Allow me to introduce myself. You’ve seen me in this magazine in my position with PizzaSure.Com. Now, I’m talking to you about marketing. What’s the connection? Simple – I’ve spent the last 10 years working my tail off becoming a ‘world class’ marketer (that’s how I got the PizzaSure enterprise to national prominence). Let me give you a quick ‘peek behind the curtain’ to make my point.  I’ve spent literally tens of thousands of bucks ‘sitting at the feet’ of the small but viciously powerful group of true marketing masters still out there plying the trade. The things I’ve learned have kept me in good stead in growing PizzaSure. Along the way I actually took some of my pizzeria customers, and dragged them kicking and screaming into the world of Pizza Marketing. You see, this stuff works…works for pizzerias, works real good for pizzerias. So, now, I’ve taken the leap and brought Pizza Profits Systems off the back burner. What I’m going to tell you about now is a “primer”, an overview, and a distillation – Ok?  So, read on, enjoy and absorb. I invite you to contact me if you want more info or if you want to go over some of the things presented. Ready? Here goes:

First things first – you’ve got to understand what a marketing program is. We’re talking about a systematic, automatic, measurable method that you can use, test, tweak and change to bring money into your pizzeria. Look, if you really think that the next door hanger is going to put you head and shoulders above your competition, sorry – it ain’t going to happen. I know I’m going to make some enemies on this one, but – hey, it’s not about them, it’s about you- so let me tell you right now. The Yellow Page salesman and the printing rep are not your friend. They need to up sell you to make more money – period.  Now, done right, there is nothing wrong with Yellow Page ads or 4-color print pieces- the trouble is that you don’t know whether or not they make you money!

Here’s how you go about creating your Pizzeria Marketing System: #1 – Define your goals: Be real specific so you’ll know when you’ve succeeded.  “I want to get more new customers” is useless…  “Make more up sell money” …useless.  You have to quantify the result you want: “Three new customers per week for the next 12 weeks” or “$50 per shift in up sell money” is measurable goal – you’ll know if you hit it or not. 

#2- Know your demographics: A pizzeria’s got to know its limitations (and opportunities). Looking for three new a week will be pretty hard to do if your population base won’t support it! Do your homework and get the stats for your area and then make your plans.

Example: If you want to increase walk in sales, you’d better know how many households are within a one square mile radius of your shop and you’d better know the inside stats on that group – things like:

Age of the group:  Heavy senior populations may not be great walk in customers or pizza customers at all!

Income of the group: Income levels will help you determine offers – higher incomes may indicate larger ticket offers while lower incomes may dictate ‘base line’ offers.

#3 Building your first program:  First off, be modest! On your first  “go-round” don’t blow big bucks. Resist the temptation to go big. If it’s a “dog” – let it be a small dog, learn your lessons and test again. If it’s a winner, the resultant flood may overwhelm you…be sure you can perform up to standard before you open the floodgates. That’s what testing allows you to do… gauge results, make predictions and gear up for the business.

Now, remember, we are building a Marketing Program – something that will be as smooth as a Mercedes Benz and pull like a Mack truck – something that will work
• Systematically:  There are organized steps assigned to people
• Automatically:   Once put in motion this should not require your attention – things happen behind the scenes.
• Measurable:  You monitor the results at the end a defined period – find out what you made and what you spent and go to the next round!

 IMPORTANT – read this carefully and forget everything you ever heard about response rates.  This is so simple; it’s in Rain Man territory.  Too many people get hung up on response rates – stuff like “I only got a 1 percent response, so this is no good” or “Wow – I got a 5 percent return – this is super!” is pure grade A  B.S.   

 Look, when you go to the bank, you deposit money, not response rates! So, what’s important is money – specifically, the ratio of how much you spent to how much you made – called the ROI  (return on investment).

 Example:  You get at 10 percent response rate on campaign “A” and the total yield is $1,000. You get a 1 percent response rate on campaign “B” and the total yield is $5,000. Assuming that you spent the same amount on the two campaigns ($500) Campaign A gave you a 2 to 1 return on investment and campaign B gave you a 10 to 1 return...  Clearly, B is the winner and A is the dog! So, a high response rate is not necessarily a winner and a low rate is not necessarily a dog – the amount of money you make compared to the amount of money you spend is the determining factor.
Finally, you’ve got to decide on what you want to do. There are so many options available to you that you will get confused. Don’t let it throw you. Get some help on this (look at the resource box at the end of this article) and then go for it. Look, I know this may seem way out of your comfort zone but that’s just why you’ve got to get involved in this. Too many pizzeria owners keep their heads down and do what everyone else is doing – no good. One of the marketing masters listen to coined the term  “Marketing Incest” –“when everybody does the same thing (Yellow Pages, door hangers, box topers, coupons) we all get real stupid real fast. Guess what? You may be one of ‘em – well, (sorry) but you probably are!

Now, one more reason that you must step out of your comfort zone and get in the game. I had a small awakening recently (you know what I mean –right? One of those moments when something jumps up bites you on the keester that you’d never noticed before. The philosophical types call it  ‘Satori’ or an ‘Epiphany’) that really changed my thinking on the whole landscape of pizzeria marketing. It was scary and really cool at the same time. You see, the Big Guns are out there pounding away at you for market share – the Domino’s, Papa John’s, and others. Now what I realized is that these guys are not just shooting at each other – they are engaged in a process to re-educate the pizza buying public! They want to redefine just what pizza is and where the public should buy it – clearly you do not fit in their universe! So, while they fight each other, their campaigns actually work together for the larger purpose of re-educating your customer! 

  Genius, really, on their part, and once you realize it - a huge opportunity for you!  For the pizzeria owner that gets ahead of the curve and sets himself apart from the crowd, this is a once in a lifetime chance to break out of the pack and brand yourself.  I’m sorry (refer to my disclaimer), but the cold hard facts are this – most pizzeria owners will not realize it, believe it, or take the steps needed to combat this thing. It doesn’t have to be that way. Get involved now, put together a state of the art marketing program, and work it ‘like an Organ Grinder with a Dancing Monkey’.  You can, and will succeed and secure your financial future, if you act.