Our mantra is to innovate with purpose: Prashant Gaur, Chief Brand Officer, Pizza Hut
He believes that a brand should always avoid a situation where the marketing strategy needs to be completely changed
Pizza Hut, over the last 20 years of its existence in India, has become a renowned brand in the QSR domain. Constant innovation, on-point marketing game and customising to suit the Indian palate are few areas that have ensured its strong presence in the country. Even the brand's advertising strategy emphasises on it being an ‘International brand with an Indian Heart’.
Prashant Gaur, Chief Brand Officer, Pizza Hut, looks to deliver the core proposition of the brand in the most engaging and entertaining ways while simultaneously believing that the core strategy of any brand remains the same.
We chatted with him about the brand’s new marketing exercise, how important is a celebrity association for the brand, and more.
Brand Pizza Hut has engaged with a celebrity (Abhay Deol) after a hiatus of eight years. Why such a long gap and was it important to associate a celebrity with the brand after all these years?
Having a celebrity (Abhay Deol) to endorse the campaign was not the main objective. Earlier too, we have collaborated with celebrities.
This campaign was about getting the right characters basis the demands and requirements of the script. We needed someone who stood out as cool, confident and self-assured of the choices he/she makes. Looking at all these attributes, we felt we should have someone like Abhay Deol who has his own charisma and style, to be the face of the campaign. The beauty about him is that he has both, niche as well as mass appeal. So we felt that Abhay would be the right person to pull this one off. And since he is a celebrity, there is also a collateral benefit that you get in order to reach out to the masses. Having a celebrity face also depends from brand to brand. Pizza Hut is considered the most trusted food service brand amongst its consumers for 12 years in a row. On that front, I don’t think we need any more endorsement. I think our best endorsers are our consumers who have been telling us “we love you” and “we trust you”. Usually, if there is a new entrant in the category or anything outside that the brand wants to immediately cut through or reach, then definitely celebrity endorsements make a lot of sense.
How do you see the next phase of brand Pizza Hut in India as there is immense competition in the QSR domain?
Competition is prevalent for every brand, whether inside or outside the category. As far as Pizza Hut is concerned, we have been here for more than 20 years now. If we look back at the past 3-4 years, we have witnessed an explosive growth trajectory, which is what we will continue to strive for in the future.
During this next exciting phase of the brand, our plans are even more aggressive, so that we can achieve greater growth. You can expect lots of exciting developments from Pizza Hut this year.
Consumers still seek bigger brands that have a national presence and provide best-in-class experience. As a brand, our competition is not just at a national level; we even have competition in the international space.
The brand aims for 700 stores by 2025, what is the marketing strategy and plans to complete this vision?
The milestone of 700 stores is a business strategy and I would not like to comment on that. From a marketing perspective, we want to be consistent. I think being consistent for a long period of time is a tough thing for any brand. At Pizza Hut, we are consistently giving our consumers the best product and our endeavor is to also give them a consistent best-in-class experience across all our restaurants. This is our main strategy for the brand in a nut shell. If we stick to this, I am sure we will hit all the milestones for our growth.
What kind of marketing strategies work best for the brand? Influential, experimental or any other type of marketing tools that Pizza Hut is using this year?
I would like to highlight that the core strategy of any brand doesn’t change. What you stand for today is what you will stand for tomorrow. However, you evolve with time and so does the category of consumers as they are exposed to different cuisines. The role of technology has also changed in the QSR category. In fact, a large part of the QSR category works like an e-commerce company today. So, a brand must adapt and evolve proactively to remain relevant, fulfilling the needs of the company.
India is a diverse market, especially from a product offering point of view. How essential is it for a brand to innovate and expand products?
We are in a diverse market and the mantra that Pizza Hut as a brand uses is ‘innovate with purpose’. So, it must be meaningful for our consumers and we don’t do innovation just for the sake of it. It has to resonate with the brand and be meaningful for our consumers. We continuously take feedback from the consumers to keep in touch with the trends. We keep all of that in the equation to give our consumers what they want, thus innovation is of major importance to us.
When should brands re-launch brand strategy as part of growth plans? What are your views?
As a marketer I would say a brand should always avoid a situation where you come to a point that your marketing strategy needs to be completely changed. Ideally, this should never happen, because you have to constantly and consistently evolve. It’s not a binary thing that you were something at a point of time and then just changed overnight. Even if you do so, the consumers will not accept it easily as they perceive that brand in a certain way. It is a very rigorous, hardworking and ever-changing process. The core of brand Pizza Hut has never changed. The expression will change overtime, which is purely on the basis of evolution in consumer behaviour and the category. But the core of the brand always remains the same.
Brands these days are using the digital medium very heavily. What about Pizza Hut?
We are doing a lot of innovative things on our social media and search platforms to reach out to loyal consumers. Specific to search, I must say that we have dramatically dialled-up our presence in the online space. Our business is a trade zone business. While our brand is present nationally, and soon we will have 400 stores, we have to target consumers who are in that trade zone, for which we are leveraging the power of digital. With digital technology, we can target consumers in a hyper local manner. So, on platforms such as Facebook and Google where consumers can discover the brand, we ensure that the consumers who are in the radius of a Pizza Hut store are aware about the brand.
