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The Fall 2001 issue of PMQ issue of PMQ featured Columbus, Ohio’s, Flyers Pizza, owned and operated by the Ulrey family, on the cover. After Flyers’ 30-year celebration of being in business, and as part of our 10-year anniversary, we are revisiting Flyers and have found more useful ideas and ubiquities unique to Flyers Pizza that shouldn’t go unnoticed, such as marketing through menu boards, free cable television promotions through your beverage company, and how to target potential new customers/residents in your town.
Back in Time
Flyers Pizza first opened in 1976 by a former manufacturing foreman, Wayne Ulrey, in the small Columbus suburb of West Jefferson, Ohio. The existing location was a Tonni’s Pizza, and Wayne and his four sons had plans to take the market by storm. By 1982, Flyers had opened a second location and things were looking up for the Ulreys; as they watched the city of Columbus expand outward, they too expanded outward, attacking the small towns along the city’s edges. “We just got done celebrating our 30th anniversary in 2006,” Mark Ulrey said. “We called it a birthday bash. We promoted the celebration along with Pepsi, one of our longest standing partners.”
Mark pointed out that since Flyers’ inception, Pepsi has been their largest promoter for the large-scale market of Columbus, such as television and radio. “We had our biggest sales ever for that particular weekend from a stand point of head count. We drove in an additional 700 customers over our average customer count for that weekend to really bust this thing open.” He affirmed that by the time it was through, everybody knew they’d been around for a long time. Since their 2001 10th anniversary of their Hilliard Road store (see article at www.pmq.com/mag/2001fall/flyers.shtml), Mark informed PMQ that sales are up by about 17 percent–putting them close to $20,000 per week at that location.
Teaming Up w/ Your Beverage of Choice
This is a great idea for the movers and shakers. Since 2006 was a busy year for Flyers, they decided to help spread the word through some interesting means: bundling with Pepsi. “They look at the numbers and they see how we try to build sales for them. We do an on-hold message where we include a two-liter Pepsi product. We really help them out.” Outside of the grocery stores, Flyers is the largest mover of Pepsi product for the southwest side of Columbus. In exchange for sales, Pepsi will promote Flyers in their regional cable advertisements. “They get us in the tail commercials, where they will choose one of their businesses and promote them,” Mark said. With plans to dabble some in cable and radio for their grand opening of their new Powell, Ohio, store, Mark admitted the demographics are the differentiation between success and failure. “When we look at the demographics of a new area, we’re looking for households with at least two children,” he explained. “If I can get 40 percent plus in an area, I feel we can do well.” With the town of Powell being over 50 percent in several zones, Mark stressed that it was a very desirable location.
How To Grand Open Softly
When coming up with ideas for grand openings, they usually keep it relaxed for the first three to four weeks, which he feels is the best environment for the success of a new location. “We’re going to have a soft opening at first. We have to make sure our staff is totally settled. I think people make a big mistake when they go and spend a ton of money on opening a new store, then they want to open with a big splash,” he explained. The first week Flyers will have no marketing. The following week they will come out with a little bit of ad marketing—maybe 4,000 households—just to get the name out there. After Thanksgiving, Mark said they will blow the whole thing open. “The first pizza is the relationship that you have with your customer. If it’s not done right, it’s over. That first impression has got to be right,” he said. Mark attested that the new Powell store will probably be in the red for the first couple weeks, but that’s expected because that’s the time to really take care of the customer.
A Flying success
“We track productivity in the stores through our computer base, and on a day-to-day basis, we look at how and what we are doing. Fifty percent of our sales is in delivery. If we can get that delivery out the door between 15 and 20 minutes then we feel like we are beating the competition. On Friday nights, most of our competitors are telling their customers the wait is between an hour and a half to two hours, and we’re getting there in 45 minutes. If we can do that and create that extra, added value through servicing the customer, I feel we have won the ballgame.”
Mark said Flyers doesn’t fit into the category of ‘eat cheap, whatever can fill your stomach.’ “We’re not just going after the pizza market, we’re also going after the appetizer, the salad, and the sub market. The industry standard is an average check of $14 or $15—we’re already in the $18 range, but we need to be in the $20 range.” Mark said a lot of people like cheap, and blamed it mostly on the standards in which most Americans have been raised, in the sense of pizza. “People have been taught not to get a pizza unless you have a coupon. When we do marketing, my goal is to create a philosophy that ‘here is something that we can provide you that is better and different from the competitor.’ We try not to go out and give away the product. If the volume is there, I will cut you a deal, but it has to be a win-win situation for everybody.”
Flyers Inspires
Mark pointed out that the most expensive medium for advertising—cable television and radio—are reserved only for special occasions, such as grand openings and anniversaries. “We like the ADVO marriage mail product,” he continues. “We try to stay away from the paper mist and the value packs because the people that look at those are only interested in low-cost.” He said the solo piece is what they usually do—a 10-inch by 11-inch glossy, full-color on both sides. Flyers’ menu is printed on the back with some offers, and a marketing message for the month on the front, whether it’s a new product or why Flyers beats the competition. “Before our new store opened, we were already going out to 72,000 homes—now it’s more like 80,000 each month,” he beamed. ADVO does all the printing and distribution for Flyers with a total cost of around $4,800 for all the mail pieces.
Another great idea Mark had was welcoming neighbors into the area. “We like to go out ourselves with a postcard welcoming new movers into the area. There’s a resale market in the newspaper where we get the addresses and names of the new residents in the area,” Mark explained. “As soon as they order, we send them a thank you card, and if they don’t come back within 45 days, we’ll send them a reminder to come see us again.” He also mentioned that in the past they have used political signs during election years, and he attests that it’s a great advertising vehicle. “We printed about 50 of these political signs and distributed them throughout the area of our restaurants.” The signs, situated in clusters of other signs reading ‘Hale for Judge,’ ‘Mcalister for Senate,’ announced ‘Flyers for Pizza.’
Marketing the Menu
“In our new location, we have a priceless menu board with an LCD screen. The screen has all our high profit-margin items displayed,” Mark said. “They see the pictures, they don’t see the prices, but this is our first time to use the priceless menu boards. We just felt there was too much clutter on the boards with the prices, so we opted on using longer descriptions of the product. If people do want to see prices, we have the high gloss, 100-pound, tri-fold menus. They think, ‘Boy, that sounds good.’ If they have their mind set, the price isn’t really going to make much difference for them.”
Another great idea Flyers has instilled through their menus comes from the manufacturers’ pockets. “We look very closely at the items we are selling most, and a few times a year we will highlight that product and the manufacturer’s logo on the front page of the menu. In turn, the manufacturers support that, and usually pick up part of the tab through marketing dollars—normally it’s free cases of food to help cover the costs of the menu,” Mark suggested.
Another stance Flyers takes on pizza goes back to its roots in the United States with the most popular topping: pepperoni. “Way back when, we decided that since everybody was trying to come up with these new pizza ideas, we would differentiate ourselves in pepperoni,” Mark explained. “Why go out and do a new pizza when the bulk of sales is in pepperoni?” The idea: old world pepperoni and large pepperoni. The large pepperoni is the classic standard, a 51-millimeter slice. The old world is smaller, cups up under heat, and has a little more zip to it from a taste standpoint. He said it’s been a flying success.
Conclusion
Flyers has shown, through menu marketing, paying close attention to details, and taking advantage of their suppliers and other businesses that provide them a service, that it is possible to build brand, a loyal customer base, and overall business profits. Take some of these ideas into consideration because marketing matters!