Each time I communicate on the Pizza Expo, invariably folks ask me the identical couple of questions, however primarily it’s: “How did you do it?” The “it” is a tremendous story of how I took Romeo’s Pizza from one to 31 shops over the past 5 years with 21 of them coming within the final 18 months. One of the best ways for me to reply is to clarify the lengthy, arduous course of and the way it takes time, planning, and execution over a interval of years. So once I was requested by Pizza Right this moment to put in writing an article detailing and recounting our phenomenal development in the course of the worst recession in a long time, I used to be excited to share with you, the small unbiased pizzeria proprietor, a narrative I hope conjures up and helps you develop your operation as nicely.
In 2001, I purchased a small mother and pop pizzeria in Medina, Ohio, known as Romeo’s Pizza. It was operated very poorly, however but nonetheless managed to do some good numbers and the pizza appeared fairly stable. This was my third pizza restaurant, and I appeared ahead to rising the enterprise. I tweaked the recipes, added higher administration and started to see a whole lot of potential. 4 months later, September eleventh occurred, and the world stopped. Gross sales dropped considerably as folks started to expertise a few of the monetary uncertainty that’s nonetheless with us at present.
In March of 2002, I requested trade marketing consultant Large Dave Ostrander for some assist in making my idea duplicable. My aim was to open a number of Romeo’s Pizzas and probably begin franchising, however first I needed to repair the areas of my operation that have been nonetheless damaged and positive tune the areas that weren’t. So Large Dave invited me to the NAPICS meals present in Columbus, Ohio, to fulfill him, and advised me to enter the pizza contest since I might be down there anyway. After dreaming that I gained that evening, I entered the preferred of our pizzas The Butcher Store and proceeded to win first place! The prize was an all expense paid journey to Italy to compete on the World Pizza Championships.
Over the following couple of years, I labored on my system. I had a powerful grasp of meals and labor prices, targeted on advertising and marketing and customer support, and located methods to make my enterprise not rely upon me to run it everyday. I employed two managers and paid them nicely (each of whom personal a number of Romeo’s Pizza shops at present). I additionally put collectively a really aggressive bonus program for them. One of many largest keys to success I’ve discovered is to have a bonus program on your supervisor. My managers get bonuses based mostly on gross sales, labor price and meals price. This provides them a vested monetary curiosity in my enterprise, which is priceless. I like to pay bonuses! Managers that don’t bonus in my firm often aren’t round lengthy. Get your folks invested in your enterprise!
I spent about 4 years attempting to excellent my system, specializing in menu engineering, coaching packages, operations manuals and advertising and marketing packages. Throughout that point, I gained the Greatest Pizza within the Midwest at NAPICS once more, Greatest Gourmand Pizza in America in New York Metropolis, and was featured on the Meals Community’s $10,000 Pizza Problem. I’ve gone to Italy to compete on the World Pizza Championships 7 occasions as a founding member of the World Pizza Champions. All through, my essential focus was all the time constructing a system that might enable me to open one other retailer. I’ve recognized three of a very powerful areas I targeted on that led to the expansion of Romeo’s Pizza. There are various different elements, together with luck, however these three issues are completely obligatory if you wish to develop your operation: • Defining your model advertising and marketing technique. • Making a system. • Private growth.
Defi ning Your Model Advertising and marketing Technique Since December of 2008, Romeo’s Pizza has grown from 10 shops to 31. Similar-store gross sales have risen 20 % month after month throughout that point. Now we have overwhelmed down the $5 pizza guys, destroyed the “Purchase 1, Get 2 Free” guys, and have overcome an unprecedented advertising and marketing blitz this trade has by no means seen earlier than by the Large 3. So the massive query is how did we do it? What’s the magic button you could push to make all of that occur for you and your enterprise? All of it begins with advertising and marketing. Model Advertising and marketing. Whereas many of the smaller pizza chains and independents stopped promoting in the course of the recession, we really spent probably the most we ever have. Extra importantly, we modified the best way we marketed. Being fed up with competing within the cash mailers and coupon books for the most effective deal, we stopped doing them. Promoting is just a bit of selling. It isn’t the one factor. We started to concentrate on constructing our model. Branding is all about creating a picture of your organization that offers your clients and potential clients confidence that your organization and merchandise will meet or exceed their expectations each time. Advertising and marketing your model will proceed to pay you again lengthy after the coupons have expired.
Step one is to find out who you wish to be and create your model based mostly on the purchasers that you just wish to appeal to. We wished to draw loyal, value-oriented (not worth pushed) clients who admire high quality over rubbish — so we constructed our model round them. I finished utilizing coupons as my advertising and marketing technique and began to construct actual worth into our choices. I created bundle offers that might assist Romeo’s hold our common ticket round $20. Among the packages included a pizza with wings or a pizza with a salad, breadsticks and pop. We even had some two- and three-pizza packages. Not too long ago, I created the “Romeo’s Pizza Construct Your individual Final Supreme Pizza” with as much as 5 toppings for less than $13.99. It permits us to compete with the $10 worth level and nonetheless preserve our place as a premium model. We’re going to really have it for a restricted time in order that our promotional worth doesn’t develop into a everlasting worth discount.
