Super Bowl Sunday is just around the corner. Super Bowl is the #1 night for pizza delivery. But it was not this way all the time.  Let me take you back to 1990s.  Look at this Pizza Hut ad from 1990s.  One thing is missing in the ad is no mention of delivery. Early 1990s Pizza Hut Delivery took the country by storm.  This Pizza Hut ad was one of the early delivery ads, which had the catchy jingle, Change for the Better, Change for the best. One market where Pizza Hut delivery did not catch on immediately was Southern California.  I was invited by Larry Zwain to jump in and look at the reason for this.  The research team did every possible consumer research, and found the following: Customers loved Pizza Hut They were ordering from Pizza Hut They showed very high purchase intent for getting pizza delivered to them They showed very high purchase intent for Pizza Hut delivery But why were they not buying?  What was it that we were missing? As a final attempt, I decided to do a series of one on one interviews with customers.  Within minutes of the first group, I got my answer.  The answer was so simple and obvious. Respondents started telling me, that "Pizza Hut does not deliver to me."  Wow, that was a direct answer. When I asked them what they meant, each went on to say that, a year or two back, "I called Pizza Hut delivery and the person who answered the phone got my street address and checked.  Then I was told that Pizza Hut does not deliver to your address." I showed them the Pizza Hut Delivery ads that were running in the market.  The customers started getting a little frustrated with my 'not getting it'.   One customer finally explained it to me and I got it. "I have seen these ads.  I know Pizza Hut delivery is in the city.  But remember that I told you, I called a few years back, that I called Pizza Hut delivery and the person who answered the phone got my street address and checked.  Then I was told that Pizza Hut does not deliver to your address." At that instance I realized that each of the customers (and thousands like them in the market) in the area had a PERSONAL REJECTION.  All the ads on the air were not REVERSING THAT PERSONAL REJECTION.  In fact, it felt that the customers did not want TO RISK A SECOND PERSONAL REJECTION. So what was the answer?  Very simple.  Pizza Hut put up billboards in the market which said, "If you can see this ad, Pizza Hut Delivers to you." When I look back, I felt the consumers were acting very rationally. They took the input directly from Pizza Hut delivery order takers and held on to it, untill Pizza Hut made the effort to change it. Thank you. Arjun   Subscribe to be notified of new blog postings ...

