BECAUSE KID ROCK FANS WOULD GET THEIR PIZZA FROM LITTLE CAESAR’S
Pizza pizza.
The best description of Domino’s pizza I’ve ever heard came from our friend Jason, who said, “It doesn’t taste like pizza, it tastes like an English muffin with tomato sauce.” And I’ve only eaten at a Little Caesar’s once that I can recall, but my impression of it was more or less the same as my impression of Domino’s (or Pizza Hut, for that matter). Maybe I’m spoiled because we have a lot of good pizza here in New York, but I’ve never been able to understand why anyone would prefer to have McPizza over any number of other Italian dining options.
But I gather (he said with his nose held high in the air) that these places are very popular within the white trash populace — a.k.a., Kid Rock’s bread n’ butter. So when I read the following on MediaPost.com (by way of Metal Insider), I thought, “Gee, that is a brilliant fucking idea.”
Detroit-based Little Caesars Pizza is now selling Kid Rock’s eighth studio album, “Born Free,” for $10 at its restaurants nationwide.
“Pizza is a fun food and giving our diverse customers an opportunity to combine it with this new music release makes sense,” Stuart deGeus, vice president of marketing, said in a press release. “Kid Rock’s albums are chart-toppers and this offering can help drive traffic to our stores.”
Kid Rock is from Detroit, so I’m sure that helped in the initial schmooze meeting when someone had to pitch this idea to him and/or his handlers. But it really is about as sound a marketing strategy as I’ve heard recently — not unlike selling the latest James Taylor feelgoodery at Starbucks. You know your target audience is going to be there, and if you put some appropriately-priced CDs near the register, you’re bound to create some impulse buys.
I think more artists should begin to investigate this game plan. Cattle Decapitation could sell albums at vegan restaurants across the country, for example. Or Cannibal Corpse could hock their wares at abortion clinics!!! Holy shit, I am a genius. Somebody get me a column in the Wall Street Journal.
-AR
