Branding Dion's Pizza Restaurants (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys™ radio show podcast: Dions Pizza

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys™, we discussed branding and marketing with a regional restaurant chain.

Joining us on the show was Deena Crawley, Director of Marketing for Dion’s Pizza, an Albuquerque based chain of restaurants with stores in New Mexico and nearby states.  The corporate mindset at Dion’s is that of a team of long time employees who are active and passionate about their hobbies.

Dion’s differentiates through their emphasis on mealtime.  It is about connecting with those you love and not just great food.  Dion’s wants you to stay and enjoy your family and friends for as long as you would like.  They created their restaurants with this in mind and still follow the philosophy even while the restaurant trend is loud, noisy spaces with televisions and many activities going on.

When venturing to new states, the Dion’s team learned lessons which they applied to future store openings.  They confirmed the importance of shouting about your brand since out of area customers are not familiar it.  Marketing tactics include flyers and distributing pizza samples.

The “What’s Your Slice” campaign came out of opening the Lubbock, Texas store.  It is a conversations starter and has a double meaning: what kind of pizza do you like and what is your slice of life. 

Deena shared that maintaining brand stature and status starts with hiring.  Dion’s builds partnerships with schools to enable hiring of high quality staff members.  To ensure they deliver on the brand promise, Dion’s spends a great deal of time educating employees about the products and generously feeding them so they are able to understand each menu item.

Deena’s tip to move your brand forward is to first and foremost understand your target customers and what makes your brand compelling for them then crafting messaging to that audience.

Enjoy the podcast.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MT) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

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