Fine Dining At Pizza Hut

Adland has posted an article about Pizza Hut’s recent “fake restaurant” campaign, in which they serve their pasta in a fine dining environment, and then shock satisfied customers by revealing where the food actually came from.

There are really two implications here, one much more interesting than the other. The first is that Pizza Hut pasta is just as good as pasta you’d find at an expensive restaurant. This, of course, is the implication that consumers are expected to focus on.

The second implication is that consumers can’t tell the difference between a product and a brand. And while most people don’t have the vocabulary to describe the difference, I would argue that they can still tell. The product is the pasta itself. The brand is the idea of Pizza Hut Pasta. By definition (and by design), the brand is more complex and nuanced than the product. The brand ensures that when you think of Pizza Hut, you think of the shingled pyramid roof, the dining room with Parmesan and hot pepper shakers on all the tables, the selection of soft drinks (all Pepsi products, of course), the salad bar heavy on garbanzos, the uniforms…

It feels safe to buy into a brand that you’re already familiar with. No unpleasant surprises. Less time spent evaluating (or agonizing over) whether the associated product is going to be worth its price. The sense of satisfaction you get when you bite into something (literally or metaphorically) and realize that it’s exactly what you expected.

When people are deciding what to eat for dinner, they first choose a product category, and then they choose a brand within that category. The product category question is “What kind of meal do we feel like tonight? Home cooking? Fast food? Diner? Five-star?” The brand question is: “Okay, so we’re thinking a chain diner-type situation, something with no surprises, like maybe Olive Garden, or Pizza Hut.”

Once you choose the caliber of dining experience you’re looking for, you’ve established certain expectations. If you’re going to a nice restaurant with tablecloths and good silverware, you expect that the food is going to be made from fresh ingredients, and that it’s going to take more than ten minutes to prepare. Part of what you’re paying for is the experience of knowing those things to be true, apart from how the food actually tastes. And if you find out your assumptions on that score were false, you’re going to be disappointed.

The people in the commercial weren’t disappointed, though. Here’s why (this is all speculation, but I’m right):

• They were eating for free.
• They were eating at a restaurant that had no reputation.
• They were not people who are used to eating at really nice restaurants on a regular basis.
• They were selected for their high spirits and ability to be easily delighted.

In other words, the whole experience was a treat for those people. They had not bought into anything except to sit there and see what happened next.

Try putting Pizza Hut pasta on a plate at The Village Green, waiting until someone admits it tastes pretty good, and then jumping out from behind a chair and declaring “That came from Pizza Hut!” See how much mileage that gets Pizza Hut, once upscale diners of the world start to write in about all the nuances of fine pasta, and how it’s not physically possible for a restaurant with Pizza Hut’s capabilities to get them right.

However, by using an imaginary upscale restaurant as fodder, this problem is avoided. The real message here is not that people used to fine food would be satisfied with Pizza Hut. It’s that people who can’t afford fine dining are not missing out on anything…as long as they eat at Pizza Hut.

photo by amerune