the only other pizza places we have in the area are cstore hunt brothers frozen pizza with my new advertising campaign,tv radio, postcards . people are figuring out with my special [buy one get second 1/2 off im actually cheaper than hunt bros. when you by two pizzas .
question would it be tacky to use there name in my ads saying were cheaper than hunt bros. and we have fresh made pizza.
my wife thinks its illegal and im nuts 
or anyone have any ideas on how to word it so people get the point.
I donât think you should mention the name. You could just say âbest price in townâ
I think I know the owner of your competition. His name is Mike, right?
no mikes up here nearest mike is 35 miles away 
No it is not illegal to say you are cheaper than your competitors and name them. Not a real good strategy though as you do not want customers focused on low price.
We may put this out on a newsletter to our customers:
[size=5]Whatâs in your crust?[/size]
DewarââŹâ˘s: Organic Wheat Flour, Filtered Water, Premium Olive Oil, Active Dry Yeast, Sea Salt, Love.
Pizza Hut: Enriched bleached wheat flour (bleached flour, malted barley flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, salt, vital wheat gluten, enzymes, ascorbic acid.
DominoââŹâ˘s: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Niacin, Riboflavin, Folic Acid) Water, Oil (Soybean), Sugar, Salt, Yeast, Vital Wheat Gluten, Less Than 1% Dough Conditioners (Ascorbic Acid, L-Cysteine, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Whey, Enzyme), Corn Meal.
Papa MurphyââŹâ˘s: Enriched Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Soybean Oil, Sugar, Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate, Inactive Dried Yeast, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Instant Yeast, Contains Less than 2% of Calcium Sulfate, Potassium Bromate, Tricalcium Phosphate, Magnesium Carbonate (in the State of California, Potassium Iodate is used in place of Potassium Bromate. Calcium Sulfate, Tricalcium Phosphate, and Magnesium Carbonate are omitted)
Years back my partner and I did a few things that drove our competitor crazyâŚ
When we first bought the place we eliminated the 2 for 1 deals, changed to âpremiumâ ingredients and raised our prices so they were higher than hisâŚ
We proudly advertised that we were the most expensive pizza in town and if you wanted âcheapâ pizza âphone so and soâ and published his name and telepone numberâŚIn our menuâs we told folks if they wanted âcheapâ pizza for the kids and babysitter phone âso and soââŚUsually in a âPrice Warâ competitors respond by lowering pricesâŚKind of hard to compete with someone who charged higher pricesâŚ
Also, we ran a lab test on his pizza and found out his cheese was not 100%âŚWe were getting set to put this on the front page of our menus, however, he closed down before we had a chanceâŚI suspect we told just enoughfolks that it got back to himâŚ
I think it is fair game to talk about a competitor, however, you must make sure your claims are 100% true and you can back them upâŚ2nd, it is okay to use competitorâs âTradeMarksâ but there is a procedure for doing soâŚLook around you for ads for cars and softdrinksâŚThey frequently they refer to other brandsâŚI think you just have to advise folks that the TMs you are using belong to themâŚ
Good luck!
I would never name a competitor in advertising under any circumstance. Not because there is any rule against it⌠it is just not a good idea.
Furthermore, if you are making fresh pizza and charging less than frozen, you need your head examined. Sorry for the direct nature of the comment, but if you donât change this, you wonât be around long.
In addition, when you advertise only price, you tell the consumer that price is the reason to buy from you and you cement yourself into a position at the BOTTOM of the market. This destroys your ability to charge realistic prices when you finaly wake up and discover that you are circling the bowl.
Consumers understand that fresh costs more than frozen and are willing to pay it. The following example explains why losing some customers is OK. (Donât get hung up on the exact numbers quoted, the principle of incremental margin is the point I want to make)
Food cost of a pizza = $3.00
Labor Cost = $9,000
Other fixed costs = $6,000
Sell 100 pizzas per day for a month = 3,000 pizzas
Total sales at $8.50 per pizza = $25,000
Profit = $1,500
Raise prices and loose 20% of customers
Sell 80 pizzas per day for a month = 2,400 pizzas
Total sales at $10.00 per pizza = $24,000
Profit = $1,800 (If you did not save any labor cost)
The simple fact is that, if you have good pizza, the more likely scenario is that you might lose 5% of your unit sales, not 20% from a drastic price increase.
