The Demise of Encinitas’ Mr. Moto
Two years ago I wrote about the opening of Gelati & Peccati Pizza in Encinitas, directly across the street from Mr. Moto’s Pizza. At the time I advised G&P to get lots of visibility by:
Promoting with coupons, radio, and social media
Donating to charitable events
Holding an open house to welcome the neighbors and influencers
Visiting local groups, like Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce
As the new guys in town, G&P had a huge opportunity to get folks to check them out once. The trick would be keeping them coming back.
And I added; “Mr. Moto will obviously also need to up their game. Because if the existing operation doesn’t market themselves more aggressively and creatively, the new kids will eat their lunch.”
You guessed it: Mr. Moto’s Encinitas location is now closed.
Mr. Moto’s has six other locations, a vibrant website, and an active social media presence. Their Yelp reviews are overwhelmingly positive (4.23 company-wide, 2701 reviews).
They’re obviously doing something right.
Why’d they close in Encinitas? Who can say? My outreach to corporate headquarters for this column went unanswered.
I loved their food, but costs of ingredients, labor, rent and utilities are all rising.
Coast News publisher Chris Kydd also reports they never advertised in his paper, so perhaps that was the issue. With 19 other eateries within one block (including G&P), there’s stiff competition.
We may never know for sure.
This is a timely reminder that no matter what you sell, there’s always someone ready to muscle in on your turf. You must constantly acquire new customers to offset the attrition of people leaving you to buy elsewhere.
Just doing things like you’ve always done them before doesn’t fly anymore. Regardless of your industry, someone’s gunning for you. To survive and thrive, you’d better have a few marketing tricks to pull out on a moment’s notice.
This means understanding your customer, product, and marketplace. Thinking differently, including being able to look at other industries for ideas to borrow, is critical.
It’s inevitable that new competitors will appear. If you’re prepared, you’ll be positioned to co-exist with the challenges they present.
However, if you stubbornly take an attitude of “Why should we have to market?,” keep those packing boxes handy. You’re gonna need them.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
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Learn to beat the competition at www.marketbuilding.com.