Several years ago we put a blurb on our direct mail piece announcing that we were giving a free 6" personal pizza, either pepperoni or cheese, to the first 300 kids in costume. We were not smart enough to put in some caveats such as an age limit or requiring the child to be present and we felt we got abused so we never did it again. It is hard to keep a smile on your face when somebody comes in and wants to get 6 free pizzas for their grandkids that are still at home or the drunk or just stupid thirty somethings saying that there was no age limit. If I am giving away free stuff to establish good will and bring in some people who have never tried my food, it does no good to have a scowl on my face all evening.
This year I am considering doing it again with the proper restrictions. Is anybody else doing anything special?
Halloween is already EXTREMELY busy for us as well as tough to schedule for so we do not do any promotions for it. A Dominos I worked at nearly 20 years ago gave away a free slice to “kids” in costume as well as candy. Plenty of people took advantage as it was in a college are and a lot of college students ate for free. The manager didn’t let it bother him and felt confident that they would be calling us when it was time to order delivery rather than any of the other shops out there.
The first few years we were open Halloween was incredibly busy, in the last few years it has been only slightly above average. I want to create some buzz again.
In recent past, we gave out candy to kids in costume . . . gummi pizzas! Did it five or six years through last year. We also had a freebie promotion giving away a pita pizza (about like a 16" slice) for kinds in costume, and we had drawings for prizes. We thought the gummi pizzas were the ginchiest. I know, no one uses that word anymore. People always remembered us, and the kids even liked them, except for the chocolate hounds.
The gummi’s also made great giveaways for parades and expos and such (with a sticker with our company info on the back . . or a business card taped there).
Our little town hosts a costume parade through the business district where we happen to be located. Last year we loaded down a couple of our servers with coupons good for “One Free Single Topping 8” Pizza", it was dine in only, one per person/per visit, and they had an expiration at the end of November. It was our first HUGE promotion as far as sales results go. We plan on doing it again this year with one change…we weren’t prepared for the number of families that redeemed their coupons THAT night! We were swamped and a more than a bit unprepared. This year, we’ll be ready!
Many times, Halloween is our busiest day of the year. Therefore we do not do any coupon/discount promotions. We used to do a 10% promo for pre-orders to help us with the rush and maybe get people to pre-commit to us, but very few people ever took advantage of it.
I would watch doing anything too crazy. The last 2 years Holloween has been on Saturday and Sunday where parents had time to make something to feed the kids and get them dresssed up. Being back on a weekday this year, their time will be limited, kids getting home from school, parents getting home from work, that it should natuarally be busier.
We hand out candy to kids that come in and thats all we do. This day is a banging day and no promotion is needed. Even the slower shops are busy on this day.