News

The power of print advertising

September 2, 2004

It's the oldest form of advertising, but for selling pizza, print may be the best.

"Printing is best because it's in your hands; you can look at it," said Kamron Karington, a marketing expert and the author of "The Black Book of Pizzeria Marketing." "You can use print to saturate just your trade area at a fraction of the cost of using TV and radio to buy the whole market."

This story and all the great free content on PIZZA Marketplace is supported by: Best Choice Printing

Tom Roach, co-owner of Best Choice Printing in Taylor, Mich., is a former pizza operator who knows from experience that pizza print ads get treated differently than most mail.

"People throw a lot of the junk mail away, but they stick the pizza flyer on the refrigerator or in a drawer," said Roach. "High-quality, four-color printing with well-done coupons gives the pizzeria guy the best response."

Why, when TV ads can deliver action, humor and live spokespersons, do simple printed flyers outperform them? Karington said it's because TV ads typically are misused. They portray an image, deliver a slogan or capture attention with a memorable joke, but too few convince the customer to buy pizza. Plus, they're expensive.

By comparison, good print advertisements make several claims quickly: 1. Our pizza is the best. 2. This is our menu. 3. Here's a coupon to entice you to try ours.

Additionally, Karington said, customers hold on to and read printed ads for an indefinite length of time; TV commercials are gone in seconds.

Paul Borg, Roach's partner at Best Choice Printing, puts it this way: "Like it or not, printing is in front of you. It gets your attention."

Quality counts

Just using print ads doesn't guarantee customers will respond. Direct mail pieces must be eye-catching and attractive. Karington said the human subconscious naturally gravitates toward good print ads.

"Eyeballs love color, they love human faces and they love headlines," he said. "Photographs of food or people sell a personality or a product. That pulls people into the ad."

Borg said good coupons in print ads motivate customers to buy what interests them; they don't just offer cheaper food.

Karington said another benefit of print ads is the ease of timing their delivery. Since the average customer buys pizza about every two weeks, if the operator sends him a flyer based on that cycle, the ad likely will catch them in the buying mood.

"If you're going to be out there twice a month, you're just about going to be in sync with the buying habits of the average pizza consumer," he said. "Much more is almost overkill."