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Groundbreaking Little Ad ...

In Fall of 1992, this print ad appeared in people's mailboxes.

A month later this ad followed.
(The copy extending from the Domino's box reads: "Domino's medium cheese pizza." The copy extending from the Pizza Hut box reads: "Pizza Hut medium cheese pizza. We teach our crews to pile on 70% more cheese.")

Then, as quickly as they appeared, the ads vanished.

We reproduce the ads here because of their historic significance — because of what they did and the questions they raised.

What They Did. These ads are the first in the pizza industry — indeed, most likely the first in ANY industry — to make a package the focal point of an ad. And, more specifically, to use a competitor's package as the vehicle for driving home the main message of an ad. That's groundbreaking marketing history. The ads also embody unique competitive strategy. They use a competitor's package to graphically achieve advertising's two-pronged purpose of (a) diminishing the competitor's product while (b) simultaneously elevating the advertiser's product by comparison. A clever tactic, indeed. Further, the ads are designed and sequentially arranged to invoke Cheskin's principle of sensation transference (see How It's MORE Than Just a Box!). The first ad establishes a connection between the shape of a competitor's carton and the act of “cutting corners.” Building on that, the second ad then seeks to apply the principle of sensation transference in a two-pronged thrust. First, it suggests that a pizza contained within a cut-corner carton would be a cut-corner pizza (attempting to apply a negative transference to the competitor's product). Second, it points out that the advertiser's pizza, which happens to be contained in a non-cut-corner carton, is comprised of 70 percent more cheese (attempting to apply a positive transference to the advertiser's product).

Noteworthy Questions. All this causes some head-scratching. Did these ads derive from a creative burst of some advertising designer, or were they a result of marketing research that disclosed that the pizza-buying public subconsciously associated a cut-cornered box with inferior quality product? Why was the campaign so short-lived (indeed, the concept is rife with potential expandability)? Was it intended to be short-lived, or was it discontinued because it “didn't work?” Or was it for some other reason? And, short-lived as it was, is it possible that market research showed that the ads achieved their intended goal and, therefore, were no longer needed?

Interesting Coincidence. Finally, these ads create interesting speculation. It makes us ponder whether the subconscious impact of pizza packaging on consumer perceptions is more powerful and pervasive than we've assumed. Consider the public perception of the three largest pizza chains of the 1990s — Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza, and Little Caesars. Consider their company/product image in relation to their pizza package as of the mid-1990s. Specifically, after 25 years of Pizza!Pizza! (2-for-1), by 1995 Little Caesars was perceived by the pizza-buying public as having the lowest-priced pizza. However, the product was also regarded by many as not only being the lowest priced pizza but also being the “cheapest” (not exactly the same as lowest-priced). What's more, a strange thing happened: Much of the pizza-buying public appeared to regard Little Caesars' product not just as being a cheap pizza but, rather, as being “too cheap” — or so cheap that it couldn't be good. Interestingly, Little Caesars' packaging coincided with the public's perception of the product. It's package consisted of a corrugated board wrapped in a paper bag — the cheapest pizza package of the Big Three.

After 30 years of 30-minute free delivery (the last 10 years involving a money-back guarantee), by 1995 Domino's Pizza was perceived as being a mass production, fast-service pizza company more concerned with speed than with product quality and not averse to cutting corners to get the product delivered before the money-back deadline kicked in. The offshoot of this was that a large part of the pizza-buying public perceived the Domino's Pizza product as being of inferior quality. Interestingly, from 1988 to 1996 the Domino's Pizza package constituted an octagon box that had a cover with chopped corners — which, as the above ads suggest, may be a shape that pizza-buyers subconsciously equate with chopped quality. In short, the “image” of the Domino's box coincided with the public's perception of the product.

Finally, during this same time Pizza Hut was perceived as being a company with a higher-than-average-quality pizza — at least as compared to Domino's and Little Caesars. Its product was generally regarded as being a “generous, good-tasting, traditional pizza.” Interestingly, Pizza Hut packaged their pizza in a basic traditional square box. As with Domino's and Little Caesars, the image portrayed by their packaging coincided with the public's perception of the product.

Clearly, packaging isn't the only factor that goes into shaping the public's perception of a company and its product line. However, the above-noted correlation between the packaging of the Big Three (in the 1990s) and the public's perception of their product seems to strongly suggest that packaging is an important player in the overall Product Perception Arena.

For more about how pizza packaging can be used to impact public perception and pizza marketing effectiveness, see Creating a Sales-building A-bomb.

If you'd like to explore carton concepts for further maximizing the image and positive impression created by your pizza box, contact John Correll - 734-455-5830 or email john@correllconcepts.com. We likely can get you into an image-enhancing box at no additional packaging cost to your company ... in other words, free of charge. Please note — Correll Concepts is a packaging design specialist, not a box manufacturer.