Dogma,
Okay good info:
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Not breaking even - So you need to do something quick that will get you up above that level. Good thing you’ve got an assload of snow coming at you in the next day or two.
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Sales off 2k per week from summer numbers - Were those numbers inflated or were they legit? Was the previous owner doing any high-impact marketing?
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Delivery/carryout-unique pizza - Same boat as me.
Now, as far as the advertising is concerned. Each market is different but, based on my experience, let me give you a little insight:
Direct mailing of menus - Good idea. No coupons, therefore smaller rate of return (probably .5%-2%)
Fax - Awesome! Good job
Newspaper - Sucks! It’s a waste of money UNLESS you can convince the editor to do a “wrap” in which a coupon is wrapped around the outer portion of each paper in your area.
Full Page Circular - Don’t do this if you’ve got a deal for a wrap. Actually, think about the number of people in the U.S. who don’t read the paper anymore and actually get their news from the internet.
Welcome to the neighborhood mailers - Great idea. You probably won’t get too much return, but the whole purpose of advertising is to stack good ideas on top of other good ideas to generate a great deal of return.
Now, let’s talk about some things you can do NOW to increase customer awareness:
- Make sure the exterior is clean, lit up like a football stadium, and customer friendly.
- Put up streamers outside to celebrate “new ownership”, “customer appreciation week”… anything
- Clean your interior space and make it carryout friendly (pictures, warm colors, chairs, Christmas decorations)
The total cost for all this so far is about $100 bucks.
Now, after this is done, and if the weather is permitting, get a banner printed up with your logo on it and a carryout special. The carryout special should be something simple (like one large one topping pizza) with a good price point. Make this a price point that is VERY aggressive. Aggressive = $5.99, $4.99, $3.99. Yes, you will have to sacrifice the food cost in order to get the sales up. Don’t worry though, because your labor costs will drop with the increased business. Wrap this banner with a PVC pipe “frame”. Get somebody out on the street corner and tell him to go crazy with that banner. Tell him to shake it, raise it, lower it, turn it upside down, turn it sideways… the entire time, constantly pointing to your place.
The cost of the PVC pipe and the banner should be around $150 bucks.
What this will do is create community awareness of your pizza place. It will give them a chance to identify the logo with the place itself. It also gives you, as the owner/operator, a chance to talk with the customers and form a bond with each and every one of them. Make sure all boxes have marketing material on top and make sure the image of your place is festive. Also make sure you get all the customer’s information with some kind of giveaway. Have them fill out an entry form (including e-mail addy) and put it in a bowl. This will give you a customer database with new people who probably have never been to your store before.
This excercise should be done only for a week or two. After that, quit it. You don’t want to become “tired” in the customer’s eyes. This should increase your customerbase substantially, and if you do it right, give you a new group of people to target with direct mail or e-mail.
The entire cost of this excercise should be around $250. With that $250 spent, you’ll bring in an additional $2000-$5000 over the two week span, depending on how good your special is, how good you are at keeping someone out there with a banner, and how good you stick with the plan. Oh yeah, I forgot… it’s gonna hurt, getting your butt kicked that hard. Hope this helps. -J_r0kk