Sell 95 pizzas per day for a month = 2850 pizzas
Total sales at $10 per pizza = $28,500
Profit = $4,950
Never mind your competitor. Focus on your product and NON-price marketing message and charge what you need to.
thanks bodegahwy i see where your coming from . but heres the problem i have i live in the rural south we been open for almost 2 years on major hwy but very small population about 4000 people to draw from the good thing is most the people are timed starved due to commuting daily to work . i have heard over and over your pizza is to expensive i tell them you get what you pay for and if i can get them to try once they are hooked.
hunt bros sell 1 anything you want except extra cheese for $ 9.95 second for 8.95 total $ 18.90 plus tax $1.75 total of 20.65
these are 12inch pies
my supreme 12 inch is $ 12.85 lets say they also get a meatlovers $ 12.85 the second one is half off 6.42
total for two pizzas and tax 21.05 this is the example i used on my post cards people GET THIS there like wow your pizza is the same price but better . now i got them in there buying salads ,breadsticks, bbq,drinks etc.my thinking might be flawed maybe someone can show me the light :shock:
i was going to drop my prices to beat them out by a little and start advertising that .
we are small shop my wife and i both work it one employee at 8.00 dollars an hour 30 hours week
2 employees at 6.00 an hour 16 hours a week each
no rent or mortgage
low overhead all equipment paid for
are we going to get rich probally not but it beats driving 40 miles for a job oneway we can walk to work and we live in gods country
i think i will take your advice and not try to beat them with cheaper prices but fair prices and quality food service etc.
sometimes i get caught up in what i call stinkin thinkin. 
so my tv ad guys come tommorow i think i will focus on what i have to offer rather than what the other guys have to offer and just keep up the media blitz.
The potential flaw is that you could be leaving money on the table. With better product, you should be able to clear a much better selling price than you are getting . . . even in the rural south. Toy are getting 9.64 per pizza for multi topping 12-inch pies at that deal rate. Thatâs a 37.5% discount over street rate. MAN! You could do better bundling two pizzas together and giving them a set price that is even 25% off street rate. You still get them in for upsells, and you bank another 12%. I am not saying this is a definite, just that it is the potential flaw in the logic. The incremental sales logic falls right in here . . . the bodega manâs math is right, and it is strong. If you market well, and watch the marketplace reactions, you should be able to use the logic to score more gross price per sale.
Positioning yourself in the market beside a cheap, unappetizing, c-store frozen pizza associates you in the customersâ minds. Even small incremental steps up the food chain will spread the difference farther and farther.
As always, there are interesting challenges everywhere. After reading your posts, I have a few more thoughts:
1st, my earlier posts were a little over the top. I do feel strongly that you have to charge for what you provide though.
My next thought is to focus on ticket average. By offering a deal on two pies you are doing that. Another idea is to make your special offers on the 14 inch or 16" size. That does two things; gets you to a higher price point where the same $$ value of an offer is a lower percentage AND gets you out of the head to head comparison.
With your success in getting people to come back if they try you, I would use what I like to call a âtry meâ offer. I do these twice a year. The offer is so good that I donât make anything on it but my goal is to attract 1st time customers. The offers have a few specific traits: 1. Focuses on high value combinations not single topping. 2. Offer placed where people I have not reached will find it. 3. Expires in 30 days and we stick to the expiration date. I tie the offer to a seasonal calendar event and let people know that this is a short term deal not a regular deal.
ALL of our advertising avoids price alltogether. (Advertising, to me, is news paper, radio, special events) We do put coupons in a couple of places with offers, but when we are focused on âmessageâ the message is NEVER price. When we support local organizations with free pies we ALWAYS include our best combos and only enough plain cheese or single toppings to satisfy any kids that will be eating. Radio and newspaper are about some combination of product differentiation, local identity, name recognition, quality etcâŚ
Many good points above. But, back to the question of using competitions name. It is my belief that it is a bad idea to single out someone by their name in advertising. When you start doing it, it opens the door for them to do it. We talk a lot on this board about things like quality, but what we need to understand is that quality is a perception. None of us is going to make a pie that everyone thinks is the best. A lot of what makes people think a particular pizza great is the fact it is what they were raised on. If someone eats Joeâs pizza since he was 5 years old, he is comfortable with it , likes it, and may think my QUALITY pizza isnât to his taste. So if i start badmouthing Joeâs Pizza in my advertising, how does that customer perceive me? Then Joe starts comparing his pizza prices to mine in his ads, and it is not a hard sell for his customers to stay put and tell others how much better off they would be by eating at Joeâs too. My point is, treat advertising like other things in life⌠do unto others as you wish them to do unto you.
