The mac ‘n’cheese pizza and buffalo wings pizza created by students at Geneva High School are about to be put to an important test.
Four different pizzas developed and marketed by a class of marketing students will go on sale at Aurelio’s, 330 W. State St., for the restaurant’s “pizza challenge.”
It’s the second time Aurelio’s and teacher Eric Hatczel have teamed up to provide students a real-life lesson in what it takes to sell a product. Tyler Larocca, general manager of Aurelio’s, said students get a glimpse of the restaurant and marketing business.
“These are real-life lessons,” Larocca said. “They’ll be standing in that room and people will be ordering or not ordering what they marketed. They’ll be wondering, ‘Did I make the wrong pizza?'”
Senior Mollie McDonald described what happens after the class was split into four groups of seven to eight students and surveyed around 50 people to see what they would enjoy tasting on a pizza. Then they created a pizza to market to print media, social media and to their fellow students.
“It’s definitely competitive,” McDonald said.
The four new pizzas are: “The Wing King” – a concoction of cut-up boneless chicken wings drizzled with buffalo sauce; “The Ron Swanson” made with meatballs, pepperoni, mozzarella, and bacon; “The Meat Feast” with sausage, meatballs, and Italian beef; and “Mac Pizza Supreme” – with alfredo, bacon, and a penne macaroni and cheese.
The winner will be the group who manages to sell the most pizzas Wednesday, Hatczel said. Aurelio’s will donate a portion of the proceeds to a charity the class will pick.
McDonald said she was interested in sports marketing and the project only reinforced that desire.
Hatczel partnered with a burger restaurant for a similar challenge for his marketing class for four or five semesters. When that restaurant closed, there was not project for a year until he found a willing partner in Larocca.
Last semester, Aurelio’s sold about 100 of the specialty pizzas devised by the students, he said.
Larocca said there will be a special energy in the restaurant on challenge day as it fills with the marketing students eager to seal the sale. Last semester, even patrons who knew nothing about the competition decided they were game to try a new pizza.
“The novelty of it all makes it fun,” Larocca said.
Alexa Aguilar is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
