Pizza Hut Case Study

Pizza Hut dominated the fast food market in the world both in sales and number of restaurants before 1986. In 1986, the company announced to start the home delivery market, which would especially target the children, two-career families, and parents with small children, etc. Segmentation of the children by age (a group of the same age who will respond to a marketing mix in a similar way) outcomes in the following market approach:

Kids (age 3-11), Teens (age 12-17), Those two segmentations represent a huge proportion of Pizza Hut’s customer. Once they eat, they will love to eat the pizza very often, and become loyal to the Pizza Hut.

Kids (age 3-11) Those kids eat whatever their parents give them. They are too much dependent on their parents so that their parents do not have time to cook at home. Also their parents want to spend more time on playing with them. Therefore, it is very convenient for their parents to order the pizza for them. See Appendix A

Teens (age 12-17) Those teens become less dependent on their parents. They always choose what to eat themselves. They are most of the time at school. They always have heavy group work and school activities. They do not have too much money and time to eat in restaurants. Pizza will cost them less and fast.

However, the Pizza Hut restaurant eat-in &carry –out business attracted 79% of the consumers in 1986. Those mixed consumers viewed pizza as a personal, sensual experience. The restaurant offered convenient family atmosphere and provide them high quality product at a reasonable price. Pizza was widely accepted across the U.S. regardless of its popularity in northern and eastern regions