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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/99d4...632/yum-ceo-says-pizza-hut-needs-be-more-uber

NEW YORK (AP) — Yum CEO Greg Creed thinks he figured out why sales at Pizza Hut have gone cold: The chain needs to be more like the car-hailing service Uber.

"If you think about the Uber experience, it's easy to use, it's easy to pay, it's very easy to track," Creed said in a phone interview from Dallas late Thursday after Yum Brands' investor day.

During a presentation, Creed said there was a time when the way to beat the competition was to have a better product. He now believes that convenience trumps quality, and that "nothing beats making better easy."

Creed said the insight that "easy" beats "better" will help Yum energize its three fast-food chains, which also include KFC and Taco Bell. That means everything from shaving time off drive-through waits to pushing into areas like catering, delivery and mobile ordering.

With Pizza Hut in particular, Creed said the chain hasn't paid as much attention to making life easier for customers as it focused on being "better." Yum notes the chain's sales have flagged even as Pizza Hut is often cited as a favorite among consumers. It turns out people who prefer the chain's pizzas are only willing to wait about two minutes more for it, Creed said. Yet Pizza Hut takes more than two minutes longer to deliver than its competitors.

It's one of the reasons Yum thinks Pizza Hut has flagged in the U.S. as rivals have prospered. In recent years, Domino's has credited the convenience of its online ordering and mobile app for fueling its steady growth. Last year, its sales rose 7.5 percent at established U.S. locations, following growth of 5.4 percent the previous year.

In the meantime, Pizza Hut's sales fell 3 percent at established locations last year, following a 2 percent drop in 2013.

To get the chain back on track, Creed said he made Pizza Hut's management team get in a room about a month ago to come up with a "clear brand identity." They were told not to come out until they did.

"One of the joys of being the boss, you can lock other people away," said Creed, who stepped into the CEO role this year.

Nine hours later, Creed said he got a text from Pizza Hut's chief brand officer Jeff Fox asking for permission to leave the room — they thought they had an answer. That's when they came up with the insight that "easy" beats "better."

In addition to Uber, executives cited online retailer Amazon as an example of how being easy for customers wins business. Creed noted that the insight doesn't mean the company is giving up on being better as well.

It's not yet clear exactly how Pizza Hut plans to act on its new mantra. As part of its menu revamp late last year, the chain also redesigned its website. Creed assured investors Thursday the company had a plan in store, but that he couldn't share details yet for competitive reasons.

 

[davepoobond]

seems likely pizza hut will do the hot-n-ready model like little caesar's. little caesar's can be good, but most of the time it is average. but the convenience is worth it for parties or whatever

 

[Branduil]

Yeah I'm pretty sure he's looking at the wrong customer surveys because Pizza Hut has been rubbery crap for quite some time. I'd rather eat at Domino's or even Papa John's because their pizza is better.

 

[Hasney]

Dominos have just started a thing where you create a favourite order and in on button push in the app, it's ordered.

I like changing things up, so I haven't used it, but I could see some application in that. If you could order KFC, Tsco Bell and Pizza Hut in one app though, I bet that would go a long way.

 

[Aselith]

Seems like going into catering is at odds with easy over quality. Do people get catered shit food?

 

[Slayer-33]

Umm how is uber not quality? The owners/partner cars are a million times cleaner than pos taxi cabs and with much more pleasant drivers.

 

[KingBroly]

This strikes me as a failure to realize their "reinvention" of Pizza Hut was a complete and utter failure and they're going to do it again into something worse.

 

[Hasney]

Umm how is uber not quality? The owners/partner cars are a million times cleaner than pos taxi cabs and with much more pleasant drivers.

That depends on where you live.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Guess they shouldn't have made their app XBO exclusive

 

[Aselith]

That Wingstreet tho. Good shit!

 

[akira28]

Pizza Hut hasn't known quality in years. So they might want to rethink this new paradigm

 

[Dog Problems]

Bring back the bigfoot pizza.

 

[Parham]

No one gets Pizza Hut by choice, unless they choose to wallow in misery and self-hatred.

 

[Mechazawa]

So their takeaway from that half assed pizza overhaul, which consisted of just giving different crust options and adding sauces on top of the same tasting pizza, is that no one wants better tasting pizza.

Meanwhile, at Dominoes...

 

[SuperBanana]

But pizza hut is already shit quality.

 

[D-Pad]

Last night when I ordered:

There were but 10 minutes left on that clock when the pizza arrived.

 

[cdyhybrid]

But lack of quality is why they're losing.

 

[Branduil]

But lack of quality is why they're losing.

