Round Table Pizza

Mama Zella pie no square peg as sales rise to record heights

At Round Table Pizza the legend of Mama Zella lives on.

Months after this limited-time offer graced the chain's menu last year, it remains the company's best-selling pizza to date.

"The Mama Zella pizza pie did about 40 percent more [in sales] than anything we've done before," says Glenn Lunde, Round Table Pizza's chief marketing and development officer. "I don't think we'll ever get to that level again. It sort of set a standard for everything."

Michele Hennessey, the company's director of product development, calls the Mama Zella pie, which featured an eye-catching but practical lattice top, "very unique. You go, 'Wow!' Our objective was to have a pizza that was filling, yet familiar — but had a Round Table twist to it."

Round Table Pizza, which has units in the Western United States, Asia and the Middle East, lays claim to being the nation's fifth-largest pizza franchise company with more than 510 units. Founded 47 years ago, the Concord, Calif.-based firm offers in-store dining, takeout and delivery.

Although the Mama Zella was innovative, it did not alienate customers, Hennessey says. "There's a fine distinction between being so unique that you lose sight of what your customer wants and is willing to try."

Hennessey adds that Round Table Pizza is not positioned to offer as many new items as some competitors, like California Pizza Kitchen, are.

"They're more full service, with a lot of different menu items," he notes. "The majority of our customers come in for a large pizza. They're willing to try new things, but it has to be familiar. So we take the familiar and enhance it."

That was the idea behind the Mama Zella.

According to Lunde, "We originally wanted to do a stuffed pizza like the ones sold by Giordano's, a chain in Chicago."

But such a pizza presented problems. It took longer to cook because of the thick sauces on top. "And eventually," he recalls, "we realized that this type of pizza didn't feel so unique after all."

Round Table Pizza solved both the cooking and innovation problems at once with the Mama Zella, by giving it a distinctive lattice top like those found on dessert pies.

"Not only was this unique, but also it allowed us to cook the pizza faster because the heat could penetrate through the top crust," Lunde observes.

The lattice top had another benefit. Round Table Pizza features garlic-Parmesan twists as appetizers in place of traditional bread sticks.

"These are 1-inch seasoned strips that we fold over and twist," Hennessey explains. "We thought, 'What if we put those on top of the Mama Zella?' So, instead of twisting them, we laid them flat across the top like a lattice."

Mama Zella was introduced in March 2002 after about 10 months of development. Although it's no longer on the menu, Hennessey says, "I don't think there's ever been a pizza like it."

A veteran of the pizza segment, Hennessey would know. She spent several years with Pizza Hut as a menu development manager and then did an 11-year stint with Shakey's Pizza as director of product development. She joined Round Table Pizza in 1995.

Lunde believes the product did well because it was easy to execute for operators and had perceived value for customers.

"We took a regular thin pizza and put it in a pan so it would go up the side like a shell. That gave it height without thickness, kind of like a taco shell. And because of its height, it communicated value to customers."

The Mama Zella featured Italian meats and cheese, pepperoni, salami and roasted tomatoes. "Zella was kind of a name we made up," Lunde adds.

Operators in the Round Table Pizza system liked the Mama Zella because it cooked in the same amount of time as a regular pan pizza and required no operational adjustments, even down to the garlic-Parmesan twist that turned into the lattice topping.

After the success of Mama Zella, the chain stayed with its "Mama" theme and last July introduced a Hawaiian version called Maui Mama.

"Mama Zella was a great pizza that really met our objectives," says Hennessey, adding that a strong marketing campaign was a major factor in driving sales. It featured the chain's representative, a character named Billy who dresses as an Italian grandmother and claims to have invented pizza pies.

Lunde, who came to Round Table Pizza three years ago from Taco Bell, says the Mama Zella promotion aired on television and radio and appeared in print. When the campaign ran its course, the Mama Zella was pulled from the menu.

"Mama Zella was a great product, but there were some operational issues," Hennessey says. "When you're advertising and making lots of Mama Zellas, it's OK. But when the promotion ends, it's tough. In quick service you have such employee turnover that, unless you're making a lot of these, it's hard to keep everyone properly trained."

For Hennessey, the thrill in her job comes from seeing a product and program that she helped develop come together with all the stores and customers behind it.

"A lot of people don't know who we are," she says. "This MenuMasters Award will put us on the map in other parts of the country. We tell people we're innovative, but this award is proof."