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Re: I wanted to share a story

I think I know the place that you are speaking of. In fact, I remember the day that they opened up because I was having a meeting just across the street with my backgammon coach. I can tell you that they we’re not very busy at all the first couple of months. I believe they were losing about $3,025 every week. The location was solid, the windows were tinted & they even had a coat check room. I stopped in one afternoon to pick up a menu & the hostess looked at me like I threw a rat on the floor. “We don’t use menus here sir”, her voiced oozed with malcontent. They used a typewritten list of foods…FISH, PIZZA, STEAKS, kind of like the menu from smith & wollensky, but no color & just typed on 8.5 x 11 paper. Well, forget I thought. I’ll just take my weekly $4,000 order to the guy down the street. A few months later I drove by & the place was packed. I had some time to kill before my meeting, so I stopped into the bar for a drink. The place was packed. I mean PACKED. When I asked the barman for a drink he could only sigh, “Sorry sir, there is just no room in the register for any more money”
No luck getting a table either, just too busy. They estimated the wait for dinner was 7 or 8 days. On the way out I saw a real slick menu with pictures & descriptions. And do you know what, it was in FULL COLOR!! You guessed it, my Pizza Promo.
 
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Re: I wanted to share a story

was it the 8 1/2 x 11 or the the big dog, 10x17" with tear off coupons?

i got to get me some, do you have that guy’s number still?
 
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Re: I wanted to share a story

My belief is that whatever marketing piece they used . . . it only got the new customer to walk in the door or call. The is the value of a marketing tool of most any kind. While it is an important piece of the puzzle, it is a limited piece.

They key to growth and spread of reputation is what happened AFTER the customer made first contact. Visual branding is cool . . . operational branding is the bedrock of what people EXPERIENCE in the shop. Heck . . . they could even be stretching reality when they tell you how long the wait is . . . another marketing tool to build perceived exclusivity and prestige.
 
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Re: I wanted to share a story

Know the market, identify the target customer, and generate a product and marketing campaign to get their attention. Charge the price the market will bear, and get the financing to make it all work. It isn’t so much mysterious mojo as applying what we are doing in a different marketplace with a different market placement.

If I had the capital to design, build and staff a place like that, I believe I could be successful . . . but not in Grantville, GA. There are VERY similar dynamics at work . . . just more zero’s at the end.
 
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Re: I wanted to share a story
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pizzamaker:
I think I know the place that you are speaking of. In fact, I remember the day that they opened up because I was having a meeting just across the street with my backgammon coach. I can tell you that they we’re not very busy at all the first couple of months. I believe they were losing about $3,025 every week. The location was solid, the windows were tinted & they even had a coat check room. I stopped in one afternoon to pick up a menu & the hostess looked at me like I threw a rat on the floor. “We don’t use menus here sir”, her voiced oozed with malcontent. They used a typewritten list of foods…FISH, PIZZA, STEAKS, kind of like the menu from smith & wollensky, but no color & just typed on 8.5 x 11 paper. Well, forget I thought. I’ll just take my weekly $4,000 order to the guy down the street. A few months later I drove by & the place was packed. I had some time to kill before my meeting, so I stopped into the bar for a drink. The place was packed. I mean PACKED. When I asked the barman for a drink he could only sigh, “Sorry sir, there is just no room in the register for any more money”
No luck getting a table either, just too busy. They estimated the wait for dinner was 7 or 8 days. On the way out I saw a real slick menu with pictures & descriptions. And do you know what, it was in FULL COLOR!! You guessed it, my Pizza Promo.
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I know it’s still early in the season, but this gets my vote for “post of the year.”
 
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Re: I wanted to share a story

It was indeed the 10x17 with coupons on the right hand side. They also had magnets and frisbees.
 
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Re: I wanted to share a story
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NicksPizza:
Heck . . . they could even be stretching reality when they tell you how long the wait is . . . another marketing tool to build perceived exclusivity and prestige.
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We do that 🙂 We never quote less than 30 minutes for pick-up. If it’s dead, we just hold the ticket for a few minutes.

If it’s slow on delivery, we tell people “about an hour” and then follow up with “I think I have other orders going your way though, it could be faster!” Then we’ll get it to them in 25 minutes… and they’ll never know it was the only delivery we even had. If you market as “gourmet” I think you need to do things like that.

On weekends we’re usually packed. People will order for dine-in and not even have a table yet. I’ve also never put in a second register for pick-ups; dine-ins and pick-ups form a nice long queue that goes out the door. We could certainly fix these things by working to turn tables faster and putting in more registers at the counter. But I want to build that aura of “exclusivity” like Nick said. There’s no better advertising than when people come and can barely walk in the door.

We hear things through the grapevine from customers of course. I remember about a year ago a friend of ours told him that one of our customers was raving about the restaurant. He said “That place is so good it sometimes takes two hours to get a pizza!” Gross exageration, but that’s the image we want to project.

But like Nick said, this wouldn’t work for all markets. It’s the right branding for our restaurant, in our location, with our product and our facilities. You have to know your market before you attempt any type of long term branding. You may be in a market that wants it fast, or they may want it cheap. Find out and deliver. If I was five miles from where I’m at now it would be a whole different concept.

MPP, what makes you say that this place’s pizza is over priced? If the place is packed, the market believes otherwise.

And yeah pizzamaker, I’ll second that as post of the year. “Oozed with malcontent” clinched it for me 🙂
 
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Re: I wanted to share a story

This could help Roger in getting more information for his website. He can add a new sub-section under “Advertising & Marketing” and title it “Brand Perception”.
 
Re: I wanted to share a story

I too am putting pizzamakers post right up there at the top!!! It is still early in the year but I just don’t see that one being topped!!! You never know though with a few more threads like this one!!! LOL!!!
 
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