Amazing how they could watch Domino's reinvention and think "you know, the problem is our pizza isn't easy enough to order."

 

[Instro]

By far the worst pizza chain out there. Their stuff is disgusting.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Pizza Hut's in-resturant food is quite nice, but their delivery stuff is garbage tier

just like dominos

 

[neogaffer1]

Soooo much wrong here. Let's break it down

• Pizza Hut is trash tier pizza, yet they charge Domino's prices while Domino's pizza runs circles around them. Hell, even local chains like Hungry Howie's are better, and those are even cheaper than the Hut.
• On top of this, they're assuming you can have easy or you can have quality, one or the other. In reality Pizza Hut is just bad at technology without having good enough pizza to make up for it. Look at Taco Bell, look at Domino's. Taco Bell built itself on a mobile app that heavily appeals to millenials. Domino's has their tech team work hand in hand with marketing. As a result you get stuff like tweeting the pizza emoji orders your Easy Order. Voice Dictate the app to get what you want. Track every step of your order with DJ Slow Pans or any of the other tracker skins. Earn rewards points when you order online to redeem to free pizza. Pizza Hut has none of that--in fact, their tracker was so subpar when I ordered online it was just a hardcoded countdown in the page for 40 min. Completely innacurate. On top of that, the only rewards type program they have is free breadsticks when you sign up to a newsletter---yes, a newsletter signup reward in 2015.
• Lastly, if you're going to keep pulling a McDonald's and throwing shit at the wall without actually addressing the real problems (outdated marketing, poor tech and bad food) you might as well call shoprunner and pick up the deal Domino's left on the table--you'll suddenly get an entire audience of people already unhappy with Domino's for killing free delivery.

 

[Oersted]

Pizza Hut focussed on getting better. You could have fooled me.

 

[bodyboarder]

Wow what insight.

 

[Forkball]

I've got your solution Pizza Hut: food trucks. People love to eat things made in trucks.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Only Pizza Hut pizza I actually like is the alfredo pizza with pretzel crust.

 

[timetokill]

Wow, way to take the completely wrong lesson from all this.

Back when Pizza Hut was better than Domino's, everyone ate Pizza Hut.
Now Domino's is better, so bye-bye Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut could start by cutting the grease content of their pizzas by like 90%.

Convenience is enormous but I'm never eating Pizza Hut again unless they completely change their pizzas.

 

[F!ReW!Re]

Seriously "convenience trumps quality"????
Not if all your pizzas are disgusting...

Nothing they have on the menu is any good anyway. And whoever thought changing from a fast food pizza delivery place to an "pizza restaurant" was a fucking idiot as well...

Worst food, crappy service, shitty menu.
Good luck with being convenient....

 

[Matticers]

I actually like Pizza Hut's pan pizza and stuffed crust pizza. Maybe I'm just a freak since everyone else here seems to hate it.

Then again, I just love pizza in general. It's rare for me to "hate" pizza or be disgusted by it. But their standard pizza isn't that good to me and I think all the sauce drizzles and crust options are pretty silly. Pizza Hut tries to get by lately with gimmicks. The crusts, the drizzles, the triple decker box or whatever it is. Stuff like that. Plus their prices normally suck. But that's true for almost any pizza place except for Domino's when they're doing a 50% off deal.

 

[Ingueferroque]

Pizza Hut has a terrible, terrible website. But their pizza's are OK.

Edit: was thinking Papa Johns

 

[timetokill]

But that's true for almost any pizza place except for Domino's when they're doing a 50% off deal.

Domino's does $7.99 for a 3-topping Large Mon-Thurs if you do carryout. Totally worth it.

 

[Wuthering_Heights]

As much hate as Pizza Hut gets, I still don't think it gets much better than a Pizza Hut Pepperoni Lovers pizza.

Just so good.

 

[Freshmaker]

Yeah I'm pretty sure he's looking at the wrong customer surveys because Pizza Hut has been rubbery crap for quite some time. I'd rather eat at Domino's or even Papa John's because their pizza is better.

Yeah. Pizza Hut has been pretty bad for at least 10 years. Better than the competition is not what I think of when I think Pizza Hut.

 

[GavinGT]

Domino's does $7.99 for a 3-topping Large Mon-Thurs if you do carryout. Totally worth it.

And Pizza Hut has a $7.99 large two-topping for carryout any time (at least in my area).

