Monday, August 4, 2008

Pizza Scissors

My friend recently presented me with a "Pizza Challenge." She challenged me to come up with some new way to make, eat, or market pizza, because it seems like pizza is where the eating innovation happens. We have seen everything from pizza rolls to pizza on bagels, tasted everything from cheese in the middle to cheese in the crust, heard everything from "avoid the Noid," to "better ingredients, better pizza." What could I come up with.

Something popped into my head. Two words. Pizza Scissors.

I started thinking about pizza scissors. Would they be a serving utensil built into a pair of scissors and how? What would the advantages be? Why would people want that? I thought about it, and eventually decided that it wasn't the best idea, but I liked the sound of pizza scissors so much.

Try saying it out loud.

Pizza scissors.



It is so much fun to say. People would love to say it. People would remember it. Why not push this idea into the marketing realm.

Then, I looked up "pizza scissors" on Google. Wow. Someone actually made pizza scissors, actually a couple of different companies, with different designs.

What does that tell you?

Right, even my bad ideas are good enough for someone to put a couple of hundred thousand of dollars into.

Here is the marketing idea that I came up with, that I think is far superior to the actual pizza scissor device. If you work for Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's, or any other pizza chain hoping to make their mark on the pizza kingdom, you should listen up. Roll out a new super, deluxe, six cheese pizza, so covered in cheese that it is impossible to free slices from the pie without the use of...

Pizza Scissors, small plastic, possibly pizza shaped, scissors that you conveniently provide with each pizza to help people...wait for it...

...cut the cheese.

Maybe you do, maybe you don't ever say "cut the cheese," but people will think it, and people love to say it.

There you go. A marketing campaign, all be it "cheesy," chalked full of phrases that people love to hear and love to say, things people will remember, neatly wrapped up and delivered to you in less than 15 minutes.



P.S. Subscribing to Ideas By Chuck is easier than you might think.

P.P.S. If you are working on bringing one of my past ideas to life, please let me know and give me updates on your progress. If you try and succeed with one of my ideas, it will make others more likely to give it a go.


Anonymous said...

good plan!
this is like the "where's the beef?" in a post farley brothers world.

simple phrases that people are already familiar with and are prompted to repeat by a normal life experience i.e. cutting cheese or answering the phone, pretty much take on a life of their own.

you have to plant the initial seed then watch the snowball


Anonymous said...

FOR SURE! And if it's repeated enough people might just start thinking of Papa John's Pizza every time they fart!
That's some hardcore life-of-it's-own marketing right now

Anonymous said...

advertising agencies that have been trying to figure out how to stick advertising on the sides of flatulence for years

Anonymous said...

I like them as a promotional item with a logo. stick them in your junk drawer. Pizza places seem to always be coming up with new promotions.... you are definitely on to something

Anonymous said...

seriously! Who DOESN'T love to scissor????

Alan said...

Great, I love the advertising tie in because I am jealous of the guy who invented the recyclable cardboard clothes hanger for dry cleaners and sells advertising on them, gives them to dry cleaners, and saves the world a ton of wasted metal. Why does my cleaners not use them yet! Alan

Mike Germon said...