Promotion

Promotion

An activity designed to boost the sales of a product or service. It may include an advertising campaign, increased PR activity, a free-sample campaign etc. Pizza hut uses a wide assortment of promotion tools to achieve increase market share, sales volume, re- purchase and to induce new customers. Promotion mix used by them:-

Advertising

Their main objective behind every campaign that they conduct is to encourage potential customers to visit pizza hut, increasing loyal customer base, counter attacking the competitors etc. For example, they launched ‘The Great Indian Feast ‘and have signed Javed Jeffery for its commercial .The showed a teenage boy treating his girlfriend with something and affordable. This they have used during the launch of the 50 rupees pan pizza .There was also a counter attack by them  on their competitor Dominos in the year 2005, with a campaign named “Freshizza “.

Internet advertising is also a major sales promotion medium used by them. They have a deal with the yahoo internet portal. Clicking on the ads about how to make a pizza, the recipes of it, they are promoting their products. The print advertising is also done by pizza hut. They have special coupons, and especially when pizza hut celebrates a theme, like the Valentine’s Day and Diwali they largely advertise in the print media .Radio advertising has also been used. The campaign “Pizza hut and Cheesy music hour “was a successful in driving awareness that built excitement in the local market . The outdoor advertising is very aggressive in Pizza hut. Balloon advertising, Space marketing, Banner Advertisement, Poster Advertisement etc are done by them.

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion refers to a variety of short term incentives to encourage trail or purchase of the service .They have sweepstakes, point of purchase material, contests, sampling, premiums & gifts , coupons and rebates as a part of their sales promotion .Pizza hut offers gift vouchers for special occasions like birthdays etc .Pizza hut during the launch of the cheesy bites pizza had conducted contest where they could meet Lara Dutta , the famous heroine .

Personal Selling

Personal Selling refers to the face to face interaction between the service deliverer to the service receiver. Entertaining the customers in the restaurant and etiquette to the crew members are a part of personal selling . The crew members at pizza hut broke into metros like Delhi and Mumbai and have performed bhangra in Amristar  .

Customer Value

Customer Value

Customer value can be defined as the amount of benefit that a customer will get from a service relative to its cost. It is also the difference between what a customers gets from the product and what had to be delivered.  In pizza hut it stands for the best pizzas under one roof. So, from pizza hut what a customer expects is to deliver all kinds of cuisines pizzas, especially best ones. The customer value is created by the service that they provide to them, whether they delivered what is expected of them.

Associated Customer value

Pizza hut believes in creating value by providing them best customer service. They bank on their customer service in creating value among their customers.

Product

Pizza hut is known for its wide range of varieties in pizzas, appetizers, desserts and pastas. They have constantly added new varieties to their menu card. They have Indianised them and also haven’t compromised on the other traditional Italian, Mexican varieties which they are famous for.

Service

As mentioned earlier, they concentrate on the customer service a lot. This has brought them a major differentiating factor compared to their competitors. They are also quick in delivering the home deliveries.

Price

Pizza hut adopts a skimming price strategy .At first it had high prices, and now it started lowering its prices. They priced them high earlier in order to make the customers believe that they are having high quality products and offer the best service. It is now concentrating in penetrating into the market.  It has come up with different offers, which makes them more affordable by many customers.

Packaging or Image 

The packaging of the pizzas for delivery , it has been designed such away they are bright and vibrant .They also represent their quick delivery , especially , the flames on the PHD , shows that they are really fast in delivering the pizzas

Organizational Buying Behaviour

Organizational Buying

The decision making process by which formal organizations establish the need for purchased products and services and identify , evaluate and choose among alternative brands and suppliers .In pizza hut the organizational buying process is the purchase of the ingredients  for the food and the furniture. Since, it is a franchise the furniture is a standardized furniture that has to be same any franchise in India. So, the franchises have to contact the head to buy the furniture for the store. The ingredients most of them are from India. Few ingredients like jalapenos, olives etc, which are not cultivated in India are imported from the other countries. Professional purchasing is done in the franchises. They have fixed dealers as per decided by the main head franchise, and the franchisers have to follow it.

Customer Buying Decisions

The Buying Decision Process

The above diagram represents the buying decision process. Each step can further explained in the following way:

Problem Recognition

In this stage, the individual faces a problem of hunger. So, he would have a need of having food.

Information Search

This is the next stage, where the individual looks for information .he might look for different cuisines that he can have. He might end up deciding on the cuisine that he wants to have. He will then look for the possible options in that particular cuisine. Example, if he wants to have Italian, he might find out about all the Italian restaurants, food courts.