As far as doing the Hot-N-Ready thing, Domino's tried it in some stores and it didn't last. Although it held out longer in low-income areas.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

be more like lyft. the nicer alternative.
Just don't go full Chipotle; fecal oral route of transmission is not something you want to associate your brand with

 

[AHA-Lambda]

And yet Domino's is wiping the floor with them cos people are willing to spend more for better >_>

 

[Fatalah]

I just recently tried Papa John's last year, and really loved it. It's my go to chain pizza joint. Not greasy, tasty sauce, consistent quality.

 

[aspiegamer]

I'll +1 the logic of "okay if you eat there but don't have delivered." My family did that alllll the time when I was younger and it always tasted like an entirely different product. Would rather not have anything to do with it anymore, though. It just keeps getting worse. Not sure the Little Cesar's route is a wise one. It's cheap and people expect cheap because of the name on the building. Pizza Hut is still considered a full service chain.

I just recently tried Papa John's last year, and really loved it. It's my go to chain pizza joint. Not greasy, tasty sauce, consistent quality.

They're basically the un-Hut now. It's gotten ridiculously expensive but I'll not even care sometimes because they gets orders of all sizes and complexities right 100% of the time, it's always cooked equally, always at proper heat/freshness even after a long delivery wait, etc. The fact that the ingredients taste like actual food also helps, so on top of the better service your body physically feels like it's consuming a better product.

 

[BeardyChan]

They finally figured it out!!!

We are ready

 

[Fatalah]

I'll +1 the logic of "okay if you eat there but don't have delivered." My family did that alllll the time when I was younger and it always tasted like an entirely different product. Would rather not have anything to do with it anymore, though. It just keeps getting worse. Not sure the Little Cesar's route is a wise one. It's cheap and people expect cheap because of the name on the building. Pizza Hut is still considered a full service chain.
They're basically the un-Hut now. It's gotten ridiculously expensive but I'll not even care sometimes because they gets orders of all sizes and complexities right 100% of the time, it's always cooked equally, always at proper heat/freshness even after a long delivery wait, etc. The fact that the ingredients taste like actual food also helps, so on top of the better service your body physically feels like it's consuming a better product.

Yes! You feel like a normal person after eating Papa John's. On another note, I alwaya use their app to order, which has its quirks, but works. My tip: Always ALWAYS look for a coupon. You can usually cut your bill by 40℅.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

Domino's > Papa John's. Life is strange sometimes. Or maybe just depends on location.

 

[RoslindaleOne]

Bring back the bigfoot pizza.

My goodness this brings back the memories.

 

[keeblerdrow]

I feel like I'm in bizarro world with all these posts talking about how good Dominos pizza is. I fully acknowledge that I'm someone who will only pay for local chains and could be considered a twat for it, but if I had to order what chain stores I'd get a pizza from if forced to, I'd be agonizing for hours over whether the bottom of the barrel was Dominos or Toppers.

On topic, Pizza Hut is a guaranteed stomach ache for a couple of hours if I eat it. I think their push for "quality" over the last few years has been someone one blowing smoke up their collective asses. This change is probably needed and they have to jump on the convenience train to be able to compete with the other chains. As long as they manage to stay above Hungry Howies quality, they'll be okay for it. But they've got to, like, HALVE their order times.

 

[Lucreto]

Domino's is the only one that delivers to my area. Pizza Hut don't have a branch near me and I don't eat out often so Pizza Hut is rarely on the menu.

I don't know about the US but Domino's is an occasional treat as it's so expensive. A large pizza for delivery with 9 maximum toppings is €22 which is about $24. The menu is limited compared to the US as well.

 

[Branduil]

They finally figured it out!!!

We are ready

Is that a giant cookie?

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Is that a giant cookie?

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/back-to-the-future-part-ii-hydrated-pizza-cookies

 

[Kenai]

I actually think it's the opposite, within reason. That's why smaller local stores can still thrive despite the convenience of one stop shopping, their stuff is appealing so people will go out of their way to get it.

That being said, Pizza Hut has neither, which is unfortunate. The Personal Pan Pizzas were a favorite of mine in the early 90s, but they just haven't kept up with other places (KFC, another of my childhood favs, is also pretty garbage + expensive now). They really need to do what they are gonna say with the quality thing, it's not getting them anywhere half assing it and they know they are. They can't make the quality lower than it is or their pizza will be like a more expensive Little Caesar's.

 

[soundscream]

They finally figured it out!!!

We are ready

Did someone ejaculate on that pizza?

 

[CaviarMeths]

No, Pizza Hut, the trick is to not have gross-ass soggy pizza. Do that, improve your social media and mobile app presence, and work on your convenience.

 

[TheBaldEmperor]

Bring back the Big New Yorker.

 

[Alucrid]

They just need to rebrand to breadstick Hut