IV. Market

Pizzeria Fresco target market consists of different demographic groups in the area of the Washington Square / Union Square of Greenwich Village in New York City.

Due to its gourmet and health-oriented appeal, Pizzeria Fresco hopes to attract middle and upper class customers who generally seek out “specialty” type foods with less regard to cost. These include the customers who sop at nearby gourmet stores like Gourmet Garage and Dean & DeLuca’s. These also include consumers who are coffee bar frequenters. In addition, Pizzeria Fresco also aims at attracting the vegetarian market, those who currently frequent the existing high-priced vegetarian food stores. These targeted customers may fall into various household categories, whether single, married, with or without children. For those households with children, the potential to gain the decision-maker’s patronage comes from the premise that most children enjoy eating pizza, and parents are generally eager to give children food that is healthy for them.

The population of the Pizzeria Fresco represents a large number of people who fall into the demographic group of Pizzeria Fresco’s target market. According to the U.S. Census Demographic Survey of 2000, the total population of this area (the zip code 10003) 53,673 people. The median household income of this population is $60,891 and the median family income is $92,865. These figures show that there are a number of local residents who are potential Pizzeria Fresco customers.

When further broken down by household and family types, there are 79.7% single households, and 20.3% married households. The annual average household expenditures on entertainment in this zip code is $3,395 per year, or approximately $65 per week. The average household spends $36,976 per year on retail expenditures or approximately $711 per week. According to census data, local residents both make and spend more money than the average American. See Appendix A.

Another target market is the sizeable student and university populations, whose numbers are not counted among the census data. The faculty, staff and student body of schools are potentially large markets for Pizzeria Fresco both for its lunch and dinner meals. The pricing of Pizzeria Fresco is low enough for students’ budgets and the fast food aspect may be appeal to students “on the go”. In addition, the delivery service is convenient to the number of New York University and other school dormitories in the area. Besides NYU, there are five other major higher educational institutions in the area – Cooper Union, Benjamin Cordoza Law School, Hebrew Union College, The New School and Parsons School of Design – which draw tens of thousands of students who commute to the Village daily.

	Students	Faculty	Staff/Administration	Total
Cooper Union	900	200	100	1,200
Cordoza Law	1,000	45	100	1,145
Hebrew Union College				190
New School	17,400	1,801	859	20,060
NYU	48,000	3,100	1,000	52,100
Parsons School of Design	4,800	705	350	5,855
Total Potential Market:	72,100	5,851	2,409	80,550

Information taken from institutions’ websites.

In addition, Pizzeria Fresco is basing itself in one of the most popular tourist attraction areas in New York City. Millions of tourists visit the Greenwich Village area for its restaurants, cafes, galleries, boutiques, jazz clubs, off-Broadway theaters, gourmet shops, and bookstores or simply to walk through this landmark district. These visitors contribute to a large transient population, who are potential Pizzeria Fresco customers.

Overall, Pizzeria Fresco is confident that the choice of locating in Greenwich Village holds a large market of potential consumers. The market that exists for Pizzeria Fresco is one that when broken down, has several demographic and psychographic segments, ranging from local residents and university students to tourists.

Informal research of foot traffic at one of Pizzeria Fresco’s proposed locations was conducted. The number of pedestrians passing the particular street was measure for various intervals, throughout various times of the day and days of the week. The result was an average of 112 pedestrians per 10-minute interval, or a total of 9,408 per 14-hour day. These numbers show that Pizzeria Fresco’s market is of a reasonable size to draw from, (i.e., slightly over 2% of pedestrian to be Pizzeria Fresco customers is necessary to breakeven. See Financial Assumptions section.)