Pizza Today - September 2018 - 98

Mike's Monthly Tip
MIKE BAUSCH

sonalized gift based off that information.
LET'S SPLIT IT INTO TWO CATEGORIES:
*SHARKS. These are your top-level

Guerilla Gifting
Personalized gifts can go a long way

W

hat birthday gift did you
get as a kid that you still
remember to this day?
Really look back to that moment and
the feeling it elicited from you. Think of
the joy and happiness of that moment,
whether it was something you asked for
or something you didn't even know you
wanted. Either way, something I can
100-percent guarantee without knowing
you is that it wasn't a gift card. I know
it wasn't a greeting card, and I know it
wasn't a gift basket.
A gift card or basket has no personal
touch. Twenty years ago, personal touch
was resigned to people with assistants
who could perform research and keep a
rolodex of who likes what and their kids'
names, etc. Now knowing someone's likes
and interests is as easy as a Google search
and looking at their Facebook, Twitter or
Instagram profile. Even on a regular old
LinkedIn profile you can find out where
someone went to school or at least some
random background info.
Privacy is dead, and no one cares.
People say they care, but no one is really
9 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8

acting on it. Facebook got hit hard in the
press a few months back for selling personal data. What should have been a PR
nightmare resulted in very little fallout.
Facebook users might have been miffed,
but the droves of people that swore they
would delete their Facebook account
just didn't do it. That's because people
have shown that privacy isn't something
they value as much as previous generations. Online profiles provide personal
info, right there for anyone to see. Large
corporations have been seeking macro
data trends for years (example: our demo
is male, median income, tends to like beer
and comedy films), but small companies
like yours and mine barely touch macro
data and no one seems to think to touch
micro data. That's right, I am suggesting
marketing to just one person at a time.
What I am suggesting goes beyond
just paid Facebook ads that target your
demo (which you should totally do, but
that's not anything new). No, what I am
suggesting is incredibly simple. Find out
the background info of certain individuals
you'd like to impress and get them a per-

talents, the people who make your business run: your highest selling servers; your
fastest dish machine worker or your best
customer who always tells everyone else
about your store. Find out about their
fringe interests, go to eBay or somewhere
that you can find a rare item that relates
to that interest (example: any Red Sox
fan already has a Red Sox Hat, but they
might not have one from the 2004 World
Series win) and send it to them or have
it ready for them next time they work
or come by your store. This will not go
un-noticed in providing jet fuel to their
existing motivations and devotion.
*WHALES. Use the same technique for
the people who you WANT to have as
fanatical customers. The people building
up your city or town. Get them a truly
amazing and personal gift thanking them
for all they do for your community. Don't
be surprised when that builds trust and
endears them to only order from you and
their staff to do the same. The airline parts
industry is massive in Oklahoma. When
I got a local doctor a signed Who record
after I saw his posted pics from the concert he went to, he couldn't stop sending
business my way and making his office
an Andolini's only office. Cost was $85
bucks, including shipping. A thousand
bucks in radio won't get one-fourth the
return I'll see from this investment in a
single person.
The pizza industry is extremely competitive, and it is only going to get even
more competitive. The small size of your
business is not your handicap, it's your
asset when you make guerilla gifting with
a personal touch part of your marketing
strategy. ■
MIKE BAUSCH is the owner of Andolini's
Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a
frequent speaker at the International Pizza
Expo family of tradeshows.
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - September 2018

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