Pizza my Heart

Pizza My Heart is a restaurant chain in California, which sells pizza by the slice for a cheap price. By now it has many locations, since it is a real success. But why is it so successful? Do they actually sell the best pizza? Do the restaurants have great service and a nice atmosphere? 

I have to disappoint you; they do not sell the best pizza and the restaurants are also just normal diners. Well maybe they have a touch of a surf style, but this still is not typical for a great pizza place. The real reason why so many people, especially students, are eating at Pizza My Heart is the t-shirt you get with your pizza. A t-shirt? Yes, if you order a slice of any pizza you will get a t-shirt with the logo and the location of the restaurant on it. A simple white shirt with a little red surf board on it. That is it. I believe that the owner of this chain started the best advertisement campaign for his restaurant with this shirt. 

These shirts are really popular with students in the bay area. Eating lunch off campus is a must for many high school students and many of them choose Pizza My Heart. They all return with the shirts and wear them as a sign of their trendiness. Having one of the t-shirts is also a must and having more than one or one of a cool location means you are yourself very cool. in fact the shirts are that cool, that my class made it into our class shirt. We changed the slogan from "Pizza My Heart" to "Spartans My Heart" and the color, but that is it. 

When I saw these shirts and the impact of them I immediately had to think of the Hard Rock Cafe shirts. This restaurant chain did the same thing by starting to sell shirts with cool designs at their restaurant locations. When I got my first shirt I did not even know about the restaurant I just knew the shirts. Everybody had one and everybody wanted the coolest one from the coolest location. I have never eaten at on of these restaurants, but I have 3 shirts. 

By wearing these shirts people help promoting two things. One of them is of course the brand or the chain behind the t-shirt. Showing everyone where you have eaten or where you have been is also promoting the restaurant to potential costumers. Secondly these shirts also promote the way of advertisement or the way of using trends with teenagers to advertise a brand. Marketers all over the world use this strategy now and hope to become the new hype shirt. 

So now that commercials are everywhere anyway, does that make it better when we ourselves become a walking advertising pillar? Innocent students are used to promote some product by wearing a trendy shirt. Marketers found a great way to force their brand into the day-to-day life of students. 

http://pizzamyheart.com/shirts-stuff/