Bigger Is Better At Pizzeria Uno - in-house marketing effort for beer sales - Brief Article

Cheers, May, 2000 by Nancy Backas

Both the pizza and the beer [ldots]

Take a Chicago restaurant legend, L combine it with a crack management team that believes casual dining doesn't have to mean second rate, and you have the makings for a mini empire, one ruled by ever-popular Chicago-style deep-dish pizza and the 15-oz. beer. Six years ago Pizzeria Uno made the commitment to be a major player in the casual dining segment by expanding its menu and adding new equipment. Two years later a comprehensive beverage program, backed up by a lively at-table marketing effort, was added. The company has proven that bigger, with quality, is better, just one reason Pizzeria Uno was awarded the 2000 Cheers Award for Best Chain Beverage Program.

A NEW ERA FOR UNO

Alan Gibson, vice president, food & beverage, came on board Uno four years ago, having spent his career in hotels. He knew from his experience there that if customers were offered a better quality beverage, they would be willing to pay for it. "Our goal was to commit to excellence, with beverage thought of as a food. I'm a believer that what you see in front of the house is a good indication of what is in the back of the house," Gibson explains.

Six years ago, Uno was exclusively pizza, with relatively little attention paid to what customers drank while they were eating. When they set out to create a higher quality menu by adding saut[acute{e}] stations, char broilers, grills and fryers, they took the same approach with the beverage program. Using highest quality beverage ingredients, and searching for the best drink recipes, along with offering good value for the dollar, was Gibson's aim. "Part of our goals and objectives were to give the best quality at the best price. We learned in casual dining that bigger is better. We were one of the first to have a larger size draft, 15 ounces, about 15 years ago," Gibson says.

Uno took the success of the larger beer and decided to apply it to frozen drinks, and now offer 20-oz. portions. The reasoning goes along with the trend seen elsewhere: people are ordering fewer drinks, but are willing to buy a larger size and have just one, Customers are also willing to buy a higher quality branded product. "We found that our customers feel very comfortable with the higher quality brand, that they are accustomed to the flavor and don't know what to expect from a lower quality product," he adds.

MARKETING TILE WET STUFF

Making a commitment to excellence was a good start, but customers had to know that something had shifted. "We had to communicate the new items to our guests. We knew that 80% of sales are done at the table, and that in our segment of the industry it's hard to find educated servers. Our solution was to come up with a comprehensive beverage menu," Gibson says. The new menus, dubbed "Wet Stuff," are four-color, comprehensive listings of all beverages that stay at each table. The dramatic bills of fare change five to six times a year, featuring different drinks per season in the center spread. It's called the "hall of fame" program, and allows them to promote 12 to 15 drinks during each period.

The Winter Drink Menu featured specials like the Frozen Hennessy Alexander, a frozen version of the classic Brandy Alexander; Newcastle Brown Ale; and the Hot Bomber, Baileys Irish Cream, Kahl[acute{u}]a and coffee topped with Gran Gala Orange Liqueur.

"The program allows us to promote items on our core list and to always have something fresh and new on the table for guests. It has given us a way to ask for the business, and has helped us with the second drink." The company's research indicated that guests come in on the average every 20 days or so. Theoretically, every time a guest comes in to Pizzeria Uno, he or she sees something new and exciting on the table.

Gibson walked a tight rope for a while when the new beverage program began, however. His biggest worry was convincing the world that the casual dining segment was ripe for premium pour. "A lot of people thought this segment wasn't ready for it. We wanted to make a dramatic appearance in the business, to make a bold step and be noticed. When we first put 50 beers in some stores, for example, a lot of our operators said, 'we can't do that', but by the next year we were serving 100 beers per store," he says.

He also took a leap with his promotion program. Beverage programs at Pizzeria Uno were not created in a comprehensive manner before this, but the resulting numbers don't lie. When Uno put the menus on the tables, beverage percentages went up. When they took them away, the percentages went down. Now they are kept on the tables all the time.

Deciding which brands to offer was another challenge. Beers brands were decided ultimately on a unit by unit basis, serving what guests in different markets liked. Liquor decisions were often made by finding vendor partners that were willing to go the extra mile with Uno. "We are extremely happy with our vendor partners and want to expand our brands. We sell a lot of Maker's Mark bourbon for example. Six years ago I would have laughed at the idea of selling this premium brand at Uno's," Gibson says. Other brands that have been successful for them include Tanguerey Gin, Hennessy brandy and Sauza Tequila.