I recently took over a delco and we need to get our name and product in front of customers. We have a pennysaver newspaper here that does a distribution in my target area of 17,000 homes. I can run a color ad in a coupon section for $90 or buy ad space in the regular part of the paper. I was thinking about doing some really great grand re-opening deals but not sure if I should run an ad or just in the coupon section. I was also considering doing the front page. For about half of the front page would be $700. Was thinking of doing $6.99 large or half tray(regularly $14.80 and $12.80) and $3.99 any cold sub(regularly about $7) I do plan on doing direct mail in the future but I need to get our name out there now.
Do you have a nice four color menu? If so, instead of a coupon you might consider having them do a menu insert 2-3 times over the next 3-4 months to get your product pictures in front of people and increase top of mind awareness of your brand. You could include a coupon on the menu if you feel it is necessary, I just never do! Inserts did not always work for me the first couple of time, but I was conviced there was a drop of in top of mind, so I kept with it, I know see a spike in sales the following week and increased residual sales over the next 3-4 then try to hit them again in the 5th or 6th week.
Find a copy of the “Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads” at you local library…Newspaper advertising is expensive and takes a prolonged effort and investment to get a decent return…
Ask your Pennysaver what an insert will cost?..And what ever they quote you is negotiable…I hear from some clients they are paying as low as 4 cents each…See if they can divide distribution over 6 to 8 weeks and then keep repeating…On your POS you should be able to track zone and you should start to see a pattern to it…
I do have new 4 color 11x17 trifold menus being delivered the end of this week, but i only ordered 5000 to start with. I don’t think they do inserts in this paper anyways.
I will ask about inserts but i dont think they will split the zone up smaller. The 17,000 is 1 of 20 of their zones. The zip code i am in has about 20,000 homes so this covers most of them.
For refference I am paying approx. 10.6 cents per insert for printing and insertion to 10,000 homes.
4.6 cents a peice for printing (10,000 units)
$50 per 1000 inserts
The company who prints the “local shopper” and the town newspaper also opperates the print shop I use!
(bundled savings)
Buying 5,000 at a time will double your unit cost versus buying 25,000 at a time…But I also know that for a lot of folks, they can only afford small quantities…
As far as menu distribution, see if you can find a few other non-competitive businesses and hire your own door hangers…Look for businesses that have recurring sales…Dry-cleaners, pharmacy, hardware store, chinese food, etc…These folks have a need to generate ongoing business so might be interested in an ongoing arrangement…This co-op arrangement will save some money…But that has to be measured against a lower return versus a menu distributed on it’s own…
i just think its crazy to price your product like that even for a grand opening…folks may relate your product to cheap and only buy when you discount it
I am thinking its a little crazy too but I really need to do something to drastic to bring in customers. The last 3 days did not break $200. I approved a 1/6th page ad with those specials. It gets delivered tomorrow. I am hoping to get a big draw and people will get to taste how good our food is. I will post next week with some results.
Hello Shack and welcome to the TT. I agree with DD that those prices will burn an image to all takers… “hey…for a cheap pizza call…” and you will not recover from that. I know all markets are unique but is your goal a head to head with the big 3? If so, best of luck! That said… you said you just took over…what image does the shop have now? Known as a big discount delco or an average priced with good or bad (fill-in) pizza and service? If I were to take over a place with anything but being called verygood or great in the food and service areas I would say rename…change the decor a little… spend the money on that front page and an ad in the back… and have a grand-opening event. Depending on where your shop sits… there are a few members here that have had great success with sidewalk parties… things for the kids… free pizza… make your spot an attraction for the afternoon/evening and get people hooked on your food, your service, and depending on the size of the town… get to know you. Dont work this event… mingle. Talk with the adults and help entertain the kids. I know you are only a delco… but the lasting impression that this leaves will mean alot to people. Good luck!
while I do not like the idea of deep discounting for all the reasons discussed on the other thread, you can spin this so as not to damage the perceived value of your product as long as you have a time limit on said offers and can toss out some good BS when needed.
You are selling your pizza at an unsustainable price for a short period of time as an investment in order to acquire customers. Instead of spending a ton of money on mailings and print ads you are running a couple of inexpensive ads and using the money that you would have spent on an advertising blitz to subsidize your pizza so that the customer gets the benefit rather than some nameless corporation (sorry Chris).
My 4 cents worth
Rick
You know that you’re a pizza guy when you swear the title of this thread is “Need Onions.”
:mrgreen:
Consistency is king, if you cheap/discount to attract customers, thats the custom you will get. Trying to then convert them to higher prices is a fruitless exercise. I recently posted the exact same problem as you and the kind advice TT and others gave was don’t drop price and I now can see why.
There is a place for cheap/discount pizza, on a campus. There is a place for small pies/slices, in a heavy footfall mall. There is a place for bad cardboard pizza outside clubs/bars. And those places will consistently provide those services, so look at you local potential customers and see what sort they are. When I re-looked at our audience, they were middle class families - they are not going to want to treat their family a cheap pizza, they are going to want to know they are getting quality. So I will need to consistently show quality in menu/website/price/storefront.
By being cheap one week, expensive the next then ‘Buy one get one free’ the next will give mixed messages and hamper building a constant customer base.
As for opening during lunch, if it is that quiet it maybe worth being closed during the day and spending 3-4 hours outside in the fresh air dropping menus and building the evening trade first and work on lunch trade once you got going.
You know that you’re a pizza guy when you swear the title of this thread is “Need Onions.”
LOL, got me having to recheck the post title now.
/milknose :mrgreen:
Update for anyone that cares. I went with the 6.99 and 3.99 coupons. They dropped on Saturday.
Saturday - 9 Sunday - 13 Monday - closed Tuesday - 10
Since I took over 4 weeks ago this was the best saturday, sunday, and tuesday we’ve had. Of course playoff football definitely helps. Out of the 32 received back so far I only recognized about 6 or 7 current customers. To maximize this promotion I have asked customers if they would like to fill out an entry to win a gift certificate to try and collect addresses and emails. My new menus also came in so I am sending them out with every order. I have new box toppers on order as the ones I inherited are expired and stale. I am also looking into postcard mailers for direct mail. Was thinking about trying to do EDDM myself so I can hit smaller areas at a time without all the cost hitting at once.
Was this with two of the $90 coupons?
No this was with the one 1/6 newspaper ad for $200. I am pretty happy with the redemption by new customers but hope they keep coming in. I am placing a $90 coupon ad this week with these deals:
New Year deals
1/2 tray ch &1 item + 15 wings $20.12
sm-ch & 1 item + 10 wings + chicken finger dinner $20.12
Large (18") up to 3 toppings $13.99