An iPhone app to order your favorite pie.
A new recipe touting a tastier sauce, better cheese combination and flavored crust.
These are the latest weapons concocted by America's top pizza chains in what is becoming an epic pizza battle.
Papa John's, Domino's, Pizza Hut -- and all the big names in between -- are duking it out across counters and doorsteps, as ever-budget-conscious people still recovering from the recession continue to look for cheap fast food.
"They are intensive competitive marketers. They're going to try to mimic each other and one-up each other's offerings, whether they're competing on quality of ingredients and formulation or the latest deals," said Nancy Childs, professor of food marketing at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
Americans are eating it up, especially at a time when they are watching their wallets.
In 2009, Americans spent close to $38 billion on pizza, remaining virtually flat compared with the year before as other restaurant sectors took a nose dive. To lure in some of that dough, pizza chains stepped up to the plate.
Little Caesar's in November introduced its Pizza! Pizza! Pantastic: Two Hot-n-Ready pizzas, one supreme and one pepperoni, for $9.99.
Papa John's, just last month, launched a free iPhone app that lets customers order everything on its menu no matter where they are.
Pizza Hut, the top-selling chain in the U.S. with $5 billion in sales in 2009, offered diners $10 pizzas any way they wanted them.
And Domino's revamped its pizza recipe in a much-discussed ad campaign that has translated into higher sales. Its 2010 third-quarter same-store sales were up 11.7 percent from the same period in 2009.
Brandon Solano, Domino's vice president of innovation, called the bad economy a headwind in Domino's gains but also stressed that the marketing campaign about his company's updated flavor profile impressed customers with its honesty.
"The pizza industry has seen a lot of competitors following one another," he said. "Coming out with a new recipe speaks to leadership, not followship. There were a lot of people who were looking for something better, and we gave it to them."
Plenty of consumers are turning to pizza, and a sluggish economy is enlarging the food's appeal beyond the traditional three C's -- college students, cheapskates and Cub Scouts.
"This is a good value meal, and people are looking for that," said Professor Childs. "If people can't afford a restaurant out, they can still afford the pizza to take them out of the kitchen. This is the time when you're looking to expand your market share to get more customers, so it makes it even more intense."
There are nearly 65,000 pizzerias in business. The 42 percent owned by the top 50 chains control 48 percent of the sales.
All the competition is promoting lots of ad spending by pizza chains to get the word out on deals. The U.S. pizza restaurant and delivery services industry, as a whole, spent more than $545 million on advertising in 2009, according to Kantar Media, a marketing and analysis firm.
And there will likely be more to come this year.
"It's going to remain a very competitive sector," said Mark Kalinowski, a research analyst specializing in restaurants for New York-based Janney Capital Markets. "Pizza's probably held its own in terms of total market share as compared to the rest of the restaurant industry. All in all, pizza's not in a bad place at all."
(Source: Indianapolis Star, 01/03/11)
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