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The biggest benefit of community-based marketing is never short-term profits. It’s positive word of mouth, customer loyalty and long-term goodwill. For Nader Chafchak, a Hungry Howie’s Pizza franchisee in Windsor, Ontario, community-based promotions are a key part of an effective marketing mix.
A self-admitted easy target for schools and charities who ask for donations, Nader believes that promotions that support the community are “the best kind of marketing you can possibly have.” The greatest benefit, he feels, is the positive word of mouth that these promotions generate.
Scott Davis is a Pizza Ranch franchisee with seven locations and president of Bulldog Marketing, a local store marketing company based in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Involvement in the community is a cornerstone of the business for Pizza Ranch, a Midwestern franchise Scott’s company that targets small towns.
According to Scott, the reason for that community focus is long-term vision, not short-term profits. “There are a few things that we do where the immediate payoff is huge, like direct mail to the customer list that we build through our community marketing efforts and certain fundraisers.” But for the most part, he says, “This is the stuff we want to do so that we’re in business 20 years from now. It’s part of what makes us different from the mega-chain place down the street.
Ground Zero
Scott recommends starting a community marketing program with the big community influencers: schools, churches and business leaders. Whether your restaurant is in a big market like Toronto or a small Prairie town, he advises, “You start by learning the names of the decision makers in your communities.”
If you’re sitting behind the desk in your office sending out mailers, he cautions, and you’ve never met the movers and shakers in your community, you’re doing it all wrong. You need to get out and get involved.
The only way to do it, Scott says, is to put effort behind it. “Knock on doors, show them you care.” For him, this means making community involvement a priority for his store managers. Since he doesn’t live in any of the communities where his restaurants are located, he depends on his managers and staff to keep that community focus day to day.
In time, Scott says, it becomes a “push/pull” kind of thing. “Word gets out that this is a strategy of yours.” People begin to come to you.
Local Connections
One of the most common characteristics of successful pizzerias is that they have built close affiliations with community groups and charity groups that their customers care about—their schools, their sports teams and the charities that they admire and support themselves. This is a tremendous way to get involved in your community, help your neighbours, boost employee morale and build a future for your business, all at the same time.
Nader’s Hungry Howie’s franchise sponsors Core City Hoops, a local basketball program, run out of several schools, that runs basketball camps and takes kids on international tours. They support the organization by providing free pizza. Other recent promotions at the Windsor pizzeria include free gift certificates for a local chess tournament and a variety of programs with local schools, including free small pizza certificates to area teachers to reward student achievers.
Nader particularly likes to work with the schools in his area. “Kids always choose where the family is going to eat,” he comments. They don’t just bring in their free pizza certificates; they bring in their parents and siblings as well. And for Nader, whose store’s largest demographic is high school and college-aged kids, there is another obvious benefit. Kids grow up fast, and it won’t be long before the kids he’s supporting with free pizza certificates today will become his best customers themselves. Nader sums up the long-term benefit in two words: “They remember.”
In Nader’s opinion, charities have to be considered differently from some of the standard school and sports team promotions. “They’re usually coming to you because their hand is open, and they’re in need of something,” he comments. Like Scott, Nader believes that motivation is key: “I hate to go into benefits of it because if you’re doing it just so you can benefit, and it’s not with the cause in mind—when it’s about your bottom line, and you deal with each situation as a profit or loss scenario—that’s doing it the wrong way.”
Nader and his team are particularly proud of a charity promotion they tried for the first time recently. They were originally considering a customer appreciation day.
Recognizing that the point of an event like that is not really to make money, they decided to try something a little different. “Let’s make our customers happy,” they decided, “and do a good deed at the same time.” They put a bit of a twist on the event, calling it a Community Appreciation Day. Hooking up with the Windsor Regional Cancer Foundation, Hungry Howie’s advertised rock bottom prices on that day, plus an extra dollar per pizza sold to the Cancer Foundation.
Community-based marketing takes effort, involvement and a sincere desire to help. “Sincerity is hard to fake,” Scott comments. “But the ones who really mean it—it works for them.” If you get involved and actively support your community, goodwill is a natural by-product. Whether you’re small town or big city, community-based marketing is basic small town business sense and just plain good neighborliness.
Scott and Nader agree that fundraisers and sponsorships are rarely moneymakers on their own. “But you have people who become fans because of them,” Scott says. “It gives people a reason to trade with you rather than your competitor.”
In one day, Nader says with pride, his Hungry Howie’s Community Appreciation Day raised $1,000 towards a new MRI machine for the Cancer Foundation. That’s reward in itself. But long term, he admits, his business will benefit as much as the charities that he supports. “That’s something that will be in their heads,” he says. “It’s something they will remember. That’s the best kind of payback.”
– PMQ –
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