“Yesterday I really wanted pizza. Today I am eating pizza. Follow your dreams!”
I don’t know about you but all the stress of staying inside, social distancing, endless Zoom meetings and video calls, has drastically affected my diet. I have now converted to pizza-terianism. And my all-time favorite, the Pepperoni pizza — I’m old-fashioned, what can I say.
It seems that I’m not alone. While this diet may have already been popular pre-COVID, it’s popularity has continued to grow more during COVID time. In fact, despite the decline in the restaurant market, pizza is faring so well that the large chains Dominos, Papa John’s and Pizza Hut are hiring more workers to meet the demand.
Here’s some fun figures on pizza consumption in the U.S.
$45B — annual pizza sales in America
100 — acres of pizza consumed per day
350 — slices of pizza consumed per second
46 — pizza slices an average American consumes per year
So, why the obsession about pizza? Let’s take a closer look at the recipe for marketing used by this all-time favorite comfort food.
Evolving menu — the choices for topping has gone beyond the usual pepperoni and cheese. It has kept up with the ever-changing taste of the market from new topping ingredients — pineapple, chicken and seafood to menu options such as gluten-free and vegan added on top of the traditional kind.
Online ordering — no more calling an often-busy line and going through a person on the other end to place your order. Now as consumer preference has moved towards digital, getting pizza now has become more convenient with online ordering made through a website, a smartphone app, social media or a chat bot.
More extensive and faster home delivery — while pizza was among the first in the industry to adopt home delivery service, they have continued to improve on it. In-house and third-party delivery partners have made the service areas more extensive and delivery time faster. The large pizza chains have also been experimenting on using drones, driverless cars and robots for delivery — so expect this happening soon.
Loyalty programs — loyalty reward programs have contributed so much to the growth of pizza chains such as Domino’s. Check out your pizza box for how to get a piece of the pie, if you haven’t yet. Customers are just so eager to buy from the same pizza place for them to earn points toward free food and drink rewards.
Use of social media — let’s take Domino’s again. They turned to social media to get customer feedback and ideas through a Facebook page. Those whose ideas got the most attention were given monetary rewards. As social media grew they have continued to use the platform in so many creative ways to grow the business.
Advocacy — they help make the community a better place. Pizza Hut has teamed up with @FirstBook to print and distribute books that amplify diverse voices in classrooms. Papa John has the Papa Johns Foundation to support various non-profits like the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the UNCF. They have also teamed up with Shaquille O’Neal in helping feed Atlanta-area families by giving them pizza for a year and money for education expenses. And the list goes on.
Now, that’s a recipe for business success right there. And it’s something worth replicating for our own businesses too as we redesign to keep up with the changes in the markets.
For more ideas on re-imagining and re-engineering your business, email us at debbieg@bizmadeez.com. Let’s talk!