Feb. 20, 2012, Atlantic Canada – If you’ve seen the hit TV series, “What’s in a Name” on History
Television, then you know that a lot goes into naming a new product or
business before it is launched into market.
Brainstorming sessions. Customer research. Product development. And of course, lots and lots of product testing, which in Greco’s case, is not a bad day at the office at all.
Bill Hay, Founder of Grinners Food Systems Ltd, the franchisor of
Greco Pizza, wanted to provide his customers with something completely
new and different. He tasked his staff to develop a new and unique
pizza experience for their customers.
“With a milestone year upon our
company, the time is right to launch some exciting news in the pizza
business,” says Hay. “Greco has been in Atlantic Canada for 35 years;
Moncton, New Brunswick, is where it all started in 1977, and we’re excited
to be serving Atlantic Canadians for at least another 35 years. I
wanted to give back to our many Grecoville communities by providing a
product that not only looks and tastes like no other pizza, but also is
one that our customers can afford.”
Product development started right away as Greco’s pizza experts
took to the challenge. The task? To make a pizza that is completely
different and throw out the rule books.
After seven months of development, the new pizza was finally ready.
“This is what we would classify as a completely unconventional pizza,”
explains Guy Soucy, vice-president of innovation at Grinners. “Our main
idea was to somehow double the Greco Pizza experience for our
customers. If you love Greco Pizza as most Atlantic Canadians do, we
wanted to create a product our customers could love twice as much. The
result is a totally new pizza experience; you eat this almost like you
would a slice of apple pie. It's an amazing pizza filled with toppings
like you’ve never seen before. Quite simply, in every bite you get a
complete mouthful of pizza and that’s exciting.”
Greco’s solution? Take a standard 12-inch pizza dough, add an abundant
amount of sauce, toppings and cheese, then top it with a second layer of
dough, then add more sauce, toppings and cheese. Finish it by braiding
the top and bottom crusts together, brushing it with their famous garlic
butter to seal in the taste. Adding a top layer to your pizza may
sound easy enough, however if it takes too long in a restaurant to make,
then customers will quickly move on to the next food option. “There’s
so much competition for your pizza dollar right now, everything has to
be perfect before we consider a nation-wide product launch like this,”
explains Hay, “and this we know is perfect.”
“Basically what we have here is two delicious layers of Greco Pizza
in one pizza,” continues Hay. “Sounds simple enough, but that’s not a
name, that’s more of a product positioning statement. Certainly the
product is extremely attractive visually; the fact that it’s two layers
stacked on top of one another is also quite different. But what we have
found in our market testing is what we had hoped; this is a product
that our customers love to eat simply because it tastes as amazing as it
looks and comes at a price that is right for our customers at $11.99.”
So now that you know the make-up and unique features of this new product, what would you name this pizza?
“There were really three short-listed options that we had to pick from that tell the story quite well,” explains Hay.
Greco’s new Stuffed Pizza, The Double Decker Pizza, or The Grande.
“All names all fit very well; after all, the pizza is stuffed with
pizza toppings and since it’s two layers, it is in fact a double decker,
and finally because of its size and weight, certainly The Grande makes
sense.”
So what did they pick?
See images of the new product and find out Greco’s chosen name by visiting www.greco.ca
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