Wawa Fall is a Good Time to Test Pizza

 

Regular readers of this blog know that Foodservice Solutions® Five P’s of grocerant marketing were perfected, developed and tested over time utilizing the Grocerant Guru’s time-tested formula: Build, Measure, Learn, Repeat. Those Five P’s of Grocerant marketing have evolved.

Wawa understands that operational excellence combined with customer relevance will drive sales. Pizza is relevant to consumers without any doubt.  Regular readers of this blog know that Wawa tried Pizza once before but did not have it quite right.  So, knowing that:

1. Americans down about 3 billion pizzas each and every year.

2. The typical person takes in 46 slices of pizza per year. That adds up to about 23 pounds of pizza eaten annually.

3. Estimates put the number of pizza slices sold each second at 350, which comes out to about 21,000 per minute. That's about 1.26 million per hour and 30 million each day.

4. Men are more likely to eat pizza, accounting for 15% of total consumption, versus 11% for women. Kids between the ages of 2 and 19 prove to be the biggest pizza eaters, with 20% grabbing a slice compared to 11% of adults.

5. How much pizza is consumed at home? While there are thousands of pizza restaurants to choose from in the U.S., 59% of Americans opt to have theirs at home instead.

6. How does income affect pizza consumption? Households with an income between $75,000 and $99,000 tend to spend the most on pizza annually.  (Source: https://www.creditdonkey.com/pizza-statistics.html)

While it has been seven years since Wawa tried pizza; we know that Wawa will be using this formula to get things right, build, measure, learn, and repeat. So, the are trying a 16-inch pie, available plain or with pepperoni, can be ordered at two stores only for now and only after 4PM? Seems odd to us but that is part of the learning we guess.

Wawa spokesperson Lori Bruce, stated, "It is a test, and will help our innovation teams learn and assess whether or not to continue the offer," "We are currently offering one size, a 16-inch in both cheese and pepperoni. This is a completely different pizza than any other we've tested in the past."

Wawa tested a smaller pizza on a bagel-style crust that could be topped with a variety of ingredients in 2014, but discontinued the offering. We have the picture below and you can understand why it faded away.

Signage at the test stores indicates that the new Wawa pizza will be available for a limited time only. The convenience store retailer has not commented on the possibility of rolling out the new pizza beyond the initial test stores.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Don’t let your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.