When you walk into Mangino’s Pizzeria located at 106 North Liberty Street in downtown New Castle, Pennsylvania, it’s as though you’ve been transported to a place where the Italian food is as real as the people serving it. Since their doors opened in 1979, customers have traveled from miles around for a taste of Chuck and Johanna Mangino’s authentic Italian family recipes. Now after 28 years, the same great flavors well known in this town that is nicknamed “Little New York”, are being introduced to a new and very different market with the opening of the family’s second location at 1201 Piper Blvd. Suite 17 in Naples, Florida.

But how do you translate the success of a well-established home town restaurant to a location that is already filled with take-out pizzerias? “We knew we needed to get the people of Naples to try our recipes, because they are so different from what everybody’s used to,” says Chuck Mangino. For this, they turned to Absher Design Group (ADG), an experienced branding consultant known for increasing the profitability for retailers and restaurants.

The agency started by creating the first olive oil tasting bar in Southwest Florida. They continued the challenge by developing a unique overall branded image to poise the restaurant for future growth and franchise opportunity by designing all the essential elements, including menu, packaging, the interior’s design, and advertising.

“We wanted to create a unique experience that has the polished and upscale appeal Naples residents are used to, yet still keep the old-world attitude of these very real people,” says Lisa Absher, President and Founder of ADG. By using the colors of toasted wheat and tomato red accented with matte black cabinetry, stainless steel retro seating, bar high counters, large white subway tile, and oversized photos of mouth-watering foods that satisfies the hardiest of appetites; the interior is one-of-a-kind and vastly different from the red and green theme of your typical pizza place.

With the stage set for an original restaurant experience, it was time to get the word out about Mangino’s Pizzeria and their authentic Italian comfort foods. Chuck and Johanna’s humor has always been part of their salesmanship so it seemed only natural to make humor a key brand attribute in their print and radio advertising campaigns. “In both print and radio we used Italian-Americans speaking in their natural dialect in a humorous dialog about where to find the very best real Italian food,” explains Absher. The campaign has been very successful in attracting business to the newly opened restaurant.

For more information, call mangino’s Pizzeria and Olive Oil Bar at 239-254-7795 or visit our website www.originalmanginos.com


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