It’s safe to say that Toppers Pizza in Madison caters to the social media generation, but the people behind its new customer engagement campaign say that any business can actually relate to customers if it is willing to relinquish some control.
The technical term for what the Wisconsin-based Toppers is doing is “social media crowd-sourcing,” but it’s actually a new spin on an old motto — the customer is always right — for a comfort food product.
One trip to the Toppers website and you get the idea the company already takes an off-the-wall approach to brand loyalty, but it’s new, tournament-style “Spank Your Pizza” Facebook challenge is giving consumers a chance to actually shape the menu.
Using any existing ingredient on the menu, customers have been challenged to submit their own pizza creation for the challenge, and the most delectable dish — as judged by Toppers’ Facebook fans — will become a permanent part of the Toppers’ menu. The winning item will be named after its creator, who will receive a cash prize.
Thus far the 26-store pizza chain has about 16,000 Facebook fans, and that is likely to grow as the challenge generates attention. Given the structure of the menu contest, where Toppers’ Facebook fans will vote on which entries advance to the next round in a bracket-style competition (think March Madness), the drama is likely to build until the winner is determined.
In one sense, a company’s customer base can be considered family, and in this age of social media, family members appreciate a chance to leave their mark on their favorite brands — especially if they represent the younger generation. Toppers, which is headquartered in Whitewater, attempts to appeal to the 18 to 24-year-old graphic in various irreverent ways, and at last count over 60 had submitted entries in an attempt to spank-a-da-pizza.
Scott Iverson, social media expert for Toppers, said the contest means a great deal to the future of Toppers and its relationship with consumers. That’s why he sees few downsides to whatever operational control is being relinquished. “I think it’s the air we breathe these days,” Iverson said. “If we’re going to be involved in social media, particularly with our audience being 18-to-34 year olds who live with social media every day, it’s a place where we almost have to be in order to be a relevant brand in their consideration set.
“If we’re going to be there, we have to be willing to give up some control for it to be effective.”
Gyro Heroes
By letting go of some control, businesses also give consumers a sense of brand ownership Toppers updates its menu several times a year, and learned a valuable social networking lesson during one revamp. The franchise took its previously low-selling gyro topper off the menu, but quickly learned that it had loyal and vocal following. Their subsequent consumer-driven Facebook campaign to bring back the gyro topper created so much awareness that it now is rated as one of Toppers’ top five specialty pizzas.
In the end, the franchise’s customer base was introduced to a particular pizza they might not have known, and its return to the menu was noted with the tagline, “Facebook fans spoke, we listened.”
“We’re engaging the customers in conversation to where they have some control over how we market to them,” Iverson noted. “That’s the tone of how we need to speak to them. It’s like the more you can engage with them, the more they become owners of the brand.”
The use of social media not only allows Toppers to engage customers in a way that builds brand loyalty, it enables the franchise to maintain loyalty by more quickly addressing a negative experience with the brand. Such repair work is an opportunity to regain and even strengthen the bond of trust with members of the customer family.
It’s another example of how businesses must be willing to give up control because someone might go online and submit a post about a negative experience. “The thing we’ve found is that our current Facebook fans will sometimes come to aid of brand,” Iverson noted. “The more that you’re engaging fans into actual conversation, rather than just talking at them, I think that’s the real win.”
For Toppers, the approach is helping to drive growth in a shaky economy. In addition to its 26 existing stores, Toppers has another 20 stores under contract to open in the next 24 to 36 months, with ambitious goals of 100 franchise stores by 2013 and 500 franchise stores by 2020.
Iverson’s counsel to those who want to dip their toe in the social media water is to start with some way to engage people, not simply bombard them with advertising messages. Iverson acknowledged that Toppers did not have a clear path to its social media strategy, but eventually decided to engage customers in the kind of marketing experience they prefer, and the kind of brand messaging they’d like to receive.
“The best advice I could give anyone would be to engage people into a conversation rather than just talk at people, like most advertising does,” he said. “If you’re just talking at people, that’s easily ignored. But when you’re asking people for their advice on how to serve them better and engage them in a fun conversation, that is where the experience becomes more meaningful.”
Jared Ruf, general manager of Toppers Pizza in Madison, is part of the very demographic that Toppers is trying to reach. The Madison store, located on Regent Street, takes anywhere between 3,600 and 4,000 orders per month, and Ruf has no concerns about giving up control because the business benefits are tangible.
“The more interested and involved they are, the more they buy from us,” Ruf stated, “and it’s really fun.”
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