News

Marketing messages that stick

May 30, 2005

Few tasks in the pizza industry are as tedious as folding pizza boxes.

Well, maybe one: putting box-toppers on those boxes. Make a swipe with a glue stick, stick the box-topper to that and you're done ... if the box-topper stayed stuck, that is. And if you run out of glue sticks? A panic trip to Wal-Mart follows.

As senior director of marketing for Daland Corp., a 96-unit Pizza Hut franchisee in Wichita, Kan., JoAnn Christoperson had heard more than her share of complaints about box-toppers, everything from "They don't stay attached," to "The staff won't put them on consistently."

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Still, she knew the value of box-toppers to her company's marketing program meant they weren't going away anytime soon. So she took the problem to her husband, Rolf, then an engineer with Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Wichita to see if he could devise a solution. After two years of testing, the Stick-It was born in 2003.

Much like a Post-It Note, the Stick-It is tacky enough to adhere to most surfaces, but not so binding that it can't be removed cleanly and easily.

Originally made for marketing post cards that adhere to counters, computer screens and refrigerators, Roth's company, A'Deas, created a double-adhesive Stick-It for box-toppers. One side of an adhesive strip sticks to the box, while the other clings to the box-topper. The dual-tackiness lets customers remove them easily and place the advertisement wherever they like.

"We used to use a lot of magnets (at Daland), but the number of things they'd stick to changed," said JoAnn Christopherson. "Whether it sticks to your refrigerator depends on what it's made out of. You don't have that problem with Stick-It."

Mollie Henefield, marketing manager for Border Foods, a large Minneapolis-based Pizza Hut franchisee, said employees find the Stick-It is simple to use; applying it to the box top requires only a single motion.

"You don't have to worry about running out of stickers (used by some to secure box-toppers) or box-toppers because it's all in one piece," said Henefield.

A'Deas president, Roth Christopherson, said each Stick-It box-topper costs between 3 cents and 5.5 cents (depending on paper stock and printing), compared to 2 cents to 4 cents for other box-toppers.

JoAnn Christopherson said labor savings and increased coupon redemption more than offset the added cost.

"We've tracked our coupon redemption forever ... so I can honestly say it's gone up more than 40 percent," said Christopherson. "We've not changed the coupon offers, we've only changed the vehicle."

Henefield said Border Foods doesn't have hard numbers about whether redemption rates rose after adding Stick-It, but she said the company will continue using the product because of its operational ease and its appearance.

"The way it's laid out looks neat and clean, and the perforation (in the middle) makes it easy for the customer to manage," she said. "When you factor in the cost of what we used to do, there isn't a big difference."