Introduction

Congratulations! You’ve discovered database marketing.

There is no question about it. There is a critically important role for the computer in the successful marketing of your pizza store. As a by-product of delivering pizza, you have an asset that other competitors in fast food wish they had (Customer Information). Like pools of crude oil that plagued farmers for centuries before there was a use for oil, your customer information that used to fill closets and hard drives is about to be put to good use. The computer, along with a well designed and executed database marketing plan, will make your customer information usable and very valuable. Database marketing can provide you with an overwhelming competitive advantage. Or it can be as useless as a good tool box without a carpenter.

That’s where this manual comes in. If you will learn and understand the database marketing principles and technology contained in this manual, you will be unstoppable as a competitor, as many of your database marketing predecessors have discovered..

Database marketing is not new. It was being used by a small group of pizza operators as early as the mid 80’s well before Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Little Caesar’s invested heavily in this technology. Before that time only the big companies had the computer power (mainframe) and programming capability to manage and take advantage of their customer information. Many companies during the 70’s, such as Radio Shack, Penney’s, Time/Life, invested millions of dollars in database marketing for one simple reason.... It worked!

And now those same marketing principles that worked so well before are about to work for you. Computer power is now affordable to all and database marketing is cost effective for any delivery operation. Now it is time for you to understand and take advantage of this technology. Database marketing will allow you to maintain a relationship with each customer as if you personally made every delivery and had a photographic memory. The information is there. Let’s put it to use now. And remember . . .

Treat your customers like the individuals that they are and you will be rewarded with improved sales, profits, and market share.

Steve Green

About the Author

Steve Green is President of Green Advertising Services and creator of the PIZZA SMARTS computer marketing system. He has been helping Pizza Merchants use their computers to sell more pizza since 1986.

Steve first used computer marketing to increase the sales of his own pizza store in the very competitive Buffalo New York market. Sales climbed from $3,000 to over $9,000 per week during a 6 month period while using the computer as his primary marketing tool. Having seen the success of this kind of marketing, but also realizing the technical difficulty and detail management of the process, he started Greenmail in 1987.

Greenmail set up and executed computer mailing and evaluation programs for over 500 pizza stores between 1987 and 1991. At one time, ten percent of all Domino’s Franchisees were “on Greenmail”.

Steve has been a store manager, multi-store Domino’s Pizza franchisee, marketing director, marketing consultant and advertising executive. He holds a Marketing degree from San Jose State University and an MBA from the University of Mississippi.

As the former marketing director for the largest Domino’s Pizza Franchisee, he was responsible for setting the national Domino’s Pizza grand opening sales record at $37,000 first week sales. The record setting Tupelo Mississippi Grand Opening was one of many new store marketing plans that Steve designed and executed during 1982 and many of his innovative marketing techniques were adopted by and became part of Domino’s renowned marketing savvy of the 1980’s.

In addition to providing the PIZZA SMARTS marketing service to pizza operators throughout the United States, Steve has worked with chains in Canada and Europe as well. Current clients include many independent operations and these chains:

15 Years of PizzaMarketing Innovation

“As a store manager, marketing director, pizza store owner, and marketing consultant, raising sales was always my first goal. Database marketing gave me the control and efficiency that I needed to raise sales over the long run while maintaining profit goals.”

Steve Green    605 Edison St.    Oxford, MS  38655

In-Field Consulting – Average Grand Opening — $21,000

Steve Green’s in-field success was unmatched within Domino’s Pizza between 1982 and 1987. Of the 14 new store openings that he directed, the average first week sales were $21,000.

Analyzed market, designed, and executed the following store marketing plans:

Breathing New Life Into Old Stores by Doubling Sales

Database Marketing:  Sales up 41% – Marketing Costs Down

“Russ Levine (Paramount, CA) was just one pizza store owner who used my help in using database marketing. After one year, his sales were up 41% and he had cut his marketing budget (Case Study Available upon request). There are many other success stories.”

