Pizza Shop the Company Is Pizza Shop

Pizza Shop

The company is Pizza Shop and that defines the product offerings as well. Pizza Shop will sell a wide variety of pizzas, with over two dozen toppings. Some pizzas will have pre-set recipes, but the customer will be able to customize the pizza as well. The shop will also offer related offerings such as calzones, pasta dishes, non-alcoholic beverages. Slices will be available at lunch time and during the afternoon. Some other snack foods and pre-made desserts will also be sold. The service offerings of Pizza Shop will include a small eat-in section, take-out and delivery. The delivery option will come with a thirty-minute guarantee to make the company competitive with other pizzerias in the area.

The branding strategy will put Pizza Shop as a cost leader in the area. As a result, the company will compete primarily on price. This value proposition will be communicating to the market in the company's marketing, so that the market knows they can expect low prices for their pizza needs. However, it should be noted that the low end of the local pizza market is quite crowded. In order to distinguish between Pizza Shop and other cost leaders, it will be conveyed that Pizza Shop is a pizza specialist, with better pies that competing outfits. Many of the competition also offer wings, gyros, burgers or other such food, but Pizza Shop will be positioned as a specialist. Thus, it will offer the best value proposition of any cost leaders in the area.

The Pizza Shop branding strategy will focus on equating the brand with superior pizza at a low price. Advertising will focus less of gimmicks, mascots and other such items used by the competition, and focus strictly on the quality of the pizza. The idea is to create what is known casually as "food porn," that excites people about the pizza with the visuals and other elements. Pizza Shop subscribes to the theory that the full sensory experience is important, and will support that by creating the best-smelling pizza, and the most visually-appealing pizza, in addition to being the best-tasting (Lindstrom, 2005). The brand's marketing will focus on gooey cheese, abundant high-quality toppings, a crispy crust and other hallmarks of delicious pizza.

The core product of pizza fits well within the product line as the feature product. Because specialization is one of Pizza Shop's selling points, the company is going to focus its marketing on the core product. There will be significant depth in the core product, however. This will be reflected in the multitude of topping options and the customizability of these offerings. The offerings will be creative, reflecting the diverse culinary interests of the area, including "Mexican" pizzas, "Asian" pizzas and vegetarian offerings in addition to Italian-American classics. The product line is not going to have much breadth, however, because Pizza Shop is seeking to carve out a niche as a specialist.

Pizza is a competitive business, and success requires execution of a niche product strategy. One such strategy that is often overlooked at the low end is having the best pizza. Dalgic (2006) argues that it is possible to enter a highly-competitive market and succeed if the product is differentiated in the mind of the consumer, even if in reality there is only limited differentiation. This is the marketing tactic that will drive Pizza Shop's marketing efforts.

The product strategy fits with the organizational strategy well. The organizational strategy relies on creating an efficient operation that is able to produce high-quality food at low prices. The organization wants to use these efficiencies to potentially expand Pizza Shop over the coming years. Almost any successful restaurant that is able to expand into chain format does so on the basis of one or two key products at which it is better than the competition. Thus, it is important for Pizza Shop to focus on being the best pizza producer. If this is the sole product (or one of two products, the other being folder-over pizza) then the company will have no choice but to be better than the competition or fail. Thus, the product strategy essentially forces the company to be an excellent pizza producer in order to meet overall operational goals.

The target market strategy is fairly broad. Pizza Shop will appeal to students, young adults and families alike. This fits well with the organizational strategy because these markets tend to be younger demographically. This will allow Pizza Shop to grow with its core customers, allowing for longer-term growth than would be possible if the company targeted a different audience. In addition, this target market is more amenable to the specific product offerings that Pizza Shop is going to have, so the product, target market and organizational strategy all fit well together.