"what's for dinner?" could make Tuesday's busy for Jeff

By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Jul 2, 2007

The owner of the pizzeria that I frequent told me that business is slow in the summer. He said that it's because people barbecue more in the summer (we're in Michigan, so only dedicated BBQ nuts like me grill year round), so therefore eat less pizza. He said that it's especially slow on Tuesdays.

I asked what he is doing to increase business, and he replied, "Putting inserts in the local Sunday paper and writing daily specials on my board." When I asked if he was using the internet at all, he said, "No, I don't see how it could help me."

I picked up my pizza and thought about his answer all the way home. By the time I bit into my first slice, I had an answer.

I don't know what Jeff, the pizzeria owner, spends on his newspaper ads, but I suspect it's at least the cost of a hundred small one-topping pizzas per week. While I'm sure that some people do pay attention to the inserts, I'll bet that the majority of them go straight to the trash.

The problem with writing specials on the board is that only customers who have already made a decision to order pizza will ever see them. I was just there on Friday and I read his board, but I couldn't tell you what tonight's (Monday) special is...it wasn't important enough to me to remember.

The problem with both advertising methods is that neither reaches out to customers at the right time. On Sunday morning, when I'm reading the paper (I don't actually read a Sunday paper, but just pretend that I do to help me make this point), I'm not thinking about what I'm going to have for dinner on Tuesday. I'm also not thinking about what's on Jeff's board any day of the week. He needs to hit me at a better time.

Nearly every day, somewhere between 3:00 and 5:00, I wonder, "What should I have for dinner tonight?" Sometimes the thought comes on its own, other times my wife IMs me to ask the question. I usually start thinking about what food is at home in the fridge or freezer, and whether I feel like stopping at the grocery store on the way home. It's at that time that Jeff needs to hit me with his offer.

What if Jeff sent me an email at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday with a special pizza offer, just for me? He has all of my past orders on his computer, so he knows what pizza combinations I like. He could easily create a special that would have a very high probability of making me salivate. His cost to send me the email would be virtually nothing, or at least a miniscule fraction of what he spends on those newspaper inserts. The only piece of information he doesn't have is my e-mail address, which I'd gladly give him if I knew it would benefit me.

What if he sweetened the deal by offering me a free order of breadsticks if I forwarded the e-mail offer to a friend who also bought a pizza? His cost for me to send the offer to a friend is definitely zero, but he'd gain a new customer for the cost of a breadstick order, which again is probably a fraction of the cost to acquire a new customer using newspaper inserts.

Suppose he makes the deal even better by crediting my "account" with free pizza or breadsticks for every customer I refer? What if I could send e-coupons from his website that my friends could print to get 50% off their first pizza order?

Will he try the ideas? I don't know, but I can at least tell him how I think he can use the internet to help move more pizzas out the door on Tuesdays. I'll let you know if he asks for my email address.