Pizza Hut is rolling out new store designs in India which aim to make consumers see the brand as an ‘enhanced dine-in’ concept in the casual dining segment rather than ‘fast food’.
There are those brands that will always have their loyal customers and demographics. Brands such as Burger King, McDonalds and KFC will always have a place in consumers’ minds due to their cheap price and appeal to children. However, with an ongoing obesity debate, walking around with a burger in your hand or bringing it into the office is often frowned upon – mainly because we know that it’s bad for us.
It isn’t any wonder that Pizza Hut has caught onto this new perception of fast food and actively sought to change its brand perception. No longer keen to be a fast-food joint, it intends to become slightly more sophisticated – a place where people won’t mind being seen.
In the past couple of years, brands such as chicken restaurant Nando’s and Pizza Express have seen success in their markets, offering a quality dining experience (does alcohol on offer enhance this, I wonder?) while still offering decent food, fast.
Pizza Hut is catching up. The company has also launched a new logo and tag-line, “Stories Happen” as part of its strategy to continue performing in the fast-evolving market place. It is being rolling out in India first.
The new concept will initially be launched at Pizza Hut restaurants in Mumbai and Delhi but will soon translate to Europe as the brand seeks to become a Parisian-style café with a focus on pizza.
The new Pizza Hut restaurants will have warmer lighting, earthy tones, display destination seatings and mood graphics on the wall and a vastly expanded menu.
The pizza restaurant appointed agency AMV in May this year to support the brand’s relaunch in the UK in September. The activity will be followed by significant new investment in refurbishments and a number of new store openings in 2009 and 2010.
It seems that the days of the cheap pizza in the red leather booth seats and re-fill Coca-Cola are over, and it may just be for the best. What do you think? Will this strategy work for Pizza Hut?
July 18, 2008 at 4:00 pm |
The reason Pizza Express has been successful is simple: The food is actually pretty damn good. The only way chains like Pizza Hut or MacDonalds will ever reposition themselves to places where you would ‘go for a meal’ as opposed ‘to eat’ is to change what’s on the menu, and I don’t mean new flavour toppings involving curried chicken. But then that’s not the point is it? Macdonalds changes the look of it’s stores every year now, or so it seems, introducing pseudo designer furniture and a cafe a like feel…. but they still sell BigMacs. They should just be honest and do what they do. At least then we wont think they are trying to fool us. We’re not that stupid.