Prashant Gaur, Chief Brand Officer, Pizza Hut, looks to deliver the core proposition of the brand in the most engaging and entertaining ways while simultaneously believing that the core strategy of any brand remains the same.
We chatted with him about the brand’s new marketing exercise, how important is a celebrity association for the brand, and more.
Brand Pizza Hut has engaged with a celebrity (Abhay Deol) after a hiatus of eight years. Why such a long gap and was it important to associate a celebrity with the brand after all these years?
Having a celebrity (Abhay Deol) to endorse the campaign was not the main objective. Earlier too, we have collaborated with celebrities.
This campaign was about getting the right characters basis the demands and requirements of the script. We needed someone who stood out as cool, confident and self-assured of the choices he/she makes. Looking at all these attributes, we felt we should have someone like Abhay Deol who has his own charisma and style, to be the face of the campaign. The beauty about him is that he has both, niche as well as mass appeal. So we felt that Abhay would be the right person to pull this one off. And since he is a celebrity, there is also a collateral benefit that you get in order to reach out to the masses. Having a celebrity face also depends from brand to brand. Pizza Hut is considered the most trusted food service brand amongst its consumers for 12 years in a row. On that front, I don’t think we need any more endorsement. I think our best endorsers are our consumers who have been telling us “we love you” and “we trust you”. Usually, if there is a new entrant in the category or anything outside that the brand wants to immediately cut through or reach, then definitely celebrity endorsements make a lot of sense.
How do you see the next phase of brand Pizza Hut in India as there is immense competition in the QSR domain?
Competition is prevalent for every brand, whether inside or outside the category. As far as Pizza Hut is concerned, we have been here for more than 20 years now. If we look back at the past 3-4 years, we have witnessed an explosive growth trajectory, which is what we will continue to strive for in the future.
During this next exciting phase of the brand, our plans are even more aggressive, so that we can achieve greater growth. You can expect lots of exciting developments from Pizza Hut this year.
Consumers still seek bigger brands that have a national presence and provide best-in-class experience. As a brand, our competition is not just at a national level; we even have competition in the international space.
The brand aims for 700 stores by 2025, what is the marketing strategy and plans to complete this vision?
The milestone of 700 stores is a business strategy and I would not like to comment on that. From a marketing perspective, we want to be consistent. I think being consistent for a long period of time is a tough thing for any brand. At Pizza Hut, we are consistently giving our consumers the best product and our endeavor is to also give them a consistent best-in-class experience across all our restaurants. This is our main strategy for the brand in a nut shell. If we stick to this, I am sure we will hit all the milestones for our growth.
What kind of marketing strategies work best for the brand? Influential, experimental or any other type of marketing tools that Pizza Hut is using this year?
I would like to highlight that the core strategy of any brand doesn’t change. What you stand for today is what you will stand for tomorrow. However, you evolve with time and so does the category of consumers as they are exposed to different cuisines. The role of technology has also changed in the QSR category. In fact, a large part of the QSR category works like an e-commerce company today. So, a brand must adapt and evolve proactively to remain relevant, fulfilling the needs of the company.
India is a diverse market, especially from a product offering point of view. How essential is it for a brand to innovate and expand products?
We are in a diverse market and the mantra that Pizza Hut as a brand uses is ‘innovate with purpose’. So, it must be meaningful for our consumers and we don’t do innovation just for the sake of it. It has to resonate with the brand and be meaningful for our consumers. We continuously take feedback from the consumers to keep in touch with the trends. We keep all of that in the equation to give our consumers what they want, thus innovation is of major importance to us.
When should brands re-launch brand strategy as part of growth plans? What are your views?
As a marketer I would say a brand should always avoid a situation where you come to a point that your marketing strategy needs to be completely changed. Ideally, this should never happen, because you have to constantly and consistently evolve. It’s not a binary thing that you were something at a point of time and then just changed overnight. Even if you do so, the consumers will not accept it easily as they perceive that brand in a certain way. It is a very rigorous, hardworking and ever-changing process. The core of brand Pizza Hut has never changed. The expression will change overtime, which is purely on the basis of evolution in consumer behaviour and the category. But the core of the brand always remains the same.
Brands these days are using the digital medium very heavily. What about Pizza Hut?
We are doing a lot of innovative things on our social media and search platforms to reach out to loyal consumers. Specific to search, I must say that we have dramatically dialled-up our presence in the online space. Our business is a trade zone business. While our brand is present nationally, and soon we will have 400 stores, we have to target consumers who are in that trade zone, for which we are leveraging the power of digital. With digital technology, we can target consumers in a hyper local manner. So, on platforms such as Facebook and Google where consumers can discover the brand, we ensure that the consumers who are in the radius of a Pizza Hut store are aware about the brand.
