Papa John's marketing strategy

 

    I chose to do my assignment on Papa John's recent marketing strategy because I myself work at a known pizza chain and I thought it might be interesting to learn more about the marketing strategies used by similar companies. Another reason why I chose to write about Papa Johns is because I used to live near one in California and I was a customer of theirs for a couple of years. 

    Most people have heard of Papa Johns and their pizza. In the last 10 years, there has been a steady decline in the number of stores running in the United States; 5,096 stores in 2016 and 3,215 stores in 2026 (present day). So, will a new marketing strategy help them get their business out of a slump? 

    In an article posted on Marketingweek.com, author Grace Gollasch talks about an interesting marketing strategy that gives franchisees the power to market on a more local level rather than a national level from the business owners. The way they did this was by creating a "local marketing hub" that allows over 400 stores to access customer data easily, compliantly, and you don't need to be a marketing genius to use it. While still running national advertisements and marketing strategies, Papa Johns is giving Franchisees the ability to advertise directly towards customers in their area by using preapproved prompts and templates. Customers would typically receive SMS text messages advertising a special/deal from their local Papa John's pizzeria, in which customers were able to opt out of text message advertisement at any time by simply replying with "STOP". Here's where the success of this strategy comes in, the number of people opting out of text marketing had dropped 70% ever since the local marketing hub strategy was implemented. This means more people are sticking around for when a text from their local Papa John's franchise hits their phone. 

    Papa John's value proposition is "Better ingredients. Better Pizza. Papa Johns.", you've probably heard it before and maybe you even read it to the tune of the commercials. It is a very nice slogan/value proposition, promising higher quality ingredients to ensure better pizzas. Although, the challenge they are facing doesn't come from the slogan, it's coming from a problem with keeping customers. I personally think that the idea of letting local stores advertise to local customers is awesome! If there is a commercial airing nationally, it most likely isn't going to appeal to every single customer that they have. 

    With the marketing being more locally targeted than nationally, there is one thing I would suggest. I would want Area managers to be able to suggest prompts and templates that revolve around the city/state that the store locations are in. This could be something as simple as referencing an event happening in the area that encourages customers to buy pizza. 

    Reading this article and thinking about it, I learned about the advantage of local marketing vs national marketing and how it pays to be more active with smaller communities within a large demographic of people you're selling to. 

https://www.marketingweek.com/papa-johns-data-hub-marketing/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6beAsi-SbQ