|
|
|
||
|
|||
Click here to listen to audio interview with Joe Whitty
Happy Joe's Pizza and Ice Cream, self-proclaimed inventors of the Taco Pizza, started as a family-run business in 1972, in Davenport, Iowa, and has since opened 62 more stores throughout the United States. Founder and creative entrepreneur Joe Whitty began kicking ideas around in the early 70's to start his own pizza restaurant. With experience in the industry as a scratch baker, a hospital dietician and a Shaky's Pizza Restaurant manager, he was inspired to start his own pizza business. With a $30,000 loan and some family savings, he invested the rest of his life to his restaurant, and according to members of his family, he had no intention of building a chain—it just happened.
Concept
While living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Joe decided he wanted to break away from Shaky's Pizza and do his own deal. A restaurant there called Soda Straw, which was an ice cream parlor, also inspired him. "My dad basically took the two and combined them, and thus we have pizza and ice cream," said Larry Whitty, son of Joe and President/CEO of Happy Joes. "He had no intentions of starting his own chain, he only wanted to start one restaurant and have his own," he said. Happy Joe's primary focus in the beginning was on families and birthday parties, Larry said. "The birthday party business is something that he kind of naturally captivated because he catered so much to families. So, we kind of became a birthday place." The birthday boy or girl at Happy Joe's receives a free sundae, and according to Larry, when his father started recognizing people's birthdays, nobody else was doing anything like that at the time. "He'd have some of our team members (employees) come out honking brass horns, basically stopping any momentum that the restaurant had going, so that everyone's attention was directed to the person honking the horns, and together the entire restaurant would sing Happy Birthday," Larry said. Needless to say, Happy Joe's became the place to go for birthdays, regardless of age.
The Pie
"If we stumble upon somebody that has heard of us, usually the next comment is ‘oh yeah, you guys started that taco pizza thing,'" Larry said. The taco pizza is everywhere now, and the inventor of the taco pizza was Joe Whitty, who came up with the idea in 1974 when one of his franchisee's asked about putting tacos on the menu. "The franchisee was adamant about adding tacos to the menu, but Joe didn't want to be a taco place," Larry said. "Joe asked for a little time to come up with something, and he went to the grocery store and bought everything he thought would make a great taco, but then he made a pizza out of it." The original taco pizza from Happy Joe's has tortilla chips on top, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and a bean sauce, according to marketing director Kristel Whitty Ersan, also daughter of Joe. "We offer lots of specialty pizzas, and we get a good price for them," she said. "We have a Super Max, which is like a cheeseburger pizza," she said. "We also have a macaroni and cheese pizza we're testing right now." Kristel said one thing they have always maintained at Happy Joe's is the creative side of the business. They can go into the kitchen, concoct something totally new and unheard of, such as the Canadian bacon and sour kraut pizza, or the Caesar chicken pizza, which is actually a Caesar salad on a pizza crust, test it out, see if it works, and if it does, they can sell it and claim the idea as their own.
Kristel said pizza right now is an extremely competitive business, and "in order to survive you need to diversify." Happy Joe's has added several things to their list to help them in the area of ‘different.' "We've tested a variety of things and have found some good successes. Right now, our main focus is our breakfast menu at our new stores, called ‘Happy Joe's Caféz,' which opens around seven in the morning for breakfast," she said. The normal breakfast consists of their omelet pizza, cinnamon and caramel rolls, and their café scrambler—also available by delivery. They currently have four Happy Joe's Caféz open for business—three in Iowa and one in Illinois. Breakfast sales are around eight percent at their Bettendorf, Iowa Café, according to Kristel.
Marketing and Advertising
"We've made our restaurants extremely family-friendly," Kristel said. Happy Joe's has designated their restaurants as a positive atmosphere, she says. "We like to call our customers guests, our employees are team members, and our managers are coaches," she said, as opposed to you're the customer, I am an employee, and you're the boss type of thing. "The number one thing we can do is make everybody here feel comfortable." Kristel said television and radio were the best forms of advertising that money can buy because it reaches a large audience of people. Advertising is between 2.5 to 5 percent of their $43 million sales totals.
Kristel said they have had great success with blitz marketing where they can choose a few times a year to run a blitz, which includes radio, TV, then direct mail, and then inserts in newspapers. "The blitz would include several mediums going at the same time, and after the blitz period, we pull back and basically do the bare minimum until the next blitz hit," she said. Kristel said their advertising usually centers around getting together with friends, family, and co-workers. "Pizza is a shared food in general, and we play off that fact: whether you're at home, whether you're at work, whether you're with the family or friends, or at school, it's a good time to be together with Happy Joe's," she said. For families, Kristel said, "We try to direct all of our attention on mom, because mom usually makes the dinner decisions, and we know mom is trying to make everybody else happy. We want to make it simple and make sure mom feels good about what we're providing her family." One television advertisement she explained shows a family in a park. "They open their picnic basket, and mom and dad and grandma and grandpa are all around, and inside the picnic basket there's a Happy Joe's Pizza." She said their slogan then pops up, "Good times to be together; Happy Joe's Pizza and Ice Cream."
Shipping Pizzas
Happy Joe's has a section on their website where people can fill out a shipping form, order their pizzas online, and have them shipped overnight via FedEx. Tim Anderson, Director of Compliance and Planning, said, "It costs somewhere between $120 to $150 to ship three pizzas, which is the usual amount." Tim said Happy Joe's ships about 15 pizzas a week from their online store. "Our top two sellers online and in-store are the Taco Joe and the Happy Joe Special, which is Canadian bacon and sour kraut." Once someone orders three or more pizzas, Tim said they are paying about double the cost they would pay if they went into a Happy Joe's Parlor. "Typically people that are having pizzas shipped are people who grew up with Happy Joe's and have moved away from us. Ninety-eight percent of everything we ship receives positive feedback," Tim said.
Getting on Track and Staying There Through Family
According to Kristel, her father always surrounded himself with people that could complement his work, such as accountants and the more logistical parts of the business that he just wasn't that great at. "A year after the restaurant opened, our mom found out she had leukemia and she passed away at the age of 33. So, my father was left with this new restaurant and some debt from the medical bills, but I never saw him sad, although I'm sure, looking back on it, he must have been going through a rough time," she said. "Instead of showing us that side, he involved all of us in the business and stayed focused and really was positive." Kristel remembers back to the beginning: "When dad first started the restaurant, he didn't have an advertising budget, so he bought a fire truck, painted it up and put ‘Happy Joe's' on the side. He'd ride around town ringing the siren and giving away free samples. It really got people talking from the get-go, and I thought it was so cool," Kristel said.
Advice to Family-Owned Pizzerias
"I think a family business is wonderful, and depending on the age of your kids, if they are older and want to be involved in the business, I think it is imperative that each member's role be clear because sometimes a business decision won't tie in with family," Kristel said. "As wonderful as a family business can be, it's sometimes hard at the end of the day when someone has to make that call, and it helps avoid conflict in the family," she said. "Many families struggle with that because they don't discuss it early on, and they don't make those plans and other family members end up resenting their siblings and others involved."