Evaluation of Alternatives

In this stage he evaluates the alternatives that are available.  He might take the final decision based on things like the time factor, reach of the restaurant, prices, food variety etc comparing it in different places. He would evaluate the alternatives like pizza hut, dominos, U.S pizza, and local Italian restaurants.

Purchase Decision

The next stage is the final stage of buying the service. The individual would finally decide on the place where he wants to have his food. He might go to the convenient place to him. He might go to pizza hut, for its food, prices and services offered.

Post Purchase behavior

The final stage is the post purchase stage, where the individual decides whether to go to the place or not. If he is happy with the service, he would re visit the place. He might also suggest people to go to the place if he likes the service that is offered. If not, he might not visit the place and would also suggest others not to go.

STP & Marketing Strategies

Segmenting

The process of grouping customers into relatively homogeneous sets such that customers within a segment are similar to one another in the way they respond to marketing effort directed at them. A market segment is a specific group of customers with similar needs, purchasing behaviors, and identifying characteristics. Their segmentation includes identifying the people who have high disposable income. They mainly target youth, two income families. And age group of 13 – 40 years. The two main segments are geographic segmentation and psychographic segmentation .Under the first segmentation, localizing the products, advertising, promotion and sales effort to fit in the needs of the different regions in the country.

Targeting

The process of evaluating various segments and then deciding how many and which segments to serve is called as targeting. The main target of the pizza hut is middle class and upper middle class people. The main target college graduates, since they are ready to spend compared to the other target audience identified.

Positioning

 Positioning is the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. Pizza hut has done its positioning in the market by two main factors quality and frequency. Especially their tag line “Best pizzas under one roof “.And also the unique dining experience , the so called customer mania also helps pizza hut to position themselves.

Marketing Strategy

A strategy that integrates an organization's marketing goals into a cohesive whole. It focuses on the ideal product mix to achieve maximum profit potential. The marketing strategy of Pizza hut is “we want to satisfy our customer by giving them the best “.They believes in C.H.A.M.P.S. They stand for cleanliness, hospitality, accuracy, maintenance, product quality and speed. They also follow 2f’s .They stand for friendly and familiar. These are followed in all the pizza hut places.

Customer service

According to AMA “ ,A customer-oriented corporate philosophy that integrates and manages all of the elements of the customer interface within a predetermined cost-service mix “ .In pizza hut they mainly concentrate on the customer service. It is known for its customer service. They believe in providing uncompromising product value , offering customers the highest value for money and giving service that warm , friendly and personal .They also provide  unique dining experience . They believe in “customer mania” , the kind of service that ensures that every visit of the customer is a memorable one.

Sales Management

Sales management

According to AMA “The planning, direction, and control of the personal selling activities of a business unit, including recruiting, selecting, training, equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying, and motivating as these tasks apply to the sales force”. 

Sales Management in  Pizza hut

In Pizza hut the sales management is two types of sales forces .One who work indoor and the others who work outdoor. The outdoor sales forces are responsible for the door delivery of the orders. They are given each area, where they have to deliver the orders from that particular area. The company provides them with a bike with the company logo and a box which is used to carry the deliveries. They have to be extremely quick in delivering them. They have to inform to the head after each delivery.  They concentrate on only one area in the area of circle covered by the outlet in a city. The indoor sales force is the one which works in functioning of the outlet smoothly. Right from greeting them at door to taking orders and billing it, all the activities are carried out by them. They are specially trained in communication skills. They are trained to be customer friendly, giving them a good dining experience. Thus , they achieve the one of the objectives of pizza hut .

Holistic Marketing

Holistic Marketing

This is a strategy that is developed by thinking about the business as a whole, its place in the broader economy and society and in lives of its customers, to develop and maintain multiple perspectives of the company’s commercial activities. Holistic marketing recognizes that everything matters in Marketing and that in Integration. It argues that all stakeholders of an organization including the Product and Brands are interdependent and tightly knit.  This strategy is advantage exists when a firm is implementing a value-creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors and when these other competitors are unable to duplicate the benefits of this strategy. The sustainability of a competitive advantage depends upon the possibility of competitive duplication. Invisible assets may allow a firm to sustain a competitive advantage.

Holistic marketing in Pizza hut India

When pizza hut was started in India, they mainly had pizzas in their menu. It has slowly added different new dishes to its menu .This included the chicken kebabs, different vegetarian pizzas with lots of vegetables that are very much related to the Indian food habits. They also included paneer , corn pizzas along with few Indianised beverages like the lemon , orange flavored drinks. This has helped the company to have an edge over its competitors. It also enabled them to reach to a wider range of customers. It also offers the Italian , Mexican cuisines also , so that it doesn’t loose out on its other customers who prefer and come to pizza hut for the other cuisines.