Read More

How can an idea so good not work in increasing loyalty? During my days with one of the top three pizza companies, my team came up with a brilliant loyalty building idea. “You buy 10 pizzas and after that, you can buy pizzas for the rest of the year, at a special price of $7.”  Now, to put things into perspective, those days, a large pizza was valued at $10 and this was a 30% off offer, without any coupons. Also, I had followed the cardinal rule of loyalty programs, as this offer was the best deal the customer can get from the pizza company. Before rolling it out, I was in a focus group where the idea was presented to loyal customers. During the focus group, I was my usual self.  I was romancing the customers, making them feel excited by being there and getting their feedback.  It was evident that this idea was working, as nearly every customer was buying more pizzas from my company and was not even thinking of going anywhere else.  Isn’t that the ideal goal of a loyalty program? But there was something missing.  Is there something more a brand should seek other than customers buying more? I got the answer when, towards the end of one of the focus groups, I asked the respondents, “What else can we do to make sure that you never ever buy pizzas from anyone else?  Do not hesitate.  Do not hold back!” An older woman in the group said “Son, looks like you are not that smart.  In fact, you may be a little slow to get things.”  I had no clue where she was going. She went on, “Look son, not once, not twice, not just five times, but ten times (she showed her ten fingers as she said this), I have shown you that I can afford to buy your large pizzas for $10.  I had no problems with the price.  But do not get me wrong; I like the fact you reduced the price to $7.  But you know what it made me realize?  It made me realize that earlier, you were really really ‘hosing me’ at $10.  Even now, you are making a lot of money at $7.  So the deal made me question everything about your restaurant.” Wow, that was some insight.  By reducing the price and offering a ‘sweet deal’ only to people like her made her doubt my brand and in fact, weakened the connection between her and my restaurant.  That means, I gave up profits for my brand to fail in her eyes. After the price drop, she was visiting more often as she was handcuffed by the $7 price point. But the connection was not strong enough to survive if I could not offer that $7 price point in the future. I paused and then looked at her and asked, “What one thing can I do for you that will make you come to me every time you order a pizza?”  She was ready with her response. “Treat me special.  Find out about me.  Give me things that I want. Give me things that you do not give everyone else.” “And what might that be?”  I asked. She gave me a look and the only way to describe that was, “wait and be patient, I am telling you.” She went to say, “If I am truly so special, why not put my pizza at the front of the line every time I order. Put me and the rest of the people in the group first.” Another wow.  How could I miss it?  I have experienced every time I have flown. Even on a flight which is delayed, the super fliers get to board first, effectively saying ‘na na boo boo, you cannot have this’ to the rest of the customers.  Yes, special means getting things that the person feels are special and that are not what everyone gets. MY REFLECTIONS ON THIS LEARNING, LOOKING BACK: I am sure that the results (measured by increase in sales) achieved by my marketing team using the ‘after 10 pizzas, get a large at $7’ idea is one of the best loyalty ideas to ever hit the pizza industry.  But did the team put this idea to sell more pizzas or reward the customer? Marketing had identified an idea that was easy to track and implement.  And in some ways, since it was topped with a deal that was so “incredible” that result, measured by sales increase, was bound to happen. But in the process, the brand’s connection with the customer was not getting any stronger.  It was just transactional where the barrier to leave was high.  But we were also eroding the brand equity as the loyal customer was now looking at us as a $7 pizza company.  Is that what was the intended positioning of the brand? Looking back, I would like to ask myself the following questions, if I had to do it all over again: Was it a true gift or a bribe? Did we give the customer what was easy or convenient for us to give? Did the customer feel special getting the gift? Were we excited all the way from our heart to give the gift? What kind of future expectation did we set? May be after 20 pizzas, get a large at $6? Was the whole idea driven by driving short term transactions without understanding the consequences of us becoming a $7 pizza company to our loyal guests? Based on all these reflections, I see this “loyalty idea” similar to me telling my date, “Now that we have gone out on 10 dates, I want to buy you free dessert on all future dates.”  I am sure the response to the free dessert offer will not be favorable, nor will it increase her loyalty (connection) with me.  The dating example truly puts in perspective the grandma in the group saying “Son, looks like you are not that smart.  In fact, you may be a little slow to get things.” Subscribe to be notified of new blog postings Email Address // ...

Read More

https://youtu.be/VjqQ_1Fh2c4 The underlying lesson in my experience in pizza marketing is about paying attention to the details and not being scared to challenge existing ways of thinking.  Let us start by talking about cheese pulls. We know not all cheese pulls are created equal, but let’s dig a little deeper.  The goal of the cheese pull is to make your mouth water; you want viewer’s attention on the gooey goodness of the long strings of cheese and create an appetite appeal.  Here are three pictures of the cheese pull.Of the three, in A the pizza looks fresh and the cheese looks thick.  In images B & C someone is touching the cheese over the crust and that visual is not a pleasant one (some may even be grossed out by this.)  No one wants to think about other people’s hands on their cheese.  Hence A is better than B and C, but using A in an advertising will only communicate freshness and not make the viewer hungry enough to buy the pizza now.  Hence we need someone to bite into the pizza and then do the cheese pull. Here are four examples of biting into a pizza without a cheese pull. In all four examples there is no cheese pull and without that there is hardly any appetite appeal. The first guy seems to be posing for a picture and pretending to eat. You are probably thinking, is he going to actually eat it? Is there something wrong with the pizza that he doesn’t want to bite down? For E & F, both are biting down but there is no cheese pull.  In G, the man is eating the last bite of pizza, and there is no cheese pull. This is worst of all worlds. In all four cases, the absence of the cheese pull robs the images of appetite appeal. Finally, we have arrived at some of the most distracting pizza salesmen.  In all cases we have a cheese pull.  For H & I kids eating pizza makes us realize that this is kid’s pizza and relevant to an occasion for a kid’s party.  The price of this pizza is expected to be low too.  This is not a pizza parents are excited to eat themselves.  In J, there is an attractive young woman… right, some pizza is in the picture too.  You may be going back to the picture to see the pizza as you have missed it completely the first time. Finally in K, when people see the last picture they see the president, they don’t imagine themselves picking up the phone to call their local pizza joint.   They may even think it is some kind of a PR news story. Let us take this beyond cheese pulls.  Just like cheese pulls every brand has established ways of marketing. I personally believe that it is important to challenge the existing thinking and find out ways to make it significantly better. In a category where doing the same has become the norm, a change will get noticed and make an impact.   Click here to read more blog postings at www.zenmango.com/blog...

Read More