With baby #2 just six weeks away, one last camping trip was in order. We went to perhaps my favorite place in the world (Red Canyon, Utah), with my favorite people…

…and wanting to make the most of the trip, we planned a slightly-more-legit menu than usual including pizza cooked on a small, portable grill.

But not long after I turned off my brain’s resort marketing channel, it jumped back into gear upon seeing wrapped up with the pizza we had purchased in Evanston, Wyoming.

As my restless gray matter chewed on this simple piece of marketing, I started realize just how much I really, really liked it.

In the end, there were three reasons why.

Opportunity
Now, this promotion was likely targeted to all Papa Murphy’s locations in the area, but looking just at Evanston here’s what you see.

• A city with about 12,000 residents
• A city where it’s almost always windy, rarely green, and void of much in the way of scenery.
• A city that is at least 50+ miles from any major recreation spot.

In other words, Evanston has thousands number of people who are used to getting out of town in order to see something beautiful and now.

Something like, oh, I dunno, a tram ride up a beautiful mountainside just an hour and a half from home. A distance that’s manageable along, but may even tempt them to “stay and play” if there was may another reason to do so…maybe an event.

Speaking of which, did I mention this was the back of the insert?

Customer Types
If you frequent Papa Murphy’s you’ll know that they are famous for discounts. Cards, email lists, days of the week – all tied to specific promotions that drive much of their business. The whole concept of the business – save money by cooking the pizza yourself – is built on this as well.

But these customers, as much as they love discounts, also have enough disposable income to eat out from time to time. In fact, it’s always surprised me how non-shabby their pizza-buyers are. Not loaded, not destitute, just right there in the middle.

In other words, people with money to spend on things like tram rides but people who love discounts like BOGO offers of tram rides.

Experiment
But I think I like this most of all because it’s not sexy, it’s not viral, it’s not going to win any awards, it’s not high-tech and, honestly, it might not work at all.

It’s an experiment, it’s something new. It’s a marketer seeing a behavior, seeing a potential partnership, seeing the chance that something might move the needle just a little, and being willing to give it a shot. Something that, even if wildly successful in its own sphere, may only move the needle slightly.

Good stuff.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.