“What this town really needs is another pizza joint,” said … nobody, ever. Here are some things people do say:
“Cool! A Little Caesar’s just opened up downtown!”
“Hey, I hear there’s a real New York style pizza place in town, now.”
“I wish there were a real Italian pizzeria around!”
Little Caesar’s offers a different style of pizza from most pizzarias, it takes advantage of drive-by and drive-through traffic, and it focuses on value. It’s got terrific name recognition and catchy national advertising that gives your local franchise a real advantage.
NYPD Pizza prides itself on New York style pizza and Italian dishes in two settings: a Metro design for by-the-slice and delivery sales at colleges and in airports or malls, and the Precinct giving an old-fashioned mom-and-pop pizzeria feel for dine-in customers.
Villa Pizza franchises bring a sense of history to the pizza scene. In 1964, Michael Scotto opened the original Villa Pizza next to the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City. Scotto, an immigrant from Naples, was disappointed by American food. It wasn’t prepared on the premises and was often frozen, pre-processed, and just not fresh, especially in quick-service restaurants. Villa Pizza was like the little pizzerias on the streets in Italy, where pizzas were never premade and always used fresh ingredients. After seeing lots of success with the original Villa Pizza, Scotto expanded his business and eventually decided to use franchising to grow it into a national brand.
Now run by Michael’s two sons, Anthony and Biagio, Villa has grown up from its humble beginnings but hasn’t lost the vision of fresh food. Villa Enterprises runs four quick-service chains, Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen, Green Leaf’s, Bananas Smoothies & Frozen Yogurt, and South Philly Steak’s and Fries as well as three full-service restaurants, George & Martha’s, The Black Horse Tavern, and The Office.
Clearly, Villa Pizza has plenty of experience in the restaurant business, including pizza chains.
They’d probably be the first to tell you that people like variety — as well as a consistently good experience. 41% of Americans now eat pizza at least once a week. 93% have it once a month or more. Plenty of college students grab a slice of pizza every day. With that kind of frequency, a town can support several different pizza franchises. The same customer might feel like grabbing a quick pizza on the way home from work on Friday night and sitting down for a restaurant meal with the family on Sunday afternoon — pizza both times, but not the same thing.
It’s a matter of creating a clear, differentiated experience and conveying that difference not only through the food, but also with your marketing, merchandising, decor, and every aspect of the experience. A good pizza franchise gives you the tools you need to accomplish that.
Each franchisor also offers a different experience to franchisees. Do your due diligence to be sure you’re choosing a franchise that’s a good fit for you — even if you know you want a pizza franchise. Not all pizzas are alike, not all pizza restaurants are alike, and that’s a good thing.
