Marketing Pizza in Todays Health Food Market?

Pizza is one of those foods that is irresistible to just about everyone, even the most health-conscious Americans.So there’s a good chance that even as fast food chains continue to suffer, pizzerias will survive. 

No matter what the statistics on diets, gym routine or healthy lifestyle are, each day, more than 40 million Americans indulge in pizza.

The trick for pizzerias that want to survive the scrutiny of today’s consumers is to make their pizzas like the Italians do-with high quality ingredients-and then use some healthy food advertising to tell people about it. Ruben Bravo, of the European Medical Institute of Obesity, was quoted in a piece by BBC, saying that, while homemade pizza could be eaten once a week without dietary concern, these frozen, processed pizzas should be consumed at most once a month. The truth is, pizza’s bad rap doesn’t really come from old school, family run chains, but from the thousands of Pizza Huts and Dominos that have come to define America’s Friday night dinner as bad-for-you food, even fast food. 

I don’t think that bacon stuffed crusts or cheesy breads were what Gennaro Lombardi had in mind in 1905 when he introduced Pizza to America.

 Lombardi’s, still on Spring Street in New York, still makes pizza in a coal oven with recipes handed down for generations. The key is using incredible ingredients to meet the standards customers have come to expect from an authentic pizzeria. Another successful restaurant that fits the description, Ledo Pizza, has been in business since 1955 and now has over 90 locations along the east coast. The pizzeria (that also offers other menu items) credits certain “unique qualities” to its long history. 

Their pizza has a rectangular shape from 50’s style baking pans give customers more for their dollar, and their historically thick pepperonis (from the cooks cutting them by hand) have become trademarks of the brand, along with handmade dough and fresh ingredients.

 Beyond these authentic pizzerias that still remain popular because of their quality and history, there are newer pizzerias on the scene that seem to be created with the millennial customers’ demand for high quality in mind and they know healthy food advertising like no one else. Skinny Pizza, a New York based franchise, recently opened up in Brookfield Place in downtown Manhattan and is ahead of the curve by using organic and hormone-free ingredients to make pizza even more irresistible. As we are constantly and sadly reminded, bread and cheese are generally regarded as the antithesis of healthy. 

Skinny pizza’s solution was to eliminate excess calories with a super thin crust, use skim milk cheese mixed with whole fat mozzarella (they’re not completely crazy), and invent vegetable-heavy combinations for toppings.

The result is a yummy pizza that’s better for you. Indulgence is a part of every good diet regime, and pizza is no exception. But marketers might better serve their customers by feeding them this irresistible food the way my Italian ancestors intended it: in its purest most delicious.