Papa Gino's new campaign focuses on return to roots

Nation's Restaurant News, March 28, 1994 by Theresa Howard

DEDHAM, Mass. -- Like the Italian grandmother who continually tells her guests to "mangia", Papa Gino's wants to feed more customers more frequently.

But while there is no "mama mia spokeswoman" in the chain's latest advertising, Papa Gino's is tapping its Italian ancestry to reposition itself. A multitier marketing initiative focuses on longtime quality standards and introduces lowered prices, new menu products, on-site baked breads, Italian music piped into stores and a revamped training program.

"Our whole concept is in our food," said Papa Gino's president, Robert Taft. "A lot of our food is handmade and comes from authentic recipes that have been around for a long, long time. I was so impressed with Michael Valerio; he was really a products guy," Taft said of the chain's founder. "What we have been trying to do is capture that passion. He never leveraged [the food] as a marketing advantage."

Taft took over for Valerio about two years ago when the chain, which operates 225 company and seven franchised sores, was sold. Since then Taft has been working to reposition the regional player against an onslaught of other midscale regional players like Pizzeria Uno and Bertucci's, which appear to have lured customers away from the limited-service Papa Gino's.

"WE saw some loss to the upper-end [players like] Bertucci's and Uno picked up some share but we also lost to the value people," Taft said. "It was interesting; it made me feel good that people traded up. I realized we have a great opportunity to get them back if we improve our ambience."

Papa Gino's is trying to get those customers back with a vengeance since the falloff in traffic helped push comparable stores sales down 5 percent for fiscal 1993 compared with 1992, according to Taft.

Touting food quality is among the ways Taft and company are trying to regain customers. The chain has switched from processed tuna to fresh white albacore for its sandwiches and reshaped its handmade calzones, which allows for a thorough distribution of heat.

In addition, the chain now is publicizing its use of such ingredients as Pecorino-Romano cheese; a blend of mozzarella, cheddar and Pecorino-Romano for its pizzas; and the use of 5 ounce hamburgers.

"These were things we did, but we were not effectively selling them," Taft said.

Key, however to positioning food as a means to reach stomachs and wallets is a new pricing strategy. Papa Gino's cut prices only 3 percent across the board but as much as 10 percent to 20 percent on such items as mozzarella sticks, garlic bread and bread sticks. By doing so, the chain expects to drive add-on purchases and reduce couponing.

"We think that it is a lot easier to attract people with value, so we would rather have more everyday low prices," said marketing director Michael Murphy. "We are doing [coupon] drops once a month compared to twice a month or more. We dramatically cut coupons and shifted resources to broadcast," he added.

Papa Gino's dropped prices and portions on its Caesar and tossed green salads and meatballs. "We are trying to build more items as add-ons," Murphy said. "A lot of snacks could be added if they are priced and proportioned right." Murphy explained that an order of three meatballs sold for $1.75 before the new pricing strategy. "Three meatballs for $1.75 after spending $3 on spaghetti... nobody did it."

In addition, Papa Gino's reformatted its four-item Express Lunch with the addition of two hero sandwiches to replace two entree-sized salads. In addition to two slice-and-soda deals, the restaurants serve up a meatball parmigiana and medium drink and Italian sub with medium drink for $3.49 in three minutes, or the order is free.

Helping Papa Gino's is its new advertising agency, The Evans Group, a Seattle-based agency that also handles Tony Roma's. The agency is helping the regional chain formulate a finely tuned advertising campaign that addresses heritage, food quality and price. The first in the series of menu-oriented commercials will break April 19.

"We have this great opportunity to leverage our brand and take advantage of television," Taft said. "We can [convey] the message on TV that we can execute really well and that our restaurant experience is seamless with out marketing strategy. Down the graphic look of our menu boards we have to make sure it is exactly the same thing".

"Italian is a fun experience," Murphy added. "We are even adding Italian music to the background so that even when you are sitting in Framingham, Mass., you feel like you're sitting in the North End."