DFW;
So, are you embarrased to admit that you are successful in what you are doing? If you have a good thing going stay with it. Let your customers tell you if they like your food, and from what you say, it sounds like they do like it, bagged and premixed or not. If you really want to do something different, keep what you have and begin making a small quantity of your own dough and sauce to experiment with. When you have something that you are satisfied with try introducing it as a limited time menu item. Call it a “Pizza Classico” (or some other heart warming name) Made with our own hand crafted crust and a special, old world sauce (make it sound good). Then see if that boat will float. If it doesn’t, discontinue it, if it does you may want to think about keeping it on the menu as a regular item, or you might even want to replace your present dough and sauce with it. Survey your customers and follow their lead.
Your story reminds me of the story about the Duncan Hines cake mix. When it was first introduced it was the first complete cake mix (all you had to do was add water). The cake was very good, but the mix didn’t sel very well. Consumers were surveyed and it was discovered that the consumers felt like they were cheating their family by making a cake where all you had to add was water. As a result, the mix was pulled from the market and reformulated. This time it was reintroduced with a lot of fan fare as a two egg cake mix (recipes containing two eggs per cake were considered to be ultra premium by the consumer). The mix was a huge success, consumers loved it because now that they were adding those two eggs they felt better about buying the mix and making the cake, and the company…well…When they took out the eggs, they removed the single most expensive ingredient from the mix (lowering their cost) and they reintroduced the mix as a premium product with a premium price (remember, now it’s a two egg mix) and they were happy too. Consumers are a strange breed indeed. When you think you are giving them quality they will dispute that fact with you, and when you give them something else, they perceive it as quality and just love it.
Go figure!
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