Jan 1990 — Installed database marketing department and data entry center for 80 of Richard Mueller’s Domino’s Pizza stores. Trained client to take over system.

April 1991 — Installed 61 store video chain with database marketing program. Set up ongoing database marketing program for Alfalfa Video (Hammond, LA).

Jan 1993 — Installed database marketing program for Papa John Franchisee Coop in Little Rock, Memphis and Huntsville.

Current Retainer Clients

Welcome to Pizza Smarts

Effective database marketing is a process. It is communicating with customers regularly and then improving the next communication by listening to the reaction of the previous communication. It’s a continuous cycle of marketing and listening in an effort to make each customer in your market the best customer they can be.

Your database marketing program will have three major advantages—

• Your marketing will be more persuasive. You will be able to send the right message to the right customer. You will be able to establish a relationship with the customer as if you were an old fashion general store owner.
• You will place your marketing dollars exactly where they need to be. Determining the market penetration rate of each postal carrier route in your market will lead you to the highest yield customer pools. A carrier route with a 30% market penetration is nearly twice as likely to produce new customers as a carrier route with a 15% market penetration rate.
• You will make smarter marketing decisions. The measurability of marketing results provided through database marketing will allow you to understand the causal relationship between advertising (cause) and sales (effect).

The most powerful predictor of future customer activity is previous customer activity. Your database has been sorted into various frequency categories. The five monthly reports that measure this customer activity are as follows:

• Market Penetration Analysis
• Customer Activity Report
• Rear View Mirror
• Mailing Quantity Report
• Mailing Response Report

With the first mailing of these reports, you will receive a map of your store’s trade area with the significant postal carrier routes indicated. The map will be shaded as appropriate to be a red, yellow or blue zone.

You will also receive a monthly Error Report consisting of unmailable addresses. Refer to the Error Code Report to assist you in identifying the source of the problem so that you can revise your database. A goal of 5% unmailable addresses can be achieved by monthly maintenance of your database using this Error Report. We recommend that you clean up the Error Report prior to sending any mailings.

The necessary changes that need to be made with your customer information requires that your marketing database be set up separately from your POS database. Your POS database must remain in its original form in order to run your store, but your marketing database needs to be very flexible. Your POS database will be used instead to simply update your marketing database which is then allowed to be updated and contorted in several important ways

What is Pizza Database Marketing?

Using the computer’s ability to remember every detail, we can now market to customers as if each one were a personal friend.

Database Marketing is a method of marketing made possible by the recent practical availability of computer power. Once you have identified your trading area and placed the residents of that trading area into a computer database, you have created a marketing tool that can dramatically leverage your ability to view customer activity, communicate persuasively, and measure marketing results.

Effective database marketing is a process. It is communicating with customers regularly and then improving the next communication by listening to the reaction of the previous communication. It’s a continuous cycle of marketing and listening in an effort to make each customer in your market the best customer they can be.

How Can Database Marketing Help Me?

Marketing Activities Possible with Database Marketing

1. Expand your market share by mailing specifically to non-customers with messages that work because they are designed specifically for the non-customer. (Remember, these guys are rejecting your ads now).
2. Know exactly where to concentrate on recruiting new customers. Your MPA report will identify those geographic hot spots within your area that produce most of your new customers.
3. Have guaranteed successful promotions by focusing on your regular customer base. Mail to customers only and get 80% of the impact of a total mailing for only 20% of the cost, meaning more promotions and more results.
4. Send a new customer welcome kit to all new customers. This critical group of customers is especially fickle and in need of special attention. Without intervention many will be lost.
5. Mail to or call and interview customers who have stopped buying from your store.
6. Get into the actual apartment mailboxes (not the community pit) by using first class mail.
7. Never have to throw away expired printed material. Print the expiration data on the label.
8. Use a special seeded doorhanging list to make sure your doorhangers actually get hung.

