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Pizza operators love door-hangers, but like everything else, the price of printing has gone up. In order to present those mouth-watering pies in living color, it can require deep pockets. Four-color printing can make your food come to life while it’s killing your bottom line. However, a new company is using a unique “constructive process” to simulate two-color materials at a fraction of the cost.
KolorDoorHangers, of Tampa, Florida, has been using the constructive process throughout the Sunshine State for over a year. Company president, Haydn Edwards, says his colors look so real – at half the price of regular printing – that business is booming.
“We just finished doing the printing for a Senate campaign, but the majority of my clients are pizza shop owners,” he says. Haydn ran a pizzeria for 12 years and watched helplessly as his printing costs continually climbed higher.
“I wish we’d had the constructive process when I was running my shop,” he says. “What we do is take a regular photo and make it look like color. The process creates gradients most design software can’t do. It’s not the four-color process, but it’s the best alternative out there. You get the look of color without paying the high price.”
Savings are achieved because the constructive process doesn’t require match prints, thus eliminating waste. Using the unique two-color system, Haydn says the color choices are dark colors such as black, blue, green, etc., and a color in the red family; red, orange, or brown. While the company specializes in door hangers, they can also produce box-toppers, menus and postcards. The door hangers are the biggest seller and Hayden says the quality and price are the reasons why.
“Our most popular seller is an11-inch door hanger,” he says. “We can print up 5,000 of them in two-color for $199 and that includes shipping. That’s about half of what you’d pay at your local printer.”
Further savings can be achieved by splitting the costs of printing with another business. Haydn says this is ‘co-op advertising” that makes good business sense.
“We’ve had customers who let a business partner pay for their advertising in exchange for exposure to that customer’s customer base. Several of our customers order box toppers or door hangers with their advertisement on one half and a business partner on the other. Works well for both and saves money for both.”
KolorDoorHangers has artists on staff who will create custom artwork just for your store. The only template you’re bound to is your own imagination. The company works on IBM platform and will accept camera-ready digital files in industry-standard design software.
“Most door hangers include a call to action such as a special promotion, limited time offer or coupon,” he explains. “Ours are perceived as less disposable than a text-weight flier.
“A lot of bang for little money and you still get color.”
For more information, visit www.kolordoorhangers.com or call Haydn Edwards at 866-439-3667.
Online ordering is here to stay and you need to know what that means for your business. From Google to the Yellow Pages, there are plenty of places to promote your business. Unfortunately, the choices are overwhelming when trying to decide how to make them work to your advantage. Wouldn’t it be great if there was only one place a consumer could go online to view information about local restaurants? Even better, what if this one-stop-shop not only displayed your restaurant phone number and address but your menu and offered the ability for customers to place orders online to your restaurant?
Dotmenu, Inc., a company based in Manhattan, may have just the solution you are looking for. Started in 1997, the company now operates a network of over 1,500 restaurants (some 700 are pizzerias) in over 200 cities. The company will process over two million orders this year and on peak days they will handle over 10,000 orders. Frank Blot is the CEO and he says the company originally was conceived as a way for college students to check menus online. In April of 2006, the company moved outside the college market to expand to major metropolitan areas. Now customers nationwide can go to dotmenu.com and view the restaurants in their area.
After clicking through a restaurant’s menu, the customer can place an order for credit card or cash. The order is received at Dotmenu’s data center located in Manhattan, checked for accuracy by a combination of software programs and customer service representatives and then faxed to the restaurant. The restaurant then processes the order. Dotmenu maintains a customer service desk to assist with any problems or questions restaurants or customers may have.
“Customers come to our site because they see convenience, value and selection,” Frank says. “They like the idea they can go to one destination, see all the info they need about local restaurants and make their selections. We also have up-to-the minute information about specials or other promotions. The restaurants like it because we drive a tremendous amount of volume. We have several restaurants in our network where we account for approximately 60 percent of the restaurants’ total sales volume.” Frank says the ultimate mission of Dotmenu is to use technology and the Internet to make it the most efficient, cost-effective way to drive customers to restaurants. “It costs a restaurant $19.95 a month to be a member of the network,” Frank says. “If we bring them an order, we charge 5 percent of the sub-total. If we process the credit card, our rates are very competitive. We also offer unique advertising opportunities.”
As for the future, Dotmenu is working on applying the growing trend of mobile technology and text-based ordering to its suite of products. “We say anytime there is a consumer who has a device with the potential to communicate with a restaurant, we want to provide our service in some way, shape or form,” Frank declares. “We’re building the ultimate resource for the consumer, which in turn is the best option a restaurant has for tapping into the Internet and enhancing their business.”
For more info, visit dotmenu.com.