How Toppers Pizza's Dough-Nation Nights Make an Impact on the Local Level

When working to stand out as a local business owner, becoming ingrained in a small community is vital. Sure, a brand can offer promotions and deals, discounts and gimmicks but when it comes down to it, people care about one thing above all: their community. Reputation in a tight knit community is everything, and it doesn’t get tighter knit than in St. Cloud and Rochester, MN.

Nestled within the greater Minneapolis market, Rochester and St. Cloud are home to many families, and feature the classic all-American feel often associated with suburbs. 

Toppers Pizza* franchisees for Rochester and St. Cloud, father and son duo Myron and Keith Allen, have always focused on community involvement and put a heavy emphasis on establishing a well-rounded reputation as small business owners. The Allens may be franchisees in the Toppers Pizza system, but they are small business owners in their own right and have worked to make an impression in the local community.

Across the system, Toppers Pizza holds Dough-Nation Nights, proceeds of which are donated to a worthy local cause. The Allens have chosen to recently host Dough-Nation Nights at not one, but three of their locations.

“We are donating to the local Salvation Army branch in St. Cloud. In Rochester, we are donating all of the funds to the Channel 1 Regional Food Bank. Toppers has a national partnership with Feeding America, and Channel 1 is a Feeding America member. That partnership has been wonderful for Toppers, and we wanted to continue strengthening it on the local level,” said Toppers Pizza Marketing Supervisor Rachel Bartels. 

By providing the strategy and tools for franchisees to execute Dough-Nation Nights in their local markets, Toppers Pizza challenges the stereotype that franchised locations operate under solely corporate-minded values. It sets them up to establish partnerships in the community and make themselves known as small business owners that really care about their customers and the areas they serve.

“Toppers has a set of core values that all of our team members are committed to each and every day. One of those core values is to ‘Build something special.’ When we talk about this core value, we often refer to our team members, our food, or our fanatical customers. But, we also talk about our company as a whole. We want people to know that we are a company that is focused on the bigger picture – building our communities and helping people when we can,” Bartels said. 

The events provide not only a heartwarming feeling for customers participating, but a fun opportunity to engage with the brand. Toppers Pizza recently introduced Straight Up Pricing to its system, which allows guests to create their pizzas with unlimited toppings, which they got to try out at a recent Dough-Nation Night. 

“Just about every pizza place out there claims that they want to give their customers the freedom to customize. But in reality, we end up zinging them with extra fees. By introducing straight-up pricing, we’re unleashing the customer’s creativity to put together the exact pizza that they want,” said Toppers Pizza Founder and President Scott Gittrich.

Bartels adds, “We wanted to get customers comfortable with building a pizza however they want it. September is also Hunger Action Month. It made sense, then, to put the two together. With the Dough-Nation Nights, customers got to experience building their own pizza, and we got to do our part in helping our communities.”

The Allens are just one example of how Toppers Pizza makes a difference in its local communities – the brand has more than 70 locations across the United States hosting similar Dough-Nation Nights. Evan as Toppers continues to expand its presence in both existing and untapped markets on its way to becoming a national brand, Toppers Pizza will remain committed to giving back at the local level with the help of its dedicated franchisees.