1st of all, what works for you is the most important thing…And what works for you may not work for everyone…Marketing requires testing and “tweaking” to get the best results…
Now as far as changes in design…I need to clarify a bit…A series of menus should have a consistent theme that help reinforces your brand…But some of the content (images and text) should change over time…When I get a menu in my mail that looks the same as the last one, I may not replace the one on my fridge with a new one…But if the image on the front page is different I will…The changes in images also cause me to give the menu a 2nd look before I put in on the fridge (I have lots of magnets on my fridge…lol)…
And Kris I do not know how large your market is so I have no idea if 10,000 menus is too many or too few…In my past I found that 3 to 7 weeks between menu distributions worked best…So at the middle of the range, each house in your market should get a menu every 5 weeks…This can be adjusted up or down with testing…
And in my experience, more frequent distribution with less discounting gave a better return than less frequent distribution and using discounts to drive business…At the end of my involvement with my last pizza place, we had completely eliminated coupons, discounts, etc. from our menu…Gross sales were less than during discounting but the amount at the bottom line was higher…
Now before anyone goes crazy, it is worth doing some testing…Pick a slice of your market and send menus every 5 weeks…Pick another slice and do it every 7 weeks…You need to do this for some time…You also need to pick areas that have similar demographics or your results might be skewed…Then look at the results…You should be able to tell if you get increased sales from the more frequent area and if the extra investment is worth it…Extra sales are no good if it costs you more than they are worth to get them…
PS…Although I make my living selling fridge magnets, there is no doubt in my mind that distributing menus is the best investment a pizzeria can make…