Does anybody put messages in the lid of their pizza boxes?

Hi all

I just discovered this forum. My name is Bill and I am a pizza shop owner in the UK.

I am not sure if this is a crazy idea, but does anybody put any promotional messages or coupons etc on the lid of their pizza boxes?

My wife suggested it but I am not sure. It will be quite time-consuming to do, but if it is a tried and proven method then I would certainly give it a go.

I would appreciate any thoughts that you have and won’t be offended if you think that it is a stupid idea. We are just trying to think of loads of ways to try and build up our pizza business (another pizza shop opened up 2 doors away making a total of 5 in less than half a mile. We are really struggling )

Thanks

Bill

Re: Does anybody put messages in the lid of their pizza boxe

No doubt others will chime in too.

These are called box toppers and my guess is nearly all of us do it at least sometimes. I can tell you that EVERY box that has gone out from my shop in the last 10 years has had one on it. We have four coupons on the piece. The size we use is 8.5" by 5.5" which is half a standard sheet of paper. We print them in four colors about 50,000 at a time which lasts us about a year. Cost is around 2 cents each.

It is by far the most effective, for the money spent, of all the advertising we do as measured by cost for coupon redeemed.

It is not time consuming at all. Buy glue sticks to attach the flyer with a small dab of glue. Avoid the part of the paper opposite the coupons.

Re: Does anybody put messages in the lid of their pizza boxe

Hi

Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

Wow, so not only is this not an ‘original’ idea thought up by my wife (LOL ) but it also has a name.

Seriously, thank you so much for sharing that information with me and for letting me know what kind of results it yields.

Sorry…I have another question…

You say that you create 4 coupons on 1 piece. Do you have different offers on each of these coupons or do you stagger the dates on the coupons (ie. have a unique offer for different dates in the near future…hope that makes sense).

Thank you again.

I appreciate you sharing your experience very much.

Bill

Re: Does anybody put messages in the lid of their pizza boxe

Bill

I learnt more about these box toppers from this forum.

We used to do some messages of different sorts but added other offers after finding the forum.

Every order has a box topper of some sort of it, the current one listing our new range of “international” gourmet pizzas. This and the 3’ x 2’ banners in the window and on the wall near the counter is the only advertising we have done on them and they have taken off extremely well. To make it even better the 10" small sell for $13 and the 13" large for $20 both sizes at a 25% - 30% premium over standard prices.

We run seasonal offers or sort time runs for the quieter nights to generate additional sales levels. The opportunities are endless.

You can get then printed up or do as we do and print them ourselves.

To get the best result have a end time for the offer and make it worded to entice an upsell from a normal purchase. Be creative without throwing profits away. Promotions with something for FREE (in big bold letters) work really well.

There are plenty of past posts that will give you ideas on what to do to suit your market.

Dave

Re: Does anybody put messages in the lid of their pizza boxe

Dave

Thanks again for another brilliant and very helpful post.

I followed your advice and did some research both here and on Google (it certainly helps my research knowing the correct term) and my mind is racing now thinking of the possiblities.

My wifes idea original idea (seh is gutted now that she knows that she didn’t invent the idea LOL) was to put the message inside the box so when they lifted the lid to eat their pizza they would see the offer. However, from what I have researched and what you have said, the offer actually goes on TOP of the box? (sorry for being thick. I just want to clarify this.

Thank you again.

You might have helped to save my business. (fingers crossed)

Bill

Re: Does anybody put messages in the lid of their pizza boxe

Yes, they go on top of the box rather than inside. They would get steamed and soggy inside and might get stuck in the cheese for one thing.

We use four different offers. All expire about 18 months later since I want to print large batches of these things to keep costs low.

I have two classes of offers in general:

1. “Try me” offers which are screaming deals intended to get people to try us the first time. The deal justified more by getting a new customer than by the margin on that sale. These offers only happen once in a while and expire in 30 days or so.
2. Regular offers which are available more or less all the time. The “coupon cost” is built in to our pricing model.

Box toppers fall in to category 2. For one thing, the customer has to have already found you to get the thing, so a “try me” offer is not called for.

Our dirvers put the boxtoppers on the boxes when they are folding them. Two guys can put them on 50 boxes in less than 2 minutes.

Re: Does anybody put messages in the lid of their pizza boxe

We tuck a folded menu into the side seem of the pizza box for every order we send out. In my experience, I tend to throw away the box without taking the time to detach whatever’s stuck to it, so I leave it loose.

Of course our menus include coupons on it of the discount but not too much of a discount category.

It is definitely the best and cheapest marketing. No postage, just a couple cents and it’s going to people who are predisposed to reply. Our coupons from them are definitely the most used of everything we put out so we’re sure to put a lot of thought into the offers and exact food cost percentage they yield.

Re: Does anybody put messages in the lid of their pizza boxe

We just started topping our boxes with 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper that I cut in half to get double the quantity.

I cringe when I see part of my nicely custom designed and printed pizza boxes covered in a box topper tho! ha