Memorandum II

TO: Little Caesars Enterprise Inc.

FROM: Michael Demetriou, Wayne State Student

DATE: February 12, 2017

SUBJECT: Promoting the City of Detroit

Detroit was known to the outside world as the Murder Capital of

America1. The city of Detroit has been perceived as one of the worst cities in
the United States and even became known globally for its crime, corruption
and problems. Since those dreadful times we have tremendously improved
but the country does not know it. No one believes that a city so torn down
could ever come back and potentially become one of the countrys best
cities again.

Detroit developed one of the worst reputations in the country in the early 21st
century. In the year 2012 the city lost over 200,000 people, but the crime
rate increased making the city worse and worse. Later that year Detroit was
named the most dangerous city in the United States with over 2,137 violent
crimes per 100,000 people,2 as if this was not enough to deter people from
the city, the loss of jobs and poverty levels were skyrocketing. From over
90,000 employed in 1930 to less than 5,000 in 2000, the city was losing jobs
too fast for the citizens to find new ones. Then two of the three largest car
companies in the United States, both in Detroit, filed chapter 9 bankruptcies
leaving thousands more without jobs.3 A few years later on December 10,
2014 the city of Detroit filed the largest bankruptcy case in United States
history. This did not help the mass poverty throughout the city, which at one
point hit an all-time high of 36% of the city living below the poverty line.4 The

1 Journal of Urban History

2 Fisher

3 NYT
country still believes this is what Detroit is, and no matter how hard the
people try to change this no one will accept it as true.

People still perceive Detroit in a significantly negative manner although it is

no longer one of the worst cities in the country. In fact its on the road to
becoming one of the countrys greatest cities. To prove to the country, Little
Caesars should create an advertisement for the city of Detroit promoting it.
The Ilitch family has almost finished redeveloping the Detroit District which
has the ability to be one of the worlds most advanced arenas and
entertainment districts to date. Not only would an advertisement of such
create positive publicity for the city nationally but it would also bring more
revenue to the Little Caesars Company.

Little Caesars falls under the commercial institutions of the American

economy which accounts for millions of for-profit enterprises that make up
the market sphere. A company like Little Caesars, now sells nationwide and
fluctuates between the countries number two and three top pizza franchise.
In 2013 Little Caesars generated sales of approximately 3.07 billion U.S.
dollars in the United States.5 This was over double the earnings they made in
2011, in just two years the company grew so much. Everyone knows what
Little Caesars Pizza is, whether they have ate it before, seen an
advertisement of in on television or the internet. In fact, 35 percent of U.S.
adults recall seeing a Little Caesars ad in the past two weeks6 proving that
this company is well known. Little Caesars is currently ranked number 14 in
the most popular ranked commercials in the country, with over 14,367
airings in the past 30 days.7

After reviewing all these facts it is evident that Little Caesars is popping up in
many peoples lives around the country. During each delivery or order Little
Caesars also adds in promotional offers and other information which could
easily be changed to promote the city of Detroit. These papers could have a
picture of Detroit that catches the eye and maybe a quote that explains that
Detroits better than ever. At the bottom of this pamphlet there could be the
4 NYT

5 Statista

6 Statista

7 Ispot
link to a page created by Little Caesars promoting the city. The page would
be created by professionals in attempt to catch the eye of people and draw
them to the city. Another ability for the company is to create a national
advertisement that will run for a few months which could be similar the
Eminem super bowl commercial, this would promote the pizza but also the
city of Detroit.

Little Caesars has not attempted to perform any of these solutions to help
Detroits problem due to the fact that the cost outweighs the benefits. The
company would be spending millions to promote Detroit but get almost
nothing out of it. Somehow we would need to convince or even prove that by
bringing more people to Detroit it will benefit the company. We already know
that Little Caesars needs to create advertisements so making a Detroit
advertisement is not a crazy idea but if it was possible to prove to the
company that when people show up to Detroit they will likely be visiting the
Detroit District which is mostly run by the Ilitchs including their new stadium
which will be a huge attraction for concerts and sports games bringing in
even more money.

The perception of Detroit does not need to be negative any longer, the city
deserves its chance. An advertisement could change this, while also
increasing revenue for the company.

Citations
"Anatomy of Detroits Decline." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Aug.
2013. Web. 31 Jan.

2017.

Fisher, Daniel. "Detroit Tops The 2012 List Of America's Most Dangerous
Cities." Forbes. Forbes

Magazine, 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.

Journal of Urban History, Vol 41, Issue 2, pp. 307 325, First published date:
January-08-2015

"Little Caesars: Sales U.S. 2015 | Statistic." Statista. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.
"Little Caesars Pizza TV Commercials." ISpot.tv. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2017.