Local Store Marketing Matters at Marco’s Pizza

 

Time and time again the team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® reminds regular readers of this blog that Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.   Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru® believes that “local store marketing is at the intersection of the Halo of the brand and customer returning for more visits.  Good local store marketing drive increased customer visits.  Are, your year over year customer visits increasing?  

If year over year customer visits are important to you and building top line sales and bottom-line profits is important you might want to familiarize yourself with, SOCi Inc., a marketing platform for multi-location brands.   

Marco’s Pizza announced that the national pizza brand will utilize SOCi local store marketing platform systemwide. As the nation’s fastest-growing pizza brand* with more than 1,100 locations, Marco’s continues to accelerate franchise expansion with more than 200 stores in various stages of development. There is no doubt in the minds-eye of the team at Foodservice Solutions® that is a very good move.

Since Marco’s Pizza has sets its sights on becoming the No. 4 brand in pizza, it turned to SOCi to raise brand awareness within its communities across the country. SOCi helps streamline and expand Marco’s localized marketing strategy, including local listings, social, and reputation management. Additionally, Marco’s is tapping SOCi for insights through SOCi Listening to gain a better understanding of consumer sentiment around the very large and growing pizza industry to improve the customer experience.

Chris Tussing, CMO of Marco’s Pizza, stated, “As we continue to expand our franchise presence, we knew we needed a platform with the tools and functionality to manage and positively impact our digital presence,”. “With the support of the SOCi team, we’ve been able to provide stores the platform and support needed to manage, create, market, and promote relevant local information and content to better reach customers in their individual trade areas.”

Tussing continued, SOCi’s platform has also enabled Marco’s to execute local paid social campaigns. “The platform provides individual franchisees the functionality to launch locally targeted paid social campaigns, which was a specific capability that franchisees were asking for and an important component for why Marco’s selected SOCi,”.

Afif Khoury, founder and CEO of SOCi, stated, “SOCi’s top priority is to provide our customers with the tools and strategic insight they need to succeed. We understand that managing and maintaining a localized digital marketing strategy across thousands of locations is no easy feat,” .. “This is why we equip our customers with the resources and support they need to feel empowered to deliver a localized marketing strategy at scale.”

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company edify your brand with relevance.  Call 253-759-7869 for more information. 

Marco’s Pizza Testing Artificial Intelligence Pizza Ordering

Artificial Intelligence and pizza ordering? Come on nothing is easier to order than pizza right now why is this needed.  In this case at Marco’s Pizza the focus is on consumer-focused hot button touchpoints order accuracy, and speed of service.  According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® restaurants that focus on consumer hot button painful touchpoints and solve them end up garnering incremental top-line sales and bottom-line profits.

So, the voice-to-text initiative is one of many projects Marco’s is embarking on after announcing the investment of millions of dollars in technology innovations through the next few years as it grows to be the fourth largest brand in pizza. Regular readers of this blog know that Gen Z and Millennials are as time starved or more so than their parents and are digital natives and order accuracy is important.

Now that Marco’s Pizza announced a 50-store pilot of its proprietary voice-to-text ordering system with the goal of a systemwide rollout by the end of 2022 customer relevance has been elevated. The new speech-enabled application uses conversational artificial intelligence (AI) which yielded 100 percent order accuracy in initial beta testing as well as increased employee and customer satisfaction. Now have you been doing what you have always done and are you doing it the same way?  How is that working for you?  Is you order accuracy 100%?

The initial voice-to-order beta test was started in Summer 2021 well before the company began moving into the pilot. Designed to provide a seamless interaction with customers, the system receives phone orders via voice and automatically translates the order via text into the point-of-sale system alerting team members to begin filling the order – saving time, decreasing call abandonment rates, and improving speed and order accuracy – all to maximize the customer experience. Unique to this technology is the use of conversational Artificial Intelligence, which simulates a human-like conversation and can convert voice across multiple digital channels and technology platforms. This technology creates a personalized experience for the guest and feels very different from a basic chatbot interaction. The technology understands both English and Spanish as well as a variety of accents, dialects, and colloquialisms. Ok, for those of you who know me, you know that is more than I can do. 

Here is the best part, despite technology advancements, many guests find it easier and more convenient to pick up the phone and place an order. This technology can accommodate those guests and create a much better experience using conversational AI. As Marco’s digital sales continue to soar – tripling over the past four years – the adoption of this technology will play a significant role in growing the brand’s digital presence to its target of 85 percent.

Rick Stanbridge, Sr. Vice president and Chief Information Officer for Marco’s Pizza, stated, “There are places where AI makes sense within the business – where it creates a better experience for both team members and guests,” … “Not only does this technology offer franchisees a cost-effective, practical solution to reduce labor costs and drive results, but it provides support to team members while strengthening the guest experience.”

Now, with the use of this technology, the guest experience is elevated first and foremost, and team members no longer have to deal with the frustrations that come with busy nights when there’s an influx in orders, kitchen noise distractions, and the challenge of juggling multiple tasks. As a People-First organization, Marco’s understands that when team members are satisfied, so are guests.

Going be time into technology, the voice-to-text initiative is one of many projects Marco’s is embarking on after announcing the investment of millions of dollars in technology innovations through the next few years as it grows to be the fourth largest brand in pizza. Such projects include the continued adoption of third-party delivery, in which Marco’s has experienced 610% growth in just two years, utilizing AI for generating automated delivery promise times, vetting and testing robotic kitchen innovations, ghost kitchens, and new operational equipment.

Stanbridge, continued, “There are a lot of technologies on our radar, but our strategy is to hotly pursue those that we can bring to market quickly and will have the biggest impact on customers, team members, and franchisees,”.

In case you did not know Marco’s is a 1,000-plus unit brand; and continues to see record-breaking double-digit same-store-sales increases year-over-year and is on track to reach $1B in annual systemwide sales in 2022. As a result, eager and sophisticated entrepreneurs and multi-unit operators are flocking to the franchise opportunity.

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success. 

Marco’s Pizza Empowering Customer Choice

 

Success does leave clues. Becoming customer centric, focusing on relevant consumer touchpoints is always a good thing according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Chain restaurants are in a fight to survive today like no other time in living memory. By mid-summer, we are told the pandemic will be moving on and consumers will return to a new normal.  Whatever normal is.  In the minds-eye of the Grocerant Guru®, that will include interactive and participatory meals and Marco’s Pizza wants to be center stage meeting that need-set.

Marco’s Pizza recently debuted all-new Build-Your-Own Pizza Bowls as a national menu item starting Mid-January. Empowering pizza lovers to enjoy a crustless pizza baked in a bowl with Marco’s original sauce recipe, three fresh signature cheeses, and their choice of up to four toppings for $7.99. Prices may vary depending on location with additional toppings costing extra.

Regular reader of this blog knew that, Marco’s became the first national pizza delivery brand to offer crustless pizza. The Marco's Pizza Bowl line allows consumers to enjoy its delicious pizza while following a higher-protein, lower-carb diet. The Build-Your-Own Pizza Bowl product joins its crustless pizza siblings, the Specialty Pizza Bowls, which come in three varieties: Deluxe, All Meat and Garden.

Marco’s Build-Your-Own-Pizza Bowls is a different way for consumers to enjoy Marco’s quality pizza, but without the crust. Marco’s gives pizza lovers permission to eat pizza with a fork, allowing customers to pick and choose their own ingredient combinations.

Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tussing stated “Our customers loved our Specialty Pizza Bowls and told us they now want to make their own creations,” …. “Whether it’s our signature Old World Pepperoni, freshly sliced Roma tomatoes, or our high-quality Italian sausage, we’re providing a different, more customized way for pizza lovers and their families to experience our premium ingredients.”

Senior Director of Culinary Innovation for Marco’s Andy Dismore stated, “Adapting to consumer trends is part of our DNA and this carb-cutting alternative proved to be a bold and refreshing move in our category, so we learned in. No one can match our original sauce, signature cheese and high-quality toppings baked into a delicious, crustless pizza experience.”  How, are you empowering customer relevance?

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

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