Friday, June 19, 2009

The Hut? Seriously?

So, Pizza Hut is changing it's name to "The Hut" in order to fit with their new, less-pizza-focused brand direction.

Perhaps it's because I remember the movie Spaceballs, but I refuse to eat at a place called The Hut. Of course, I refused to eat there anyway, but run with me for a second.

So you've got a brand KNOWN for pizza. You are, in fact, so well known that Mel Brooks created a anthropomorphic pizza villain named after you. Your pizza creations have inspired frozen pizza makers to stuff their crusts with cheese. You even have a worthy adversary in Papa Johns. How many people can say they have a worthy adversary??

And so you decide to branch out into other foods rather than, say, increase the quality of your pizza offerings?

Just how much reefer were those execs smoking? Clearly, they need a firm hand, which is why I'm leaving work right now to enact a hostile pizza takeover and turn things around over there....

Or, you know, not.

7 comments:

Wolfie said...

I will not eat at a place called "the Hut," although I might waver a bit if there were waitresses dressed like Carrie Fisher in the first bit of Return of the Jedi.

Canajun said...

Just my opinion, but Pizza Hut is to pizza what a Big Mac is to the hamburger - both insults to what can be good food items.
They can call it whatever they want; I still won't eat their product.

mq01 said...

hmmm... why am i suddenly craving a really good fresh gourmet pizza? :)

Orin said...

I don't think this will last. Remember when Jack in the Box became Monterey Jack's? I think that lasted about a year. Marketing people seem not to learn any lessons from things like (can you say New Coke, boys and girls?); it just confuses people, and ultimately results in the opposite of the desired effect...

__Orin
Scootin' Old Skool

cpa3485 said...

The original Pizza Hut was actually founded by 2 brothers here in Wichita, Kansas. I have eaten a lot of their food over the years. I especially liked the supreme on thin crust.
But as with many entrepreneurs, the big bucks called and the brothers cashed out to Pepsico many years ago, and I am in agreement that it has never been the same since. One of the brothers is now a part owner in Papa John's. That tell you anything?

irondad said...

The local Pizza Hut changed its name last year. Still the same crew, owner, etc., but now it's called Wing Street or something. I guess chicken wings are more important than pizza. I haven't been to a pizza hut in years, either.

grasshopper said...

i didn't think their other products seemed to be doing that well anyway