Ok, death might be a little harsh

Some of you might have heard that pizza chain, Pizza Patron, recently announced they were accepting Mexican pesos at their locations. The back lash has begun and now BusinessWeek is reporting the chain is now getting death threats.

It's interesting in that Pizza Patron's sales have been increasing through the years and they chain has also expanded, with the growth in large part due to the fact they are effectively targeting the Hispanic population. Now that effort is what is being criticized.

What BusinessWeek points out, to their credit, is that accepting foreign currency isn't anything new. Their article discusses how many businesses up north accept Canadian dollars (I remember this when I was at Niagara last year. Not to mention when I went to Toronto and border towns in Mexico I could also pay with dollars).

Keeping in mind that my blog is about marketing issues and not political ones, when I wrote about the May 1 boycott, I pointed out that the biggest mistake with that boycott event is that it was perceived as an Americans against Mexicans issue. This current issue with Pizza Patron is an extension of the backlash that type of event created in the general American public.

From a marketing perspective, catering to your customer only makes good business sense (as I pointed out, just as it does for the guy accepting Canadian dollars in the northern tier). So, for people to complain about Pizza Patron, not to mention making death threats, is ridiculous unless they are also ready to do the same for the businesses accepting Canadian dollars. From a public relations perspective, I can only hope the chain anticipated the backlash this would create and that they are responding properly from a crisis communication perspective.