If you want a mini summary of current and near-future food and foodservice trends, you can look at Pizza Hut’s Nov. 19 rebranding launch to see it all. I think they covered all the bases.
Fast casual: When I wrote Mintel’s Dining Out: A 2014 Look Ahead—January 2014 report, the first trend I noted was the white-hot popularity of fast casual and pointed out that pizza restaurants may be the segment best poised to adopt the Chipotle fast-casual service model of offering customer-in-control options. Already Pie Five, PizzaRev, Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza, Project Pie, MOD Pizza and more have adopted the model, and now the behemoth Pizza Hut brand is on board. In order to pave the customer-choice road, the chain is bringing on more ingredients, sauces, crust flavors/types and drizzles—all which lend to mixing and matching.
Practical premium: Offering premium product practically was another trend identified for 2014, which manifests itself in quality ingredients and healthy options. For the quality factor, Pizza Hut has addressed everything a pizza is, but I’m especially intrigued with the new crust flavors—some with playful names probably meant to interest the coveted Millennial demographic: toasted Asiago, honey Sriracha, salted pretzel, toasted Parmesan, fiery red pepper, toasted cheddar, garlic buttery blend, ginger boom boom and get curried away.
For the better-for-you angle (consider the female demographic), Pizza Hut is rolling out Skinny Slice Pizzas in which each of the five types offer 250 calories or less per slice. Also in the health bucket, among the many specialty pizzas a person can order is one called Garden Party, a meatless option.
Heat it up. Much has been said in the past year about the explosion of peppers and Sriracha on menus everywhere. It’s one of the biggest stand-outs in Pizza Hut’s new options. Among its five new ingredients are sliced banana peppers and Peruvian cherry peppers. I’ll point out again two of its new crust flavors: honey Sriracha and fiery red pepper. There are six sauces to choose from, some hot, like buffalo and honey Sriracha. This is the place to mention that a sub-category of the hot, bolder flavor trend is sweet-plus-heat. The honey-Sriracha offerings are exactly about that. Two of the new drizzles customers can choose from are honey Sriracha and buffalo. And finally, while we’re on the topic of heat, consider some of their new specialty pizzas: 7-Alarm Fire, Buffalo State of Mind, Cherry Pepper Bombshell, Hot and Twisted and Skinny with a Kick.
The chain’s new rebranding is called the “Flavor of Now.” It is resting on the idea that none of this is a fad. It’s the way forward. That would be customization, but balancing choice with standard offerings; bold flavors; interesting names; and healthy options. I’m sure they’ve been working on this for at least a year. I’m also sure they will be able to sleep at night knowing they covered every base and did all they could to make it to the top of Relevancy Mountain.
Jody
