Pizza Concept Trends

An Exciting Time For Pizza

The New Wave of Entrepreneurs have hit the ground running.

Fast casual, locally sourced, artisan pizza, organic and build your own are the buzz words being tossed about and of course there is the "Chipotle of Pizza" dream being expressed by the media but some ingredients are universal in the latest "Gold Rush" of pizza. First and foremost is the idea of building your own or designing your own pizza. Although it's not  a new idea to such Industry standards as Goodfella's from Staten Island New York which in known for it's Vodka pie, the open counter display of ingredients through a glass partition where the customer choose the toppings, thus "building" his own pizza" is now the predominant part of many of the new concepts.  The artisan part of pizza making is being reinterpreted to mean choose your toppings and hand made instead of hand made dough which is then hand stretched and cooked by a skilled pizza man in an authentic brick oven but customers are not that choosy yet as the competition is still evolving. Speed is foremost at this time but is not making it necessary to sacrifice product at places using the revolving brick ovens to cook hand tossed dough at such  an amazing rate of speed and consistency that it would make a Neapolitan Pizza Man smile. Organic ingredients are a bonus for some places looking to offer a healthier pizza, while local growers are being utilized as an incentive to be part of the community. Trendy places with exciting themes are taking the place of the old mom and pop slice places and offer somewhere different from the typical Pizza Franchise to take the family on pizza night. With the market share of fast casual pizza increasing by leaps and bounds it is anyone's guess as to who will be the "Chipotle of Pizza". Regardless of who dominates the market it is a win-win for all pizza lovers. 

How to Promote your Pizza Business by Marc Cosentino Co-Founder of Three Time World Champion Goodfella’s Brick Oven Pizza Part 1

Watching my facebook friend Grant Cardone go on and on about getting known and attracting attention I thought I might as well share some very hard won knowledge on the subject to help my friends just getting started. I’d like to first say that IT IS SO MUCH EASIER TODAY THAN IT HAS EVER BEEN TO GET ATTENTION FOR BUSINESS!!! What do I mean by this? The internet, cell phones, home printing, email, blogs, online ordering, electronic press releases, computers, you tube, facebook, insatgram, search engines and a host of other items that make it so easy to get out there that it may seem overwhelming or too easy.
No matter how incredible your product is, if nobody knows it exists, you will never sell one item and die broke a complete failure. What you need besides a great product is getting it known. I have some experience in this having generated hundreds of newspaper articles, TV news stories, hundreds upon hundreds of pages on ggogle search, lead google stories, 100′s of thousands of hits on youtube videos, twenty years of NYC Mayors visiting my original store, having my pizza bet on the NY Giants by the Mayor of New York when They won the Superbowl, radio and I think you get the point.
SO how did I do it? More importantly; how do you do it? If you do a portion of what I advise you here I guarantee you will succeed in getting your product known. With good management and a consistent product you should start expanding.
1-list out all the people you know and every group, organization and social club you belong to. Note: Yes, work and a burning desire to succeed are a necessity so no crying!
Believe it or not but the people most likely to promote you are the ones you already know so start contacting them and letting them know what you are doing and don’t be afraid to ask for help getting the word out because most-not all-people are good. Email. call, visit, write letters, make post cards, put up signs and contact each and everyone of them. Invite them to your grand opening and tell them to bring their friends. Yes I said it and if you thought for one second “Oh my god how would I ever handle that many people” you need to rethink your promotional philosophy and heres why. A true promoter never stops and never, ever considers delivery, just getting the people in-period. I don’t care how you do it and you don’t care about handling them, that’s another part of the job called production or delivery. Your only concern when you wear the promotional hat is promoting. What is promoting? It’s making things known and well thought of. It’s getting the word out and creating interest.
2-Signs announcing your product. Let’s take pizza

since it is why we are here. You need to tell people you are coming and get your name on everyone’s tongue. Signs on your place, signs on your car, signs on your clothes, on your dog, kids. hats, cards.
3-Everywhere you go, shopping, barber, car wash, doctor, school. little league, diner, dog groomer you talk it up and introduce yourself and give out cards or better yet coupons for everyone.
4-When you open you go and hand out samples to all these people-don’t worry about the cost because it will have a return on investment way over what any paid advertising def: paid offers of your product in various media. WORD OF MOUTH is always your best promotion and will always bring greater results than paid ads.
5-video on your iPhone all of the above and dump it on your new youtube channel, facebook, instagram, twitter accounts your opening in the next step
6-open twitter, youtube, facebook, instagram, linked in and every other social media account you can find. And continually put up photos and videos of your progress and promotion.
to be continued

Pizza Cop Bags Evidence from de Blasio's Forkgate

Marc Cosentino on Patrol in the 120 precinct circa 1988

Former NYPD  Sergeant Marc Cosentino went from police patrol to pizza patrol after founding the World Famous Goodfella's Brick oven Pizza on Staten Island New York with his Brother Scot. His former training cam in handy when he thought  to safeguard the central exhibit from the Forkgate scandal in New York City.

Cosentino arresting Leonardo Di Caprio on the Wolf of Wall Street

No stanger to the spot light, having been a co-star on the TV show NYPD Blue, winning the coveted International Best Pizza Award along several times with his brother Scot Cosentino and his partner Andrew Scudera of Goodfella's, they are always looking for ways to help fund good causes and his police background is a natural for things like the time they raised $10,000 dollars for the Jerry Lewis Telethon by handcuffing would be donors to the chairs at Goodfella's till they got "bailed out" by  friends and family. "This fork auction should help raise awareness and funds for the families that are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy and the The Tunnel 2 Towers Foundation which is still doing great work on the relief" said Scot Cosentino. Andrew added " who knew it would get this big and it's a fun way to help".

Infamous fork vouchered in evidence bag at Goodfella's Pizza on Hylan Blvd.

As Mayor de Blasio recently said "I'm glad they're using this opportunity for a good cause and it's  all in good fun". So spread the word that the fork is available for inspection at the Original Goodfella's on Hylan Boulevard and the bids are starting to come in, with first $1000 bid  made by the New York Brick Oven Company since the famous pizza was cooked in their Inferno series revolving brick oven. Happy Pizza to you!

Scot Cosentino and Andrew Scudera of thePizza School New York