Blog 6: A Local Connection

As we are rounding to the end of my Marketing semester, I figured that I would like to discuss things that are more interesting to read about (so I will be doing this for you-the reader). For this post, I am going to discuss a topic which is more personal, as it deals with a pizza place from a nearby town in New Hampshire.

The name of this place, “Pizza Bella,” was a household name around town when I lived in the area- everybody knew of it. Honestly, the place isn’t that special-they have pizza (a real good buffalo chicken), and a great deal of typical American food, but nothing too special. As it was one of the only pizza places around, everybody knew about it. As the town in which Pizza Bella is in grew up and modernized, Bella stayed the exact same. It had these old wood panels and chairs that made the worst noise when you would drag the legs of them against the floor. Here’s a picture of how it looked:

As time went on, Pizza Bella became almost outdated, and they were losing customers left and right. Being a regular there, I was close to the manager, and he kept me updated as to how business was going through the occasional chit-chat.

Knowing that his business may not survive in the changing environment, the owner felt that he needed a change in his small business. What he did, was an expert marketing technique; the owner renovated the inside of the pizza parlor entirely, and made it much more crisp and modern.

What the owner did next, is he called up two local stars who grew up in the town- Seth and Josh Myers, and asked them to come down to the pizza place to take some pictures. He ended up getting the great picture shown here, and posted it to their website. On top of this, the local stars posted it to their twitter accounts, and it created an uproar. A vast majority of the town reposted the picture that was put up, and thousands saw the new renovation. Eventually, people were flowing back in the shop as they used to, all to check out the new place which they had known to be the same for so long. What was done here was expert marketing, as the owner saw the world changing around him, and felt that he too had to adapt to his competitors or else he would go under. New pizza places sprouted around the town, but Pizza Bella was able to stay afloat from their new renovation and fresh new look and start.