Unique Marco’s Menu Promotions Help Drive Business for Franchise Owners

From specialty pizzas to favorite comfort treats, the pizza franchise pays attention to trends

Marco’s Pizza watches for hot trends and listens to our customers for ideas to turn into our next successful pizza promotions — then we get to work to make them happen.

As the only national pizza franchise founded by a native Italian, Marco’s Pizza has made a name in the burgeoning pizza industry by producing fresh, handmade pizza. Known for our fresh dough made daily on site, a proprietary three-cheese blend that is fresh and never-frozen, and a secret pizza sauce recipe, our success and rapid growth is a result of our strong corporate backing. We have the ability to take market share and grow unit-level profitability to attract top talent among our franchisees and support center staff. Marco’s was ranked No. 95 on Entrepreneur magazine’s prestigious Franchise 500 list in 2015.

Marco’s Pizza franchise cashes in on customers expanding palates

Cooking and travel shows are watched by millions, and the public is traveling more than ever — exposing people to unique flavors and food. Marco’s Pizza sees that people are looking for artisan meats and cheeses, interesting spices, and premium ingredients. We’re here to feed that need.
We are dreaming up all types of ideas in our Toledo, Ohio, test kitchen. We’ve introduced a limited-time Chicken Florentine pizza for those wanting more Italian flavor. From our regular menu, cheese fanatics can choose the White Cheezy, which has four cheeses — including feta.

Taking our bread to the next level, we have flavor crust options that include toppings like garlic butter, Parmesan cheese, and Roma seasoning.

We like offering distinct original items like our Pepperoni Magnifico pizza, which has Old World and Classic Pepperoni. One customer from Cornelius, North Carolina, on TripAdvisor.com says, “SMALLER Old World Pepperoni is wonderful, as it curls up around the edges and allows for a pool of oil to form in the center of each pepperoni….nice topping.”

While we enjoy our savory meats, we love our fresh, delicious vegetables: we have a Garden pizza on our Specialty Pizza menu.

Even our new desserts, S’mores, Salted Caramel, Triple Chocolate and the Double Chocolate Brownie, use only the finest ingredients that people want — including premium Ghirardelli chocolate.

“Using premium Ghirardelli chocolate makes our new brownies extra rich and delicious,” says Darren Gray, Marco’s Senior Director of Menu and Culinary Innovation.

Marco’s utilizes events to promote new products

As people began wrapping up their family camping trips this fall, we recognized that some still wanted a taste of the outdoors. As part of National S’mores Day on Aug. 10, participating locations donated $1 for every S’mores Brownie we sold that day to local youth camping organizations.

It was a great way to shed added light on our Summer Savor promotion, which introduced our S’mores Brownie dessert.

“Brownies and S’mores are both classic favorites, with S’mores being a big flavor trend,” says Darren.

In March 2014, when we introduced the world to our Grilled Chicken Florentine pizza, we gave customers the opportunity to try it for free on National Spinach Day on March 26. To receive a free medium Grilled Chicken Florentine Pizza, guests were asked to bring a can of spinach to their participating neighborhood Marco’s Pizza location. Then we delivered all the cans of spinach to area food banks in those communities. About 10,000 cans of spinach were collected and delivered nationwide.

Learn more about Marco’s Pizza

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