Nina's Pizza

Everybody loves J-Dawgs, right? They have the best hot dogs in Provo, and all of Utah for that matter--Hands Down! And if you don't know about J-Dawgs and you go to BYU, you must live under a rock. But what I wouldn't expect you to know about is a store that came and went in the retail space right next to J-Dawgs: Nina's New York Style Pizza. I'll tell you what I perceive was Nina's strategy and why it didn't work.

Nina has an authentic product. NY-Style Pizza. She is from NYC, and actually makes a pretty good pie. I'm sure when she moved to Utah it was just a matter of time before she came up with the idea and capitalized on her talent. Where to put the store? Location. Location. Location.

As an economics professor told me, anywhere there is queuing (lines), there is an opportunity to prey on opportunity cost (should I wait in line at J-Dawgs or should I go to Nina's). Nina chose well to pick J-Dawgs, for surely some of the people waiting for a dog would convert to pizza; after all, hot dogs are an inferior good when compared to hot dogs. Well, the lines at J-Dawgs are still long, and not very many people thought Nina's was worth leaving the line for.

So what was her problem? She wasn't competing with J-Dawgs in the first place. I'll explain that in a minute, but also... People who go to J-Dawgs only go to that area of campus to eat a hot dog, and it's a social event. Most people don't go alone. It's much harder to convince a group to switch to Nina's when they have made plans to actually go to J-Dawgs for a hot dog. Also, J-Dawgs is an experience. Nina's was just pizza.

But didn't I say earlier that Nina's was NY style pizza. Yes...but she is actually competing with Brick Oven!!!! Dun Dun Dun... that's the truth of it. Although Nina came to offer something new to Provo, she failed to realize that her audience has already been targeted. They don't want the artichoke hearts or the uber-thin slices in NY. They want a step up from homemade, and they only want pepperoni, cheese, hawaiian, or BBQ chicken. Young Mormon youth will choose Brick Oven--steeped in tradition and history subsequent to the BYU campus---every time! I chose Nina's once and thought, for a couple dollars more I could have Brick Oven. And Brick Oven is awesome. If you take a girl to Brick Oven she'll tell her friends. If you take a girl to Nina's, she might not tell anyone.

Bottom line, Nina didn't know the audience. Brick Oven claims all good pizza within a 2 mile radius at least! If you want a dining experience it's Brick Oven or nothing.