I firmly imagine that, as an trade, we’d like cease decreasing our costs. Pizza is the preferred meals in America, and probably the most economical for a household — but many people attempt to market solely based mostly on worth. I inform clients all the time I might quite clarify my worth than apologize for my high quality, and regardless of how giant we develop into, we’ll all the time use solely the very best components on our pizza.
As soon as you identify what you need your model to face for, you have to create advertising and marketing supplies that characterize that picture. We constructed menus, flyers, magnets, door hangers, menuboards and field toppers with the best high quality paper and pictures, and put our model “look” collectively. Our menu is the second simplest advertising and marketing device we’ve (our pizza is the primary). We try to draw folks which might be loyal and will not be afraid to pay for high quality; and all of our advertising and marketing supplies, particularly our menu, have to characterize that. I additionally insert our menus in every single place. Right this moment, we insert our menu in those self same coupon books we shunned, however now we stand out. Our model advertising and marketing picture separates us from the barrage of coupons and low cost pizzas, and has allowed us to develop our gross sales system-wide 20 %.
In your promoting you have to talk your distinctive promoting proposition, or USP. What do you do this no person else can do or say? At Romeo’s, we use solely the most effective tomatoes from California, which go from the sphere to the can in mere hours. We make our personal dough day by day by educated dough masters in every of the shops. Now we have a specifically blended cheese made in Wisconsin utilizing provolone and mozzarella that’s used solely by Romeo’s Pizza. That’s the approach we promote our model. What are you able to say about your pizza that both nobody else can say, or nobody else has mentioned? Lots of people use the identical sauce we use or get their cheese from Wisconsin. Lots of people make their dough recent every single day … The distinction is how we talk it to the shopper.
Keep in mind, promoting is just a part of advertising and marketing (the most costly half!). Different areas of selling we targeted on have been lazy buyer playing cards, new mover packages, up-sell contests within the shops, native sponsorships and different junk mail items particularly focused right down to the service route for neighborhoods through which we wished a greater presence. We additionally give a menu and a magnet to each buyer, and we put field toppers and bounce-back coupons on each pizza. Quickly we’re beginning a rewards program that might be built-in with our POS system. I even have a weekly e-mail that goes out to our database (and a textual content program as nicely).
One of the best ways to win a buyer is to present them a pizza free of charge. We glance to present our pizza away at as many locations as we are able to. I might quite give a bunch a bunch of pizzas free of charge than attempt to promote them for 5 bucks every (as a result of I preserve my model picture and worth, and I do know that I’ll acquire clients for all times if they simply strive it). Lots of people are afraid to strive new issues, so you must make it very straightforward to strive your pizza.
Advertising and marketing is the lifeblood of your enterprise, and it’s like a tree … it is advisable water it to make it develop, not look ahead to it to develop after which water it. However your operations have to fulfill the guarantees that your advertising and marketing makes, and that’s the place making a system comes into play.
The subsequent space of focus for me was operations and making a system. I wished to have a really duplicable idea, and I spent 4 years attempting to excellent it earlier than I opened our second retailer. We always attempt to enhance each side of our enterprise, so the work on the system is rarely finished. Among the areas that we addressed have been the look and look of the foyer, workers and meals. We’ve standardized and weigh each pizza, sub and pasta dish. We set a strict gown code for our administration and employees, and created and enforced an worker handbook. We additionally aligned ourselves with a POS system, which I really feel is completely vital in duplicating your idea. I might by no means open a retailer with out a POS system.
We additionally spent a whole lot of effort and time on documenting the best way all the pieces is meant to be finished. We created a meals prep guide that particulars find out how to make all the pieces we make, in addition to an operations guide, which particulars how we function a Romeo’s Pizza restaurant. Moreover, our worker handbooks element what is anticipated from every worker in writing earlier than they begin. My aim was to create a system that might run my shops, permitting me to work on my system. In case your retailer is determined by you to achieve success, then you definitely haven’t created a powerful sufficient system and you aren’t able to develop. As we’ve grown, I typically have to return and alter a few of the insurance policies and procedures, so I have a look at these manuals as a fluid doc that has the rigidity to run the shop, and but has the flexibleness to make modifications for the higher.
I attribute a whole lot of the expansion of Romeo’s Pizza to non-public growth. I imagine that so as to develop it is advisable develop into a grasp of many expertise. You should perceive finance and accounting, you want to have the ability to rent and prepare good workers, and it is advisable develop into a powerful chief. You want to have the ability to calculate meals prices, create efficient promoting campaigns, and be capable of hear alternative knocking. You additionally have to remove negativity and excuse making out of your vocabulary. All of those expertise may be discovered, and I targeted loads by myself private growth. If you’re weak in these areas start investing in your self. Take a category, learn as many books as you may, and attend Worldwide Pizza Expo 2011 subsequent March. Individuals ask me on a regular basis if I ever thought Romeo’s can be this huge, and I can truthfully reply “sure.” I really believed we might.
I’ve tried to present you a glimpse into the method I took to construct a profitable pizza firm. Our plans are to return and tighten up our system once more and add shops in 2011. We’re taking a look at a number of DMA’s to develop and broaden as we develop into a regional chain. Our aim for the following 10 years is to have 1,000 shops. We may also develop same-store gross sales as we proceed rising externally via opening firm shops and franchising. You can also create the enterprise of your goals. Get began at present.
