The Franklin Street Pita Pit is selling more pitas this year, and owner Josh Sanders said the success comes from the lessons he learned in his old rock band.
The restaurant’s sales have increased by 25 percent since Sanders became the new owner last October, and his employees believe his marketing ambition and his social attitude are contributing to the success.
“I treated music very much like a business,” Sanders said. “It was all about marketing to me. You know, obviously the music was my product, the way I promoted it — using everything from social media to grassroots flyers.”
Years ago, Sanders said he dropped out of a chemical engineering program in college to join a rock band.
He said he’s using the same methods now at Pita Pit he once used to market his band’s music, and the substantial increase in sales demonstrates the quality of his techniques.
For freshmen this year, Sanders said Pita Pit printed greeting cards containing a menu and coupons — and he said the idea came from his first record release.
“I would burn my favorite song and an acoustic track out of it, and I would take it and burn seven CDs at a time,” Sanders said. “I would burn three to four thousand CDs over the course of a day, and then put them in every dorm room.”
He said he’s using these ideas to promote Pita Pit’s food.
Rhonda Weidner, a daytime shift-leader at Pita Pit, said she thinks Sanders’ drive has been a major factor in Pita Pit’s upward climb.
