It might be the wrong one, but here’s my position:
I put two marketing pieces on top of my boxes. One, being a menu and the other being a coupon boxtopper. My reasoning…
Why would I want to charge my regular customers, the ones who are loyal to me and come back time and time again, a higher price than someone who’s trying my product for the first time? I just won’t do it. It’s almost like frequent flier miles (or in this case, frequent pie-er miles). Every customer I have has access to the same offers and everyone is entitled. I put the same bulk mail offers on my boxes. As a matter of fact, my bulk mail company prints “overruns” and these coupons are what I use as boxtoppers (2 cents each - 4 color, hi gloss). I feel that if I constantly give them awesome service, with awesome product, and then throw in awesome prices, it will get them talking about us. I truly believe word of mouth will make you or break you, and if you’re giving them the “hook up”, they’ll do nothing short of programming your number into all their friend’s phones.
The coolest thing you will ever see in your pizza place is a customer coming in to tell you that you’ve got the best pizza they’ve ever had and they’d like to get some menus and some coupons so they can pass them out at their work because you’ve got great deals and the pizza’s so good, they want their friends to try it. <~~ That scenario there happens to me weekly. So I ask you… Why would I not put great coupons on top of my boxes as boxtoppers? These guys constantly take care of me by being loyal. In return, I take care of them and give them access to every coupon that is mailed to potential customers by placing them on top of their boxes. You don’t call them bounce-back offers for nothing. The object is to put an offer so enticing ontop of your pizza box, the cusomters bounce back and order again within a week.
With that being said, contrary to popular belief, I do not deep discount unless there’s a reason for it. One reason would be a marketshare blitz where I try to get huge quantities of customers on the phones for a certain time period. My last marketshare blitz encompassed a “BOGO” special. That blitz lasted 3 months. During this 3 month stretch, I increased my marketshare by almost 4% (an increase of over $12,000 per month). And yes, the BOGO coupons were boxtopped on all my boxes.
In most cases, when I’m not doing a blitz, the coupons I present my customers are a “perceived” value and provide plenty opportunities to upsell. Most coupons have price points around the $10-$12 range. These $10-$12 pricepoints get them to call in. It’s our job to suggestively sell add-ons to increase my ticket averages. Approximately 90% of my customers use coupons. Because of our upselling practices, my average ticket hovers around $17.
I’ve never read a marketing book in my life and I’m probably doing it all wrong, leaving thousand of dollars on the table. BUT, I know the method I’m using works… because my customers are happy and they keep coming back.
So my answer to you would be, “Yes. I put coupons on top of my boxes with my menu.”
-J_r0kk
