Founded in 1986, the restaurants’ first visual identities married the traditional Italian checkerboard border (stereo)typically associated with pizza with a simple serif wordmark and company tag line, “A Good Deal.” While the red and black color palette is the same as previous incarnations, any reference to Italia has been shed, and the graphic rendition of a fedora-wearing, mustached man put in its place to represent el Patron (the boss).

The current tag line, “Mas Pizza. Menos Dinero.” (More Pizza. Less Money.), appeals to its Spanish-speaking consumers by promoting value and its “Lista” (ready now) menu by promoting ready-to-eat fast food. The brand extends its Spanish bilingual basis to advertising, marketing, and bilingual staff.

Patron’s founder Antonio Swad tasted his first real success with Wingstop, a restaurant chain also founded in Dallas, Texas, which he sold in 2003. Still owner of Pizza Patron, he turned his attention back to the pizza business and increased in-store sales by focusing on the Hispanic community versus mainstream America.

In 2007, Pizza Patron’s management created a national furor when it offered to accept Mexican pesos in place of dollars as a January promotion. The move was made as a way to accommodate its customers arriving back from Mexico with pesos still lining their wallets. Fueling the furor was the placement of in-store displays featuring the Mexican flag and the salutation “Bienvenido Paisano” (Welcome Countrymen). To management’s surprise, everyone from conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh to local Texas politicians weighed in on the controversial practices with not a lot of kind words to say.

In a press release, Andrew Gamm, director of brand development, stated, "What began as a sound business decision to create a unique experience in our stores and offer an added convenience to our customers quickly evolved into a national debate on illegal immigration. We have taken a lot of heat over this program, but we make no apologies for reaching out to serve our core Hispanic customer better."

Proving the adage of all publicity can be good publicity, Pizza Patron (despite alleged death threats) continued the promotion into Spring of this year due to an increase in in-store sales of over 35 percent in the first two months of the “Pizza por Pesos” promotion. (According to the Dallas Morning News, sales spiked in some stores to 146 percent.) As of May 2007, the promotion is now said by Swad to be a permanent offer.

For all the furor, peso-paying pizza buyers make up 5 percent of total sales—down from 15 percent at the promotion’s peak. So far, Pizza Patron is staying more than a few steps ahead of the global giants of pizza. Pizza Hut’s 2006 sales were down 3 percent and Domino’s by 2.8 percent in a flattening fast-food industry. Can anyone say Mas por favor?

Alycia de Mesa is a brand consultant, speaker and writer with more than a decade of industry experience ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies. Her latest book is Brand Avatar – Translating Virtual World Branding Into Real World Success (Palgrave-Macmillan).