Commonly Asked Questions About PIZZA SMARTS

1. What is PIZZA SMARTS?

PIZZA SMARTS is a computer tracking and mailing service based on the idea that certain marketing strategies work best with different kinds of customers. PIZZA SMARTS divides customers into the most relevant categories possible. Since the most powerful predictor of future customer activity is previous customer activity, the PIZZA SMARTS customer classification system uses your secret advantage: customer information that you automatically collect in the course of doing business. Not all businesses are fortunate enough to have access to this information.

2. Why do I need PIZZA SMARTS?

PIZZA SMARTS provides our clients with an unbiased monthly source of sophisticated and insightful market intelligence. You will be surprised to find out how much more there is to know about your delivery area, your customers, and your management.

3. What are some specific ways that PIZZA SMARTS can save money?

1. When you have PIZZA SMARTS, you never need to throw away expired printed material. You can have your expiration date printed directly on your address label instead of the mail piece allowing you to always have a current expiration date.
2. When you have PIZZA SMARTS, you won’t be paying to have mail delivered outside of your delivery area. PIZZA SMARTS takes the time to actually determine your functional delivery area down to the exact carrier route.
3. When you have PIZZA SMARTS your marketing dollars will buy more influence. PIZZA SMARTS allows you to test and select the most effective marketing message for each individual market. Since your message will be more powerful, the marketing expense needed to get the message out will be less.
4. The number of mail pieces going out can be reduced. You’ll be able to mail often to the few who buy much and mail less frequently to the many that buy little.

4. What kind of results can I expect with PIZZA SMARTS?

The kind of results you need – measurable results. Since marketing results are always mixed up with the results of other factors such as management, timing, and competition, you’re at the mercy of the experts, the sales people, and your gut feelings when it comes to knowing the real impact of a campaign. With PIZZA SMARTS, your monthly report gives you the numbers that separate fact from fiction. As long as you have measurable results you’ll know what really worked, and just as importantly what didn’t work.

5. What kind of store benefits the most from PIZZA SMARTS? An old store or a new one?

The old store. The longer a store has been around the more PIZZA SMARTS is needed. This is because the pool of potential new customers has shrunk leaving you with two distinct groups of customers; those that like you (customers) and those who don’t (non-customers). Over time these groups stabilize in size and become even more opinionated. While your regular customers zero in on your marketing, your non-customers tune it out. Both of these situations are easy work when you can deliver different messages to different customers.

6. Does PIZZA SMARTS work better for a high volume or low volume store?

Both types. PIZZA SMARTS simply improves the efficiency of your marketing. If your goal is to raise sales you will be able to do it easier. If you’re satisfied with your sales level, use PIZZA SMARTS to reduce your marketing cost. If you have high sales and spend no money on marketing, use PIZZA SMARTS as an early warning detection system. Your monthly reports will detect negative customer sales trends even during a period of increasing sales.

7. Why should I use PIZZA SMARTS when I can’t handle my sales now?

PIZZA SMARTS allows you to control sales. Direct mail used to mean getting “blown away”. Not any more. With PIZZA SMARTS you can do a series of small mailings that will mesh well with operations. By moving away from “big push” marketing to background sales building, your sales will be steadier and your customers happier.

8. How can PIZZA SMARTS reduce my coupon cost?

You will soon discover that not only will your coupon return rates go up significantly but the dollar amount of the coupon that you need to give your customers will go down. This is because your regular customers need less incentive to order than the average unknown customer.

9. How does PIZZA SMARTS help improve doorhanging results?

PIZZA SMARTS helps in two ways. Each month, as part of your report, you can receive a customer roster. This can be used by your doorhanging manager to deliver different messages to the different kinds of customers. In addition it can be “seeded.” This provides you with a doorhanging security system that lets you know if the job is being done properly.

10. My sales have really been hit by a competitor. What can I do?

Let’s first start by constructing a list of your former customers as of the day the competition opened. Let’s use the same strategy to win them back that your competition used to steal them in the first place.