Monday, March 21, 2011

Pizza Patron keeping up with demographics

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204204004576049952412468360.html#printMode
Im writing this post on the above article

A Dallas based restaurant chain called Pizza Patron sets a great example of what a successful business does to increase profits by adjusting there marketing strategy. Pizza  Patron is a 100-unit restaurant chain that has catered to Spanish speaking customers since the beginning of there business, but due to changes in demographics and demand by the English speaking population they are now setting there focus on English speaking clientele. Pizza Patron first opened in 1986 without the intention to target Hispanics but most of his customers were and placed orders in Spanish. This made Pizza Patron very unique in the way they marketed there products especially being in America, they began re-arranging there menu to offer more Spanish based foods and as the Hispanic population grew so did there Revenue.Just this year alone they expect to make over $40 million in revenues.  It came to a point in 2007 that they begin accepeting Mexican pesos as payment. Typically, Pizza Patron opened Pizzerias in locations where more then half the population was hispanic and nearly all the ads were on Spanish-language media outlets.
 

Pizza Patron has proved to be a successful business for over two decades they once again are adjusting to there demographics by focusing on more English speaking cultures. Today most young Hispanics  are bicultural and are very adopting to American culture without letting go of there Spanish roots so Pizza Patron is re- allocating its advertising budget, changing commericals, and opening new restaurant in new areas. Next years plans inclide completely flip flopping its marketing mix by allocating 70% of its advertising budget to English language television and radio stations and the remaining 30% to Spanish media outlets. This is a risky change because they have never focused on another culture more then there traditional Spanish based customers so this could potentially loose some devoted customers.To try and eliminate this potential problem Pizza Patron is adding more Latin- themed specialty pizzas and are planning on posting in-store graphics honoring hispanic holidays, such as Day of the Three Kings. Although it is risky for a business to completely change the way they do business when there has been success I believe it is a good idea because the up and coming teenage population is often bilingual and bicultural and most of there customers now do speak English. It just makes sense to attract a broader demographic because statistics show that virtually every ethnic group has largely integrated into American culture by second and third generation. From a business perspective you have to adjust to where the demand is even though you may loose some customers. Do you think it was a smart choice for Pizza Patron to completely change there Marketing Strategy?

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