The Promotion
Marco's Pizza is using National Pizza Month to push a fuller basket, not just a discounted pie. The Toledo, Ohio-based chain, which operates more than 1,200 stores across 35 states, tapped Director of Culinary Innovation Chef Kathleen Kennedy to assemble five complete meal pairings — one featured each week in October — designed to move guests from a single pizza order to a multi-item ticket that includes apps, salads, dip cups, and dessert.
Kennedy brings more than 40 years of culinary experience across high-end restaurants and large-scale brands. Her five combinations — named The Fire & Honey, The Classic Comfort, The Veggie Feast, The Ultimate Game Day, and The Light & Bright — each anchor around a signature pizza and build outward. The Classic Comfort, for example, pairs the Pepperoni Magnifico® (available at an everyday value of $12.99 in most markets) with a Garden Salad, CheezyBread, and Original CinnaSquares®. The game-day build stacks the meat-loaded Ultimate Magnifico with 15-piece Garlic Parmesan Wings and a Pepperoni Pizzoli handheld.
What Kennedy Is Signaling
The campaign doubles as a quality platform. Kennedy's public-facing message draws a sharp contrast between Marco's fresh-made process and what she characterizes as the broader industry's drift toward shortcuts — frozen dough, shelf-stable sauces. Marco's dough is made in-store daily, undergoes multi-day cool proofing, and is hand-stretched to order; the sauce traces back to founder Pasquale "Pat" Giammarco's original Italian recipe; the three-cheese blend is fresh, never frozen.
"Guests shouldn't have to compromise to get a great meal, and we're not willing to compromise to give them one," Kennedy said. "It would be easier, and less expensive, to cut corners on the dough or the sauce or the cheese. Our guests deserve more and we look to deliver."
For convenience operators tracking foodservice competition, the pairing format is a textbook upsell architecture — structured bundles that raise per-transaction value without requiring a full limited-time-offer rebuild. Pizza remains one of the highest-velocity foodservice categories at quick-service and adjacent retail formats, and complete-meal framing continues to gain traction as operators compete for share of the dinner occasion.
Distribution and Loyalty Tie-In
All five pairings are available for delivery, carryout, or dine-in at participating Marco's locations nationwide through October. Guests can order through marcos.com or the chain's redesigned mobile app, which accepts Apple Pay and Google Pay and integrates with the Marco's More loyalty program. Loyalty integration on a promotional push is increasingly standard practice across pizza and foodservice categories, as chains use digital ordering to capture member data and drive repeat visits.
Marco's earned the top spot in Technomic's 2025 America's Favorite Restaurants ranking for the Limited-Service Pizza segment, posting a 54.6% composite top-box rating. The chain also placed No. 50 on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2026 Franchise 500 and appeared on QSR's Top 50 list — metrics that matter to prospective franchisees evaluating unit economics in a competitive pizza market.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
