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. With “Death threats and hate mail:” More pizza politics
Posted Under: America
The previously mentioned Pizza Patrón pesos stunt continues to attract attention. In fact, the 59-location chain has “been hit with death threats and hate mail,” according to this A.P. story.
Pizza Patrón spokesman Andy Gamm said the company is just trying to sell more pizza to its customers, 60 percent of whom are Hispanic. But the move has drawn some heated reaction.
“This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico,” one e-mail read. “Quit catering to the damn illegal Mexicans,” demanded another.
The version of the story published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram has some quotes from a store manager in nearby Arlington, who says he’s from “a lot of people, calling in English — not in Spanish — cursing at me, and just saying a lot of racial stuff.” But he also says: “Even bad publicity is really good publicity, when you’re mentioning a pizza place that two weeks ago no one knew about.”
What I want to know is, does Pizza Patrón’s Hispanic-customer focus simply translate to a location strategy? Did it simply locate in places that, say, Pizza Hut hadn’t — either because the Pizza Hut number-crunchers overlooked them, or didn’t think that Hispanics liked pizza? Or do they compete with Pizza Hut on price? Or, is the menu tweaked in some Hispanic-friendly way that makes it different than Pizza Hut?
And by extension, are there chains of burger places and Chinese restaurants and KFC alternatives “serving the Hispanic community”? Or does this model only work for pizza for some reason?
I checked with a longtime Friend of Murketing, Fort Worth-based Chow, Baby, whose coverage of area restaurants is a highlight of the Fort Worth Weekly. Chow, Baby hadn’t eaten at Pizza Patrón lately, but recalled the fare as “decent chain pizza,” although not with any memorable Hispanic accent. And also:
Chow, Baby’s position would be that as a restaurant critic it doesn’t take a public stand on political immigration issues, but as a food lover it wishes more people would come here and open little taquerias. So whatever supports that, Chow, Baby supports. Also it has tons of leftover pesos from its last “fact-finding mission” to southern Mexico, so this sounds like a great idea.
I may have piqued Chow, Baby’s curiousity on this matter enough to convince it to go spend those pesos and write it up. (After all, maybe it was scoping out the best pizza options in southern Mexico when it acquired them.) If so, I’ll pass that along when the time comes.
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Reader Comments
Chow, Baby is right in his “decent” evaluation and yes, there are other fast food chains targeting the Hispanic customer — there are several such chicken places in Dallas. My impression is that Pizza Patron’s appeal isn’t necessarily price, taste or lack of competition. It’s that it puts itself out there as Hispanic-friendly which is something no one else does. (I wish there was a more precise yet non-perjorative term than “Hispanic.” Their customer is obviously not just anyone with a Spanish surname.) Of the people I know who get their pizzas there, they feel like it’s a chain for them — run by people they know, people like themselves.
I can’t decide if I think the pesos thing was a slightly cynical move and that PP’s executives anticipated this hostile reaction. It’s a temporary promotion after all. And the kneejerk threats give PP more credibility with their core customer, right? This is a chain that was almost invisible outside the Spanish-speaking community and suddenly, they’re famous. They’re a cause. The backlash is among people who would never go there anyway. What’s funny to me is that the main beneficiaries of this promo seem to be the tourists who only go to Mexico once in awhile; for the people who travel back and forth several times a year — unspent pesos are hardly a problem.
Irene, thanks so much for this, your comments sound right on the money to me.
Catching up on back issues of “Nation’s Restaurant News,” I see that Peter Piper Pizza, a different decent pizza chain targeting Hispanics, has recently been acquired by ACON Investments, a private-equity firm that “invests primarily in businesses serving the U.S. Hispanic trade.” In a press release to Hispanic PR Newswire, ACON’s managing partner said: “The concept has significant appeal among Hispanics because of its family focus and affordable price points, as evidenced by Peter Piper’s success in large Hispanic markets along the U.S.-Mexico border and in Mexico…. We see a terrific opportunity to take advantage of the continued growth and expanding purchasing power of the Hispanic population.”
I’ve been to Peter Piper (there’s one next door to my favorite supermercado), and, as Irene suggested about Pizza Patron, the attraction is not in price, location, or taste – you can get jalapenos on any pizza in this town — but only in self-presentation as Hispanic-family-friendly. And I think that’s brilliant. Murketing asked, “Are there chains of burger places and Chinese restaurants and KFC alternatives ‘serving the Hispanic community’?” I can think of local places, but I think national ones are coming. Just like Mickey D’s went hip-hop, but that’s old-school niche marketing — in Texas, our Hispanic population is now three times our African-American population, and it’s growing faster. Other Southwestern states are even more disparate. Say you’re a fast-food exec looking at California: 7% black, 12% Asian, 35% Hispanic. Yep, I’d pick a Peter Piper Pizza franchise and watch the pesos roll in.