Marco’s Pizza
Rallying talent to build a stronger, more stable business.
Category Employer branding, Employee engagement
Building an employer brand to satisfy a big appetite for growth.
Even with over 1,100 locations and the distinction of being voted America’s Favorite Pizza Brand in a Harris Poll, Marco’s Pizza is still hungry for more. Their goal is as bold as their sauce: to find and hold their footing as one of America’s largest pizza companies. And in 2023 Marco’s was named among Entrepreneur's 2023 fastest-growing brands—ranking #51 on the publication’s Franchise 500 Hall of Fame list.
That continued growth requires engaging, recruiting, and retaining the key talent needed to drive their business forward, so Marco’s asked JK to help them cook up an employer brand that’s as authentic and irresistible as a classic Pepperoni Magnifico.
Deliverables
- Employer branding
- EVP development
- Visual identity
- Messaging
- Copywriting
- Employee engagement
- Strategy & communications planning
- Creative asset design & development
Whipping up a “primo” identity from scratch.
JK worked closely with Marco’s stakeholders to build the foundations of a compelling and original employer brand, one rooted in their brand DNA of working hard to deliver amazing—or, as they say at Marco’s, “primo”—guest experiences.
And so “Passion for Primo” was born, equal parts a rallying cry to engage and excite current employees and a magnet for prospective talent who want to work for a company that’s passionate about doing things the right way.
Key components of the Passion for Primo platform were designed to make employees feel proud to work at Marco’s, because according to their employee engagement data, that was the leading driver of employee retention across the franchise system.
Brand typography
The secret sauce, just for employees.
We brought the brand to life with a unique voice and visual identity that fit within the Marco’s corporate brand guidelines but still gave their talent brand its own unique style. This brand-within-a-brand was designed to be instantly identifiable by employees so they immediately knew when something was created just for them.
We also crafted tailored messaging for three important audiences—store workers, store managers, and corporate employees—to instantly engage Marco’s people and prospects with the unique value the company delivers to its people.
Rolling out something special.
Once the employer brand was built, JK partnered with Marco’s to roll it out across their franchise system, developing an engagement strategy and toolkits to help launch the brand in each store.
We then took a hands-on approach, attending the initial wave of store roll out sessions around the country to gauge how the brand was being embraced by employees and ensuring the launch toolkits we created made the process simple for store managers. After rave reviews by managers and lots of enthusiastic employee feedback, we knew Passion for Primo was indeed ready for prime time.
One happy customer.
Marco’s likes to say happy employees create happy guests, and while that’s true, we also learned that happy employees create a happy Marco’s. Our friends there we’re so pleased with our collaborative process and our commitment to helping them succeed that we’ve continued our relationship to this day.
Our latest engagement is branding their corporate social responsibility outreach program, an ambitious effort designed to strengthen the communities Marco’s calls home and give their employees something else to make them proud to work for a company with a passion for doing the right thing and doing it the right way.
We were very impressed when the JK team presented the employer brand and EVP—they actually knew the Marco’s brand and its tools and resources better than many of our employees and franchisees. It’s been a great experience working with them to implement the employer brand.
