“Who let the dogs out?” A common question originally formed by the Baja Men in the year 2000, now has an answer. Pizza Hut has let the dogs out. With a serious sense of urgency, Pizza Hut will debut a large one topping pizza with twenty-eight hot dog bites baked into the crust.
With the new idea of appealing to the millennials, this pizzeria has stretched its limits once again to revamp their old styles and attempt to compete with their strongest competitors, Dominos. Not only has Pizza Hut released this new pizza venture along with their new Hershey’s cookie dessert and other innovative food ideas, they are working hard to keep up with the competition, or at least for now, stay afloat.
According to the Washington Post, Dominos has increased their sales 7.7 percent in the last year, while Pizza Hut has fallen 2 percent in the most recent quarter. This is reason enough for Pizza Hut to be pulling out the big guns. They are doing everything they can think to stay alive with the intention of surpassing their competitors in the coming year, “Our goal is to not only catch the competition on the digital front, but to surpass it in 2015,” said Pizza Huts parent company ‘Yum’ CEO. How do we suppose they will do this, with Dominos increasing their revenue and Pizza Hut decreasing? Well, let’s just say they have some lofty goals, but they are goals none the less.
Dominos has made a fantastic PR move in their past by making themselves more readily available to the public. The ability to order online has increased the number of orders Dominos would regularly get significantly, with 45 percent of their orders now being received online online. While, for a time, Pizza Hut was still stuck on the old pick up a phone and dial technique. Although the phone is still a common practice to order pizza, it is out dated and Dominos knew that. This foresight was genius for this winning pizza company. The ability to see all the options before you, to create your own pizza, and even see when the pizza gets put in the oven is amazing, innovative, and working! Dominos knows it’s working and so does Pizza Hut. In addition to Pizza Hut making new foods to appeal to the millennials they have done all they can to catch up with technology.
Once again the question arises, who let the dogs out? Pizza Hut is clearly the one trying the newest things to do anything they can to compete, including a hot dog encrusted pizza. But why haven’t all these new ideas worked? The answer seems simple to me. Yet, very complicated to those dealing with it, the Pizza Hut PR professionals. Dominos has a well-established name, they are likable, new, innovative, young and most importantly delicious. Pizza Hut is still an old, family, sit down pizza place in so many peoples mind, including my own. Trying to appeal to the millennials is a wise and potentially game changing idea for Pizza Hut.
After all millennials eat pizza. Lots of pizza.
JessicaDrewAnderson 