I have to agree with the other posters. Bad idea to use their name. They should order from you cause they crave your awesome foodâŚperiod. How many of us know how much a value meal at Mcdees is or a value meal from bk is? My husband goes to bk because he like their burgers better not because they are cheaper.
Last year I was and posted quite a bit about our 5.00 pizza nights. We would get totally slammed. Almost all of our staff was scheduled and busy the entire night. My stance was if we are open we might as well be working. People flocked in the door.
After the many posts here about why this was not a good idea, we saw the light. We stopped doing them in April. That was a hard month because people were tickedâŚthe pizza they were used to paying 5 bucks for was now more than double that. We created specials to take the focus off that. What I have come to find out is we do a couple hundred less in sales but use 1/2 the labor and a whole lot less food. Our quality is what it should be. I make more money now than I did then, even though the sales are down. Here it is August and every now and again we get a call asking about it and it further convinces me it was a good decision because these people are price hoppers not loyal customers.
Be confident in your food and feel good about your prices. Let the other guy worry about what you are doing instead of you worrying about him. Why even compare yourself to them?
Kris
I have to agree with the other posters. Bad idea to use their name. They should order from you cause they crave your awesome foodâŚperiod. How many of us know how much a value meal at Mcdees is or a value meal from bk is? My husband goes to bk because he like their burgers better not because they are cheaper.
Last year I was and posted quite a bit about our 5.00 pizza nights. We would get totally slammed. Almost all of our staff was scheduled and busy the entire night. My stance was if we are open we might as well be working. People flocked in the door.
After the many posts here about why this was not a good idea, we saw the light. We stopped doing them in April. That was a hard month because people were tickedâŚthe pizza they were used to paying 5 bucks for was now more than double that. We created specials to take the focus off that. What I have come to find out is we do a couple hundred less in sales but use 1/2 the labor and a whole lot less food. Our quality is what it should be. I make more money now than I did then, even though the sales are down. Here it is August and every now and again we get a call asking about it and it further convinces me it was a good decision because these people are price hoppers not loyal customers.
Be confident in your food and feel good about your prices. Let the other guy worry about what you are doing instead of you worrying about him. Why even compare yourself to them?
Kris
It may not be illegal to use names but I bet the âbig boysâ legal teams would have an absolute field day with you if you did this in a news letter and they picked up on it.
Your info would need to be spot on and a bit more comprehensive than it is and have sources/disclaimers etc. At a minimum I bet theyâd stop you sending any more out and would keep you and your lawyer busy for a while, at worst it could costs you. For example which âcrustâ are you referring to? You use âfiltered waterâ they only use âwaterâ you have âloveâ in you pizza - what exactly is that?
Iâd never pick a fight with someone who has wayyyy deeper pockets than I do unless I knew I had nothing to loose.
Just my 2 centsâŚ
I want to mention message confusion. In branding your place and marketing your brand . . . I contend that you should give of message of who you are and what you offer. Hit the key elements of unique selling point as well as other âfeaturesâ of your business.
Mentioning other businesses gets the tone away from that and into âwho we are NOTâ. Pushing the message of who you are seems logically to me more respectful to the marketplace by trusting THEM to connect the dots. It leaves one message to echo clearly in the market about who you are. I can see where comparison marketing can be effective done minimally and judiciously . . .sort of guerrilla tactics for laser precision plan. Shoot that bullet too often, and you get potential backlash as being a mudslinger or âdirty playerâ regardless of the message you use.
You are absolutely right. (Well, except for using âlooseâ when you meant âloseâ. That one really bugs me.)
After reading the posts here and and having a less mischievous mind, I agree that directly attacking competitors by name is a bad idea and counter-productive.
sorry spelling is not one of my strong points!!
Eh, I am just being a nitpicker. :lol:
At least you have the better ideas in this thread! 
Not to sound like a broken record, but I have to agree with the other folks that say NOT to use competitors in YOUR advertising. I had a competitor pull that one on me a couple of months ago. He ran an ad in the paper that said, âWho would you rather buy good pizza from or ?â I :lol: when I saw it. Anyways, I had a couple of customers actually come in and mentioned they saw my competitors ad and thought it was an act of desperation on his part. Needless to say, Iâm fairly positive that my sales were not affected and Iâm sure his werenât as well.
I should send my competitor a thank you card for the free advertising. :twisted: