’ wide. The vinyl material is easy to install to the 3-sided trailer and can be installed from start to finish within 25-minutes. Vinyl material is designed to withstand any climate and will typically last longer than the message you want to promote, sometimes as long as two years.

Whether you have a specific design in mind or need help coming up with design ideas, Absolute Advertising has experts that can design the perfect advertisement that will help increase sales. For more information, contact LaNell at 414-331-5069 (Lanell@absolute-advertising.com) or Ellen at 414-349-2369 (Ellen@absolute-advertising.com). Check out their website at www.absolute-advertising.com and start increasing your restaurant business today. Mention this Idea Forum as seen in PMQ and receive a discount from Absolute-Advertising to help you get started.

 
Strategy # 153b
A “Sticky” Solution
With a last pat on the back, you send one of your delivery drivers off to deliver a pizza, secure in the knowledge that one of your new box toppers is attached to the box. As you watch your driver walk out the door, you watch the box topper that had just seconds before been attached to the top of the box flutter to the floor. Or worse yet, your next door neighbor orders a pizza from your pizzeria, you deliver it, piping hot to their door, complete with a box topper full of coupons to save them even more money the next time they order from you. The next day, you see the box in the garbage on the curb, with the box topper still attached. Stick-It, a product from A’DEAS Printing in Wichita, Kansas gives you a better way to handle box toppers. “Stick-It” utilizes two self-adhesive strips to make box toppers easier for both you and your customers to use and is a 2-piece coupon vehicle. The top strip, for the pizzeria’s use, has been tested to withstand steam, grease and other pizza-related “stuff.” With a strong tack, it’ll stay put on your box with no problem. Below the first adhesive strip is a perforated line that allows the customer to remove the coupon section from the pizza box. Then, using the second adhesive strip, customers can “stick” coupons to another surface such as glass or plastic. The second self-adhesive strip is slightly less tacky and acts like a magnet—but “Stick-It” is better than a magnet because not only does it cost less than a magnet … magnets only stick to metal or magnetic surfaces. “Stick-It” allows your customers to display your coupons on a variety of surfaces, such as computers or refrigerators, etc. The coupons can be relocated from one surface to another without tearing anything up or leaving a residue. By displaying your coupons someplace visible, instead of in a drawer, you’ve already ‘upped your chances of getting their business the next time they’re hungry. In addition to box toppers, the “Stick-It” product is also available on postcards, which have shown a higher redemption than a non-“Stick-It” postcard, business cards and door hangers. By ordering Stick-It on the backs of your door hangers, your customers get the same great service as they do with the box toppers. Your customers can tear off the top portion of the door hanger—the messy part that actually hangs on the door—and stick the remaining rectangular piece wherever they want it. If you have Stick-It on your business cards, when you hand one out, you’ve just given the recipient an easy way to keep up with your card, which could translate into increased sales further down the road when that person is hungry and has your number ‘on hand.’ Think about it: with “Stick-It” you can completely change the way your customers look at your coupons. If you want to increase the redemption rate of your coupons, try Stick-It. If you’re interested in this product, give A’DEAS a call at 316-269-2494 or email them at adeas@sbcglobal.net or robin.adeas@sbcglobal.net.

 
Classic Strategy # 54
Upsell Every Customer Every Time
It happens to every pizza operator daily. You have to put a customer on hold during the rush and when you return they have hung up. It’s really annoying, but have you ever thought about how much money it costs you when you lose that phone call? Let’s say that your average order is $12.50. If you lose just one call per day, that adds up to $87.50 per week, $350 per month and a staggering $4,200 a year! What if that customer never calls back? How much does that cost? Some independent research suggests that it is over $1000 per year per customer if they never call back. Is it safe to say this happens once a week? If so, it is costing you over $50,000 in gross sales per year, just from hang-ups! So how do you go about saving those customers? One very profitable way is by giving the customers a professionally produced up-sell message. This gives you the ability to make sure that all of your customers are hearing about your specials and your different menu offerings when they call your pizzeria. Dead air really turns people off. It’s been proven that people will stay on hold longer if they are listening to music and have a compelling offer. As technology has advanced recently a couple of different options have become available for the owner of a pizzeria. Message On Hold, as its name implies, is a product that’s activated by the hold button on the telephone. The customer hears customized, professionally produced messages that help up sell customers to bundled offers, promotional offers and even things like catering or store hours. There are a couple of reasons to have your on-hold messages done by a professional. The first is professionalism—by having Message On Hold produce it, you’re guaranteed a professional sounding audio track of your current specials and offers. The second reason is licensing. In order for you to play music over your phone system, you have to pay licensing fees. Message On Hold pays those fees so you don’t have to worry about them. Customers who use this product can expect average ticket increases of about 40-60 cents per order. The most advanced systems available on the market now are the Call Sequencers. These products play an upfront message to every customer who calls the store. The customers are hearing about the offers even before the phone rings in the store. They also have the ability the play different messages on different times of the day and on different days of the week. The most advanced machines even have the capabilities of playing a bilingual message. Users of these devices can expect average sale increases of as much as $1 per average tickets. Message On Hold is an advertising company that specializes in the pizza industry. They’ve shown over 3000 pizza stores how to increase sales, improve employee productivity and make their customers happier. Make sure you call the office to ask for their free report, “How Message On Hold Can Make Your Business More Money.” Give them a call at 800-392-4664 or email them at wick@wt.net. For more information, visit their website at www.messageonholdservice.com.

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