Marketing Strategy and SWOT analysis of Shakey’s Pizza

It is neither a secret nor a deniable fact that pizza is one of the world’s most popular foods. This dish is believed to have Italian origins and consists of a flat round base of dough baked with some sauce, cheese, meat, vegetables, etc. This post is about Shakey’s Pizza, one of the pizza brands that offers pizzas that will even like people who do not usually eat pizza. Shakey’s Pizza was initially established in 1954 as the destination for Pizza, beer, and ragtime music and is a great place for family and friends to enjoy great food and great times while making great memories that last a lifetime. Now, let’s get deeper to understand what is hidden behind the success of this company.

So, let’s start with discussing the mission and vision statements of the company

Shakey’s Pizza has divided its mission statement into some sections, where each statement is directed to a specific audience.

Their Mission Statement states:

To Our Guests: We genuinely care for our guests. We seek to know their needs and want to provide them high-quality food products and services at great value for money.

Our Employees:  We nurture an environment where people are respected and empowered to be their best. We create opportunities for personal and career growth to succeed and gain a sense of achievement and pride.

To Our Shareholders: We grow the business by increasing the company’s size and value and achieving industry-leading returns on investment.

To Our Business Partners: We are a fair, professional, and collaborative business partner.

To Our Community: We recognize our responsibility to contribute to nation-building through job creation and by having a positive impact on our communities.

So, as you can see, the company has a very detailed mission statement, which helps society easily understand the real purpose and overall intention. After reading the statements, one can conclude that Shakey’s Pizza does everything to satisfy its customers by providing them delicious food and great memories.

Besides referring to their product and their customers, through stating several “facts” about themselves, such as professionalism, collaboration, and fairness, Shakey’s Pizza succeeds in persuading its business partners why they should corporate specifically with this company.

They give huge importance to the nation’s contribution, which will catch the customers’ attention as it provides an impression that Shakey’s Pizza is a caring company.

The vision statement of the company is as follows:

“To be the leading and preferred Family Casual Dining Restaurant, serving pizza as its core product.”

So, as you can notice, Shakey’s Pizza puts family values into the first place. Each chosen value plays a significant role in the people’s mindset.

With that being said, when family values are extended into companies, they create and start doing more humanistic actions, positively impacting society’s opinions about that specific company.

Now it is time to understand what positioning strategy Shakey’s Pizza is using.

For that purpose, let’s have a look at the following post from their Instagram page.

This is a pretty unusual post for a pizza company, as the main element of the picture is not the product itself but the customers.

By putting the customers as the main characters, Shakey’s Pizza reminds us that one of the company’s purposes is to create valuable moments with favorite people that would be worth remembering.

The post is about a romantic relationship between two positive people. The picture this couple holds was taken in Shakey’s Pizza’s restaurant and reminds them of old, good times from their youth.

This couple is eating pizza in the picture, and it makes them remember the values they imagine when remembering this company’s products: love and happiness.

So, from this, one can conclude that Shakey’s Pizza belongs to The Lover Brand Archetype.

Let’s learn some facts about this brand archetype.

So, the slogan of The Lover is “I only have eyes for you.”

Desire: to experience pleasure in every sphere.

Aim: to be in a relationship with the people, the work, the surroundings that they love.

Strategy: become more attractive in every way.

Here are the messaging levels of this brand archetype:

Level one: temptation, seduction, the process of falling in love

Level two: the desire to have a great romance

Level three: pursuing happiness, committing to the person or what they love

Level four: a feeling of ecstasy, self-acceptance

The Lover is a promising identity for those brands that:

• Help people find love and/or friendship
• Create a closeness between people
• Have pricing from moderate to high
• Have the desire to be different themselves from the other brands

Brand Archetypes. Why do we need them in practice?

Our communication strategy may have multiple messaging approaches. But there is some logic that unifies all these and it is called communication based on the archetypal branding. A company may have many messages, but they do not have something in common. For example “Do everything easily”, “Go ahead and be powerful” or Dig deeper and be experienced”.

These 3 quotes have different goals and bring different subconscious effects. One is about Being a Hero, another is about gaining more experience. These are 2 different directions of messaging and the logics of Brand archetypes bring more uniqueness and clearness here. Just read the book “8 steps to a complete archetypal branding” and you will have more experience in communication based on archetypes.

Let’s move into the SWOT analysis of Shakey’s Pizza as it will give answers to your “hows?” and “whys?”

Strengths

Provides Great and Various Food at a Reasonable Price

The prices of Shakey’s Pizza products are not high, so that everyone can afford them. The prices range from $12.99 (small) to $24.59 (large). Besides, the company’s menu is pretty big in terms of choice, so every person can find something to eat.

Even if you are vegan, Shakey’s Pizza gives you a chance to customize the product to make it vegan.  

Friendly Atmosphere

Shakey’s Pizza is known as a place where people come together and share a love for what they are known for, such as piping-hot, delicious thin-crust pizza, etc., and the workers are always amiable to the customers.

Besides, there is always relaxing music for entertainment. In some of the restaurants, there are also TVs, where the customers can watch their preferred TV shows, sports, and many more.

Weaknesses

Customer-Company relationship

During the last years, it is noticeable that loyal customers feel that the satisfaction of the pizzas and other products are declining. The quality of the food is not the same, as it was some years ago, which the customers, have, of course, noticed.

Focused mainly on family-customers

As the company is mainly focused on family customers, there is an absence of an environment within the restaurants suitable for non-family customers.

The food is concentrated on small groups and take-outs, so it would be hard for one person to go there and choose something to eat just for him/her.

Opportunities

New recipes

The company can develop new ideas regarding the flavors and types of Pizzas and overall food products. Moreover, they can also start offering their products in different sizes (for individuals and groups), attracting new customers.

As day by day, the world population changes to healthy lifestyles; the company can even introduce fresh and healthy meals and drinks.

New Restaurants

It is believed that Shakey’s Pizza has about 500 stores globally, so it’d be even more beneficial for the company to open restaurants in various countries or/and cities.

Threats

Competition

There is rising competition in the food industry, so Shakey’s Pizza should always keep up with trends to not lose its place. Pizza Hut, Dominoes are considered to be the major competitors of this company.

Now, let’s understand the segment, that Shakey’s Pizza has chosen to target

For that purpose, it is essential to watch this commercial

From the beginning of the commercial, the viewer meets a young Philippine boy who finds various non-serious excuses to not meet up with the people who call him. For example, when he was walking with a friend and suddenly fells, the boy rejects the suggestions, by saying “I need to pick up my friend.”

However, when he was called to Shakey’s Pizza to have a party with his friends, he does not find any excuse because that is the place he likes to be and spend time with his beloved people.

Moving into the deeper part of the video, when the boy enters the restaurant, the girl says, “Oh, you’ve come,” and the boy answers, “Yes, of course,” meaning that he could never reject that offer.

This group of friends orders one of the best offerings for the party-Shakey’s 2020 Meet Up Meal Deal.  This meal includes 2 Large Thin Crust Pizzas, 10pcs. Chicken N’ Mojos, 2 Pasta Platters, 1 Family Tuna Caesar Salad, 1.5L Coke, 10pcs. Mozzarella Sticks, free SuperCard, and P450 worth of gift vouchers.

So, by choosing this particular order, this group saves Php 2854.00. (which is almost 60 dollars) and creates more great times and great memories with each other.

The positive and like-minded attitude of these friends, the way they look, the way they want to stand out from the crowd, the way they know which restaurant is worth going to makes us conclude that as a target segment, Shakey’s Pizza has chosen Peacocks.

Now, let’s learn some interesting facts about this target segment.

Lifestyle and Values:

People involved in this target segment are usually self-focused and want to always stand out from the crowd. It can be noticed in the places they go, the people who are around them. However, their self-focused attitude and confidence are more of an accessory than an inner self-confidence.

These people always follow a well-organized routine, and being a leader is an essential factor for them. When it comes to money, it is a measure of success for them.

Peacocks enjoy being with their friends, going to different clubs and restaurants. Besides, the people of this target segment are curious about their look, so they always take care of themselves by going to the gym, spa salons, etc.

Most of these people are pretty traditional when it comes to relationships as they believe that it is crucial to have one long-lasting relationship.

The representatives of this target group prefer using the TV. They believe that it is crucial always to be informed and find TV the best medium for that.

Moreover, these people are even above average TV users. The Internet is more engaging than information channels, as, through the Internet, Peacocks always keep in touch with their friends, family members, etc.

Attitude to Shopping:

As Peacocks care about the way they look pretty much, they are always active when it comes to shopping. The representatives of this target segment do not usually have the highest income, so they always look for good deals with the reduced price.

Although Peacocks are not very loyal by their characters, it is usually not true about being loyal to a remarkable brand.

These people get their inspiration from different fashion magazines and start comparing themselves to the images of the magazines. Although they always choose the clothes according to their taste, people of this target segment cannot stay indifferent to trends.

 To conclude, this post analyzed some of the factors that help this company succeed in the competitive food industry. We mainly focused on the company’s marketing strategies, SWOT analysis, and target market. I hope this post could help you find answers to your questions. To learn more about the secrets of other companies’ success, check out the main page of our website.

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