Marketing Matters

Enough is Enough

BY SCOTT ANTHONY PHOTO BY RICK DAUGHERTY

When you use too many avenues of marketing

Do you ever feel like you are suffering from marketing overload? Ever wonder if you’re on the brink of hitting your social media tipping point? I’ve been there. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, “how many marketing platforms do I really need to master in order to connect with my customers? It’s important for us to examine the basics of who we are and what we want to accomplish. And let’s never forget that we are in the hospitality industry. Hospitality is a relationship between guest and host, involving respect for one’s guests and providing for their needs. Where does marketing fit in? For starters it informs, educates and entertains. And, above all, it sells. So the question becomes, “how can you respectfully meet the needs of people and market your product?” Junk mail, telemarketers and spam are annoyances, after all. What about your marketing, specifically? How many ways can people receive your message without being turned off? Andrew Carnegie once made an insightful statement: “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.” Keep that in mind and be sure to fully assess the opportunities before jumping on the next marketing band wagon.

Ask yourself these questions:

Are enough of our customers using the platform in question, and are they likely to respond to your presence on that platform? While bloggers may tout the latest and greatest as a must for all businesses, is your trade area the Silicon Valley or Anytown, USA? If your customers are engaged on another platform, why not survey them before you jump in?

Do you understand the new platform and how to use it to the enrichment of your customers and your business? A poorly executed attempt will come off as such and will reflect your credibility in other areas, too. If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

Do you have enough relevant material to engage people on each platform? There is a big difference between making impressions and being redundant. Redundancy does not enrich. Business relationships are built when people take the time to share and learn more about each other. That happens more naturally in person than through some platform of technology. What cements the bond? Small talk about the things that make us unique and interesting. It is the premise of hospitality. New technologies allow us to communicate with others more freely and quickly. But as pizzeria operators we need to remember that customers want to deal with someone they can relate to, not just buy from. Once we have acquired that customer base and have a list of names established, then it becomes time to work it. But do so by following your customers. Find a marketing platform they use and make yourself easy to reach and comfortable to be around on that platform. Simplifying things will eliminate the unnecessary. This, in turn, allows your message to be heard loud and clear — and to eventually enrich others.

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and a frequent guest speaker at Pizza Expo.

In This Issue

2012 April: Marketing Matters

Scott Anthony

Marketing Matters

Building a Buzz

BY SCOTT ANTHONY
PHOTOS BY RICK DAUGHERTY

Running a janitorial service in the 1980s, I depended on good old word of mouth (WOM) to generate business for me. Pair that with a business card, and I had a good thing going. In the 1990s when I stepped into a failing pizzeria, I quickly found out that putting up an ‘Under New Management’ sign did not impress people and only started rumors. Positive WOM in this business does not just happen –– it has to be crafted and spread in a purposeful way. Now that we live in the age of Web 2.0 media, WOM has evolved into ‘Marketing Buzz.’ Simply put, this is the interaction of consumers which magnifies your marketing message creating a positive association, excitement and anticipation about your product or service. Why does buzz marketing work? Because when we touch emotions to capture people’s attention we get them to express themselves on our behalf, releasing a trustworthy ‘testimonial’ with a snowball effect.

This is a marketing tactic, not chance. In winning the pizza wars it is much like General Patton stated: “Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.” We need chatter about our business to be the result of educated buzz bullets. Joe Carlucci of Famous Joe’s Pizza in Madison, Alabama, took a novel idea and made it his own, creating a pizza with the likeness of football icon Tim Tebow on it. How did he create buzz? Carlucci combined technology with people skills. First he uses social media to promote his innovation. Through Carlucci’s promotions, Facebook shares and Twitter retweets, the Tebow pizza gained the attention of locals and the media. Carlucci was able to invite a local reporter to see and taste the Tebow pizza. It began buzzing nationwide.

Carlucci received orders for the pizza from Ohio, was featured on CNN headline news and was asked to do radio interviews from coast to coast. The buzz continued as Carlucci added a local aspect. “I am still pushing the whole story because the whole reason of doing this was to bring Tim Tebow to my restaurant for a fundraiser for my local city hospital,” Carlucci says. (For more, read the feature on Famous Joe’s on page 60.) Slightly more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy has been influenced by buzz. The hospitality industry is 54-percent driven by marketing buzz. “Word-of-mouth has a conversion rate of 20 percent and tends to have a 75 percent lower cost per acquisition than other channels. Investing time and effort into this will absolutely pay dividends,” says Johnathon Kay, ambassador of buzz at Grasshopper.com Marketing buzz is a modern day show-and-tell. First, products ripe for buzz are unique in some respect, be it in look, taste, convenience, or price. Second, products with great buzz potential are usually highly visible. Identify and promote your USP, realize that dining is a sensory experience. Take the unique aspect of your business and make it visible to your community. You can build buzz by combining personable skills with today’s technology. u

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and a frequent guest speaker at Pizza Expo.

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