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Sam Mangan STCM 315 Social Media Strategies Pizza Hut Background:
Pizza Hut has two major competitors, Papa Johns and Dominos. They are all targeting the same audience and some focus more on some of the demographics and psychographics than other ones. In this day and age social media presence for these competitors can be a game changer for popularity in the pizza industry. Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 and is owned by Yum! Brands today, which is a fast food, company and also owns Taco Bell, KFC, and Long John Silver’s.
Demographics and Psychographics: The target audience for Pizza Hut with these social media strategies is men and women, 18-‐25 years old. They tend to be college students with low income and therefore low budgets. In many dorm rooms there are little ways to make food and little space to store food. So many college students order take out and go out to eat for many meals and only store leftovers. This group also has a higher tendency of using multiple social media platforms almost every day throughout the day. They are at an age where they may not be able to help others as much as they want but like to support good causes when they can due to being in the prime age for activism and volunteering.
Current Social Media Presence: All three of these pizza companies have accounts on three of the most common social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. They all post about specials being offered and lots of pictures of pizza. Some of these pictures utilize the box as marketing. Looking at each platform for each company can show different techniques being used by these companies and could help Pizza Hut to add to their strategy. Twitter: Papa Johns tweets on a regular basis of deals that are being offered as well as codes for discounts that are available for a limited time. They have managed to show they want to interact with their customers more and started this mystery that had to be solved and would tweet clues to help figure out who the “Pizza Killer” is. It’s entertaining and makes the audience think about pizza, as well as keeps them coming back to see if more clues have been added and when they check back they might find something else that catches their eye like a product.
Dominos has utilized Twitter to actually allow their customers to order via sending a tweet now. A lot of what they post on twitter includes their deals, and the photos they post on Instagram as well as interacting with customers through responding of tweets about the company, pizza and overall experience. They however, utilized a hashtag that was about if pizza could tweet, and it’s humorous while still keeping pizza as the main topic. A humorous tweet has a better chance of someone thinking about re-‐tweeting and giving the company even more exposure as more people share.
Pizza Hut utilized part of their name in creating a hashtag for college game day. Out of the three pizza places they are the only ones with “hut” in the name and using #huthut is a great way to tie them into college or professional football. Many people associate pizza with watching sports and it reminds people that Pizza Hut would go great with people’s game day celebrations.
However, Pizza Hut missed the mark on some of the other posts they made on Twitter. They made a post about football with three people watching a game and cheering with caption “Three cheers”, there are three pizza boxes from Pizza Hut on the table but is really not noticed very well and the caption does not tie the company into the scene. The other post is on National Chocolate Day that happens to be the caption showing brownies. They leave the audience to assume that the brownies are from Pizza Hut, however Papa Johns offers something almost identical and Dominos offers a cookie brownie, so once again they fall on connecting to their brand.
Facebook: Papa Johns incorporates the family side of the business in many ways, whether it’s showing a picture of a family member’s ninety-‐third birthday and talking about the journey of coming to America and starting a business, or posting throwback pictures of moments in history for the company. Family connections are great and can really get support from customers because some college kids may have grown up eating Papa Johns and remain loyal even as young adults. Another way to show the company’s values to costumers is how they get involved within the community. On the right is a picture of a post they made when working with the Humane Society for a walk that pet owners did with their dogs to raise money that would fund no-‐kill shelters. Pizza Hut posts more about the deals that are offered on their menu. The triple threat box is one that they just released where it looks like a wrapped present, however when introducing it they just talk about how it’s perfect for the holidays and doesn’t offer as many incentives to try the new special. They did make a post that is giving back to others where they are fighting against world hunger, but they don’t say who they are partnered with or how they are raising, if a portion of the proceeds from an order goes or if a donation can be made with an order.
Instagram: Papa Johns has made posts showing some of the celebrity athletes they team up with for spokesman campaigns that can be very entertaining to audiences while reminding people that pizza goes great with watching sports, another way they tie in sports is offering special codes for different sports events that are going on in the country. They also once again show partnerships with organizations like The Salvation Army during the holiday season and even make a clever post suggesting the cookie they are selling with proceeds going to the Salvation Army, should be left out for Santa Claus. Dominos also does a good job of using their pictures on Instagram to tie in with partnerships they have, for example they made the post on the left about St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and is making the connections of pizza and kids because most kids love pizza. They took the opportunity to help by donating a dollar for every unique post on Twitter or Instagram that tags both Dominos and St. Jude’s with the use of the hashtag #pizzamemories. Dominos also posts about current trends like in the fall many get pumpkin flavored things like pumpkin spice lattes, so it’s nice and playful with humor for their customers.
Pizza Hut seemed to post more random pictures that had pizza in them. This post has the caption “sweater weather” and doesn’t tie into how pizza in connected to this. Although they still had some popularity in the post it could have been executed much better. They also continue to post the pictures of the deals that are offered from their menu like the triple threat box, but don’t offer promo codes for special discounts. Strategy Suggