How Pizza Has Evolved

Brett Slobodzian
BA 481
Professor Johnston
2/6/12
Pizza & How It Has Evolved As of late, pizza throughout the United States is consumed on a daily basis. Each year, the pizza market is a $30 billion industry. However, during the early years of our country pizza could only be found in high Italian populated neighborhoods located in big cities like Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia. Due to the increase in popularity and marketing strategies to compliment it, pizza went from peasant food in the 1700s to what it has become today. Marketing for pizza was born in 1993 by a pizzeria named Patsy’s. Patsy had the idea of having someone walk down the street eating a slice of their pizza to expose their product. It was genius because as a country our culture is very big on convenience and consistency. Since then marketing for pizza never looked back. Slices at the time were not considered normal but slowly changed peoples attitude about the whole idea. Since then marketing for pizza never looked back. Still the pizza market was small and not extremely profitable. It didn’t really take off until WWI when some troops returned home and expressed in the paper how handy and delicious it was over in Italy. This was great publicity because if the troops, who were stationed in Italy, say it is good it must have some truth in it. In our culture it is socially acceptable to be creative and an individual. So a couple troops created the deep dish pizza which was invented at a place called Pizza Uno in Chicago and they are still serving out pizzas today. As the country was growing and pizza was in more demand, the way about preparing and serving it had to evolve so it would be able to satisfy the consumer’s needs and wants.
In 1958 two brothers created a Pizza place like none before. Pizza Hut today is an international franchise with over 6000 stores nationwide. In the beginning Pizza Hut only had one store, but as soon as they realized their business was doing well they expanded. Understanding what the consumers wanted out of their pizza parlor made it easy to branch out and provide their product to people all around the area as consistently as if it were at the original location. Dominos pizza took this idea further and then some. Since time is money and people are always on the go, Dominos was able to satisfy these demanding needs with several strategies. Instead of having to drop everything at that moment and go pick the pizza up, Dominos was able to bring the pizza right to the doorstep for free. To make their brand as consistent as possible and not have one person making a pizza differently from another store Dominos created a strong system for their company. Dominos was able to make a dumbed down process of constructing a pizza, and NASA’s hot air oven to give it that perfect cook every time. All of this was great but there was still a problem with the temperature upon arrival at someone’s house. So to fulfill the customer’s needs of warm pizza, thermal bags were created to sustain the heat for the ride in the car. Finally to push their product and service even further Dominos began to advertise to the customers about their new delivery in 30 minutes or less strategy. It showed that their product was consistent, reliable, and convenient. These two companies have perfected taste and how to serve it promptly to the customers but may be a little pricey at times.
A fast and cost effective way to obtain a pizza other than ordering it from a pizzeria is picking one up at the local grocery store. This was just another way of eliminating the intermediaries and giving the people a more simplified choice. Kids have a strong influence in what their parents purchase for them. By placing the take home pizzas at eye level for kids in the freezer section, inclines parents to purchase them more unlike if they were placed up higher where kids would not notice them as much. In recent years customizing has really caught on in American society. Pizza is just another way people are able to express themselves and accomplish the status of individuality. California Pizza Kitchen was able to execute this on a nationwide scale and establish the title of a “nontraditional pizza co.” giving people the choice to make their pizza any way they like it. Pizza has been molded to form our culture and based off of that culture is how we were able to effectively satisfy the everyday needs and wants of consumers.