Marco's Pizza is converting National Pizza Month into a structured check-building exercise, deploying five complete meal bundles — pizza, appetizers, salads, dip cups, and dessert — across its 1,200-plus locations in 35 states, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Mexico. The Toledo, Ohio-based chain tapped Director of Culinary Innovation Chef Kathleen Kennedy to author the pairings, positioning the promotion as a culinary-credibility play in a segment where LTO fatigue is real and average-check pressure is constant.
The Pairings
Each of the five combinations anchors on a signature or Magnifico-tier pizza and layers in add-ons designed to increase ticket size without requiring complex order customization. The lineup spans the daypart and occasion spectrum: a sweet-heat pairing built around the Hot Honey Magnifico and 10-piece wings with a Mike's Hot Honey dip cup; a family-night bundle anchored by the Pepperoni Magnifico at an everyday price of $12.99 (with regional exceptions); a vegetable-forward option featuring the Garden Specialty Pizza and Greek Salad; a high-protein game-day configuration with the Ultimate Magnifico, 15-piece Garlic Parmesan Wings, and a Pepperoni Pizzoli handheld; and a lighter Italian-inspired pairing centered on the returning Margherita Magnifico and a Chicken Caesar Salad.
The promotional architecture is straightforward from an operator standpoint — no new SKUs, no limited-time ingredients requiring separate supply chain management. The chain is leaning on existing menu items reconfigured into suggested bundles, a low-friction approach to driving attach rates on sides, apps, and desserts that franchisees can execute without incremental labor or waste.
Quality Positioning
Kennedy, who brings more than 40 years of culinary experience across high-end restaurant environments and branded consumer packaged goods, has led Marco's menu innovation for the past two years. The chain is using her credibility to reinforce its quality narrative in a pizza segment increasingly populated by value-driven chains competing primarily on price. Marco's makes dough fresh in-store, uses a multi-day cool-proofing process, and hand-stretches to order — a differentiation story the brand has consistently leaned on in franchise development marketing and consumer-facing communications.
"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."
The positioning matters competitively. Pizza remains one of the most resilient QSR and fast-casual categories through economic uncertainty, but chains at Marco's scale — above 1,000 units, below the Domino's and Pizza Hut tier — face pressure to articulate a reason beyond convenience. Chef-driven credentialing is one lever; another is the brand's recent recognition as America's Favorite Restaurant in the Limited-Service Pizza category by Nation's Restaurant News, using Technomic Ignite Consumer 2025 data, where Marco's posted a 54.6% composite top-box rating.
Distribution and Ordering
All five pairings are available at participating locations nationwide for delivery, carryout, or dine-in through marcos.com and the redesigned Marco's Pizza app, which supports Apple Pay and Google Pay. Orders also integrate with the Marco's More loyalty program, giving the chain a data collection opportunity tied to the promotional period. Third-party delivery channels are explicitly excluded from the Pepperoni Magnifico price promotion — a margin-protection move consistent with what franchise-heavy pizza chains have signaled broadly as delivery commission economics remain under pressure.
For franchisees, the promotion represents a low-execution-cost mechanism to push bundle behavior during a month when pizza consumption is culturally elevated. Whether the pairings move the needle on AUV or SSS will depend on consumer adoption rates that the chain has not disclosed in forward guidance.
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.
