5 Things That Are Going To Change The Pizza Industry

five key takeaways from this year's pizza tomorrow Summit in Orlando this was the first year that this Summit took place at the pizza tomorrow Summit and the turnout was pretty good I have to say I don't I wasn't really sure what to expect when we were going to attend this Summit and it was the first year of the show so the first year of any show usually isn't the best turnout because people aren't sure there's always that chicken and egg scenario the vendors aren't sure if people are going to show up people aren't sure if there's going to be enough vendors and enough things to see but this year the show was pretty good and it just so happened that there was a hurricane during the two days that the show was going on so even with all that said the show turnout was pretty good I had a booth there now before you do it and you say oh you had a booth there it wasn't a booth so to speak it was an interviewing station it was a table where I had a couple of people that I know come over and do some interviews when I wasn't there and I was kind of walking around the show I had a TV monitor up playing some past interviews and I thought that was really cool and I've been asked to speak at a lot of events over the course of the last three four years and I think this is the only way that I'm going to be speaking at any event moving forward is if I have a little area where I interview people there was four or five tables and you can come watch and sit down and hang out with me and watch me interview some people or you could just use it as a workstation and that's what some people did as well and I really really enjoyed the interaction with the people I'm having on the podcast I had Billy Manzo on the podcast I had rev I had Alex Coons from hot tongue Pizza I had Dave who has term the Terminator in uh cherry and he has a pizzeria there were so many other things that he was up to and it was just great to sit down and talk to people because I do these podcasts generally virtual there's on an app but not in person which I like to do because I don't have to leave the office I could just have my whole setup in the studio here that you see and everything works out pretty well but it was pretty fun to do them in person so I think that's the only way of moving forward that I will ever do an event or speak at an event Never Say Never but that's going to be my preferred method now at this show there was a few things that I've noticed and a few things that I noticed between the booths and vendors that were at the show and the people I talked to either on the floor or I had on the podcast at my little Studio there number one technology technology is not going anywhere and it is going to need to be your friend the younger generation of folks is not going to want to interact with your business like the older generation of folks is so texting uh AI answering phone systems which pizza Cloud did shout out to Pizza Cloud sponsor of the podcast they have a great new system for AI answering your phones they have the cellular backup so you don't have down phone lines and then it all can integrate with your point of sale systems uh the other thing email marketing huge is going to be really big you're going to want to start to ramp up your email marketing if you haven't already and you need to get comfortable with technology there's a lot of people who are entering the pizza business and I really think the pizza business is in for a very big disruption in the old way of doing things is going to be dramatically changed because there's a lot of people who started either with an uni or ghosney in 2020 or 2021 and now that their business is solidified over the last couple years of doing these pop-ups they're looking to transition into brick and mortars or food trucks and what they did is they leveraged social media and Technology to start their home business now they're moving into a brick and mortar and they have all that technology going with them and they know how to use it they're comfortable with it so if you are a brick and mortar and you've been around for a long time you need to get comfortable with technology because those two the audience who is comfortable with technology and the competitors who could be your competition they're comfortable with technology they're going to dominate your Market number two Staffing is still a major issue again back to the technology how can you incorporate technology in order to help alleviate the pressure of the lack of staff I don't think that's going away anytime soon I don't think that's going to go away ever I really think that we're in for a rough ride when it comes to Staffing I don't think that the younger generation of people are going to want to do the job the same percentage that we did back in the day so you're gonna have to figure out how to leverage technology so you don't need as many people and how you can make it as easy as possible for the people that you do find culture hiring bonuses pay atmosphere technology to make their job lucrative and easy to do number three now this is more of a show thing the one thing that this show had that others didn't is location it was in Orlando a very family friendly atmosphere and I think there's an audience for a family friendly it's hard to say a family friendly location like Orlando the the shows that we're used to are in Las Vegas and Atlantic City both really horrible places to bring your family if you are a business owner who yes wants to get away from my business but also maybe wants to use it as a way to take a vacation with my family but I can also go to a show for a day or two there was many people who said to me while we were either walking around the show or at my booth that said you know what I love Orlando I'm so glad we came to Orlando I came for the week I got to see some sites in Orlando the weather is phenomenal and I could bring my family this is the first pizza show that I was able to do that I could actually bring my family with me and it wasn't awkward yes you can bring your family with you to Las Vegas or Atlantic City and there are some things to see in Las Vegas there's nothing to see in Atlantic City in October but Las Vegas you could probably find some things whether it be in the city or the outskirts but Orlando is a family-friendly destination and there was a lot more people who