It’s not groundbreaking consumer insight, but college students love pizza. Scott Iversen, director of advertising and franchise development for Toppers Pizza, says that sounds obvious, but not many brands go after the 18-to-24 demographic as aggressively as 26-unit Toppers does. The Whitewater, Wis.-based chain, which began in the college town of Champagne, Ill., in 1991, always has tried to connect to the young-adult niche with its witty, irreverent advertising and branding.
Toppers positions itself as the brand that brings the party, Iversen said, and the chain reinforces that idea down to the smallest detail, like delivery drivers giving away lollipops and little green army men or coming equipped with “party caddies” of plates, cups and paper towels.
Even though Toppers is keeping its raunchy slogan of “We come fast, no apologies” and silly phone messages for customers on hold, the brand is maturing. Iversen said Toppers hopes to have 100 stores open by 2013. It’s promoting its latest product, the MyZa individual pizza, with the “MyZa and Me” contest, calling for customers to post on Toppers’ Facebook page photos showing their love for the new menu item.
How does marketing to college kids differentiate Toppers?
When you think of big national chains, they’re targeting families. We’ve got a niche of a huge demographic in pizza that nobody goes after in a direct way. What we try to do is create personal moments by being ourselves. At each place we touch our customer, we try to make it a little fun, like on our phone messages, where you can press “2” to hear the definition of some crazy word.
We try to connect on a personal level, and we’ll post some crazy comment of the day to invite an interaction. It’s not just a promotional message. You’re interacting with core customers in a fun way.
“Connect” is the operative word for social media. How does your Facebook contest fit in with your strategy?
By targeting 18-to 24-year-olds, we have to live the Toppers brand where they live every day. We have to have a strong presence on social media. The beauty for us is that it’s believable. Some people don’t want to connect online with brands that are stuffy.
About half our stores are in college markets. We target 18 to 24, but the beauty of it is you also get the 25-to 34-year-old group—because who doesn’t want to be 21 again?
Any plans to execute deals or offers through social media?
We’re starting to. We’ve seen some success with specific promos targeting specific markets. You can target down to the store level by segmenting your followers and friends. Social networks have created more of an even playing field for small chains like us.