The Power of Papa Murphy’s Franchise Marketing
VP of Brand Marketing & Innovation with the iconic take-n-bake pizza franchise opens up about Papa Murphy’s cutting edge marketing strategies
Papa Murphy’s has developed a powerful marketing team that supports franchise owners with national programs with strong consumer appeal, evidenced by a series of new promotions resonating with guests.
“Our franchisees receive extensive marketing benefits, especially when we execute national promotions that guests love,” says Tracey Ayres, Vice President of Brand Marketing & Innovation.
By positioning the franchise on the cutting edge of new and innovative ideas, Papa Murphy’s has developed a culture that franchisees want to be part of. Some of the highlights of current programs include:
- Partnering with Fanatics for weekly discount prices and tickets
- Collaborating with social media influencers to drive awareness
- Engaging in celebrity endorsements, such as Eddie Jackson, a former NFL play and winner of Food Network Star 2015
- Market activation events, like Tailbaking at select NFL and College stadiums
In this interview, Ayers talks about how these efforts are part of Papa Murphy’s plan to launch the franchise into the future and highlight the brand’s uniqueness that sets it apart from competitors.
Q: How has Papa Murphy’s worked on brand development?
A: We’ve spent the past 12 months really digging into and creating our brand identity, and that starts with a positioning statement. We’ve developed what our brand voice is, what our brand personality is. And then that unifies our message along with what we mean to the guest and our intentions for the franchisees.
Q: So how would you describe Papa Murphy’s brand?
A: We’re a brand that really embraces creativity and raw possibilities. Our business model allows franchisees freedom within the confines of the brand, and our product is so versatile for consumers to meet their varying needs. We believe that creativity makes our restaurants and product offerings more exciting than competitors.
Q: A lot of that stems from national campaigns, right?
A: We’ve put a lot of effort into national campaigns that franchisees can implement on a local level. We call it “community marketing” where individual franchisees can take a national campaign and are able to easily customize it for their local market .
Q: And the Tailbaking promotion has seen great success?
A: Pizza and football – they go together. And obviously people love to tailgate at games. But most people are grilling hamburgers. And so we wanted to become the pizza brand that fans can actually take to a tailgate, and grill our pizzas right there.Hot pizza right off the grill is a tailgate favorite! . We also have a big summer grilling campaign that has been very successful for us. We are the one pizza brand that is versatile enough to meet all your Tailbaking needs.
Q: What other promotions are you working on?
A: We’re driving new partnerships, with Fanatics. We’re about to launch some Tik-Tok campaigns and engage more heavily into Twitter. We will launch a campaign in the Spring that will aim to highlight our core points of differentiation in a unique way that is sure to catch the consumer’s attention. And of course, we want to make sure all of our campaigns are skewed towards our growth target.
Q: Where do you see Papa Murphy’s greatest strength these days?
A: Our franchisees have a lot of passion for the brand which fuels our passion on the marketing team to bring the brand to life in the right way and to help drive growth. We are not a group that wants to just sit around and be complacent. We want to be on the cutting edge and highlight the uniqueness of our brand.
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OWNING A FRANCHISE WITH PAPA MURPHY’S?
Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake pizza franchises is a low-cost investment opportunity offering high growth potential. We have grown to more than 1,250 locations thanks to a business model built for entrepreneurs who are passionate about quality, service, integrity, and most of all—pizza.