Pizza Hut

A Brief History of Pizza Hut

The two brothers named Dan and Frank Carney are the pioneers of the now well-known pizza restaurant. They began in 1958 and borrowed their initial investment worth $ 600 to their mother, the business started to grow and profitable. In the recent record, the pizza hut almost collected 12,000 restaurants in more than 90 countries. Through the continuous innovation and developing the products and services, the pizza hut company is now the world’s largest pizza franchise. Added to their pocket is being part of the Pepsi Company that serves as a great deal and advantage for both of the companies (Sherman, 2004.

Products and Services in Market

The pizza company is very aggressive in terms of servicing the consumers. They are very optimistic and based their strategies in their on-going customer relations where the communication with their loyal customers leads the way to create another delightful product and quality service. Their effective marketing is not only placed on different advertisement but also in television and Internet. Part of their marketing strategy is to offer an online ordering system where a potential or loyal customer can address her or his order through the website they provided. In fact, the delivery system attracts the customer and states that “if it’s late it’s free”. This kind of statement is popular and most of the fast foods or restaurant adds it to their advertisement to guarantee that they will deliver the customer’s needs in time (Kasper, Helsdingen, and De Vries, 1999).

SWOT Analysis

Strengths – the main strength of the company is their focus on their products and services. Added to that is the ambience or the facility which is not under the category of fast food but a restaurant. The idea of creating this kind venue is to provide the bond between families and friends. Another factor is the on-going efforts of the restaurant to provide the healthier pizza. It is because they found out that there is a percentage of their target that is health conscious. The idea is to strip or cut off the unnecessary calories and fats when the cheese is added to the dough. The product reinvention did not stop there as the company included to their menus that new tastes and combinations of different pizza which is according to the tastes and preferences of the consumers. To gain additional trust from the market, the company pursues their research and develops pizza dippers, as another answer to their never-ending customer demands.

Weaknesses - Pizza hut is identified as the largest users of cheese that affects the pizza hut branches that lacks the supply of cheese. The problem with alternatives is eventually identified buy the consumers and there is a narrow choices for substitutes. Other than that, the company reported that they incurred high cost in terms of their production; the root of this problem is on the intense competition and their pizza reinvention just to satisfy the taste buds of the customers. As a result, the overhead cost pushed the restaurant branches to have additional charge, not knowing that because of their action, there is more probability to lost most of their consumers.

Opportunities - Pizza hut opened lots of doors through their pizza reinventions or product innovation. This is evident in the increase on the revenue and increasing brand loyalty with their customers. Their service and products are outstanding and the offered new taste combinations and expansion of the varieties of menus also touched their pastas, beverages, and desserts. As said earlier, the opportunity is also part of the marketing strategy of the company to provide the proper utilization of the technology through their online-ordering system. The use of landline is still viable but the evolving world of technology where almost 70% of their customers is sitting in front of the computer gives the company bright ideas to establish their relation with them, with their customers’ own convenience.

Threats - Many companies are bothered by the high competition and Pizza Hut is not different from those companies. Competition really gets the firms to push their limitations and boost up the needed investment just to answer the risky competition. Pizza hut is also concerned with their customer satisfaction and most of the extensive research and development is allotted to the needs of the customers. The roles of prices, promotions, advertisements, and delivery systems make the competition too risky and lead the customer in some series of confusion. When there are many options, the customers find it hard to choose and sometimes lead to dissatisfaction.

Recommendation and Conclusion

Through the intensive market consultation of the company, the marketing techniques are integrated and applied in different branches. In return, the efforts will be mimicries by the competitors. The added marketing strategy of the company called “take-out order” is another measurement of their effectiveness in the society. This is an indication that even if the person in at home, he or she still in search for the product they offer. Their success in on-going innovation both results in good and bad but with their objective to satisfy their customers needs and wants is a quality of service that every firms should adopt.

Works Cited:

Kasper, H., Helsdingen, P., & De Vries, W., 1999. Services Marketing Management: An International Perspective. John Wiley & Sons.

Sherman, A., 2004. Franchising and Licensing: Two Powerful Ways to Grow Your Business in Any Economy. AMACOM.

Using Gift Cards as Employee Incentives: When Developing an Employee Incentive and Recognition Program, the Incentive Gift Card Council Suggests Including Gift Cards as One of Your Reward Options. The Occupational Hazards, 70(8): 38 August 2008.

Other Sources:

Brief History of Pizza Hut [Online] Available at: http://www.pizzahut.gr/en/texts.php?cat=3&text=5. [Accessed 14 Dec 2009].

Fun Facts in Pizza Hut History [Online] Available at: http://www.recipepizza.com/the_history_of_pizza_hut.htm. [Accessed 14 Dec 2009].