mentioned that to me than I thought was going to mention it to me I thought I was the only one who really liked Orlando and thought it was a great destination for a conference uh and if I ever do something for SPM Orlando will probably be the place that I started but that was one thing that I noticed a lot of people mentioned they love the family-friendly location versus Las Vegas or Atlantic City and for us East Coasters it's very easy to get to number four so many questions whether it was the two panels that I did I did a panel where I interviewed Billy Manzo on stage and I enjoyed that and then I also did a your questions answered paniel with rev who put together a panel and then the audience would ask us questions I enjoyed that but there were so many basic questions about marketing that I I don't know if I wasn't prepared for them because I'm always prepared for questions but I thought the sophistication level of business owners was a little bit more sophisticated let's just put it that way there was a lot of Basic Marketing questions when it comes to social media how many times should I post to Instagram should I where if you were to start today how what should you do on Facebook like what is an Instagram reel what's the difference between stories in the feed what is Tick Tock it was so many basic questions which led me to believe that there's still a lot of people out there who are just not really leveraging social media for their Marketing in their business and if you are that person which you probably are because you're watching this video or you're listening to this podcast you're a lot further ahead than most people so yes you may have been starting late or you may not be ha you may not have it all figured out but if you're starting and you're posting consistently to social media whatever platform it is you choose you're a lot further ahead than you think because there were so many basic questions with which led me to go check out these people's website and their social media presence and I was shocked by how many didn't have a consistent presence and what do I mean by consistent presence I mean they haven't posted on their Facebook or their Instagram or Tick Tock at all or Twitter or LinkedIn in a consistent fashion ever it's I'll post today I'll take a week off I'll post two posts I'll take a couple weeks off because I get busy they don't have a system in place they don't have a plan they don't have a marketing strategy so you need to get going with that and it is not too late and if you are that person which leads me into number five you can dominate your Market because I can almost guarantee you that wherever you are in the world if you look at your city in your competition if you're a location-based business there's probably maybe one other business in your area that is doing a really great job at social media and what do I mean by a great job I mean they're posting consistently they have a good engaged following they're using a couple different platforms they know who Their audience is they create content on a specific level and they post consistently and it's getting likes it's getting comments it's getting shares it's getting engagement they're doing it consistently for an extended period of time which means it's working for their business I bet you there's only one other place in your city who does that in your category well which means you're a pizza shop there's probably only one other pizza shop that does a great job on social media maybe it's zero uh in my city in my surrounding areas there's not a lot of pizzerias if I go to say the three cities around me there may not even be one that's great on social media maybe Salem which is a very high profile City because everybody goes there for Halloween there's probably one or two pizzerias that do a great job on social media in my city or the surrounding ones I can't think of one that does a great job on marketing their business using social media which tells me that there is time and there is time to dominate your Market if you are that business take it seriously there's a whole lot of information that I put out there for free to help you figure out what you should be doing how often you should be doing it and what platforms you should be using it and if you're not sure join our Mastermind group it's a monthly group it's very cheap and affordable for you to figure out and ask questions and just get the basics of what you should be doing to Market your business huge there's still time for you to dominate and then the last thing I want to talk about is this pizza documentary it's on to be I'll link it up in the show notes it's free in the either the comments of this video or the show notes for this podcast episode and Alex Coons actually we were talking about this in the podcast interview that we did and he said you gotta check out this documentary it's from 2008 it's about the World Pizza Champions I think there's two pizzas flipping teams I don't know what they're called World Pizza champions in the U.S pizza team that's what they are and it's a video about how they clashed and it was like Tony gemignani Steve green kind of putting this all together in the beginnings and then they clashed and they separated into two different teams but the drama and the back and forth inside of this pizza documentary is fascinating so if you've ever if you ever wondered why the two Pizza magazines don't get along or how the two Pizza teams started this documentary is for you I guarantee you'll get a kick out of it I I mean I know these guys water under the bridge that they're it's it's well known in the pizza community and they've gotten past it and they've moved on but it's just it's just fun because you know what no matter what's going on in your business there's always drama there's always something happening and it's just fun to see how it works out and plays out in the end so if you're in the pizza industry I highly suggest you check out the pizza documentary and again I'll link it up in the show notes below this episode or in the podcast episode I'll put it in the show notes on the website smart Pizza marketing all right that's it for me thank you so much for tuning in we'll see you next time

Channel: Smart Pizza Marketing

Views: 1,441

Keywords: pizza

Id: iqIkESTmYyA

Length: 11min 52sec (712 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 21 2022