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Brand & Marketing
Mike’s Monthly Tip: Gift Wrap Your Pizza
I love the night before Christmas. I’ve loved it since I was a little kid. I love gifts wrapped under a tree waiting to be opened. The anticipation of what’s inside of these perfectly wrapped boxes leads the mind to wander to a happy place of wha...
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Brand & Marketing
Man on the Street: “The Power of Words”
I’m done with the word “good.” I hear it every time I ask people what kind of pizza they like. They say things like “I want a good sauce,” and “I like a really good crust,” but I have no idea what they mean. Everybody has an idealized v...
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Brand & Marketing
Man on the Street: Boxing Lesson
Sometimes I forget that I have the world’s largest collection of pizza boxes. It’s not like they’re sprawled all over my apartment; I have a highly organized spare closet that allows me to keep over 1,500 (mostly unused) boxes both out of sight...
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Brand & Marketing
Holiday Gift Cards: Ramp It Up
How to make your restaurant gift card the must-have gift of the holidays The holiday season has shoppers everywhere scrambling for the perfect gift, the last-minute gift, stuff to fill a stocking, teacher gifts and coworker kudos. But shoppers need n...
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Brand & Marketing
Mike’s Monthly Tip: 15 Years of Social Media… and Idolizing Regis Philbin
Fifteen years doesn’t seem like that much time in the grand scheme of existence. It’s smaller than a minuscule blip. When I think back to 2004, I liked all the same bands I do today. Saturday Night Live was on with some of the same cast members t...
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Brand & Marketing
Pay to Play: Social Media Advertising
Social Media ads are a great bang-for-the-buck to reach customers With 28 Rapid Fired Pizza units under his charge and battling an increasingly competitive environment, Ray Wiley isn’t taking any chances. “Nowadays,” Wiley begins, “you have t...
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Brand & Marketing
Build sales by extending thanks
How Farrelli’s used an appreciation campaign to grow its customer base I had a vision of appreciation. This is one of my core values. I am the current CEO and Co-founder of our 24-year-old, nine-store pizza chain, called Farrelli’s. I founded it ...
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Brand & Marketing
They got the look
Uniform Branding Uniforms are a vital branding element Slap your logo on a t-shirt. Branding is done, right? Not quite. Your staff’s uniform carries a great weight on how your customer perceives your pizzeria’s brand. A uniform and attire is a ma...
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Brand & Marketing
Marketing Trends: The Big Picture
A Look at the Latest Marketing Trends For the past few months, business owners have been inundated with headlines about marketing trends to watch in 2019. It’s a lot to take in. Let’s take a look at some of the marketing trends that have been pre...
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Brand & Marketing
In-Store Marketing
Reach out to your own customers in-house for low cost and high return Your Web site and social media are essential for effectively keeping customers informed about new offerings. But the point-of-purchase marketing you do is just as critical. After ...
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Brand & Marketing
Mike’s Monthly Tip: It’s a Major Award
How to promote the honors you receive Have you won a massive award lately, or even a non-massive award? What are you doing with that award to make money for you? Look at Pabst’s Blue Ribbon. The name of the beer is Blue Ribbon, predicated upon ...
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Brand & Marketing
You’ve Got Mail
E-mail marketing is tried and true — don’t neglect it In today’s tech-savvy world marketing has become a balancing act between the many options presented to us. Unfortunately many are swept up by the shiny new object and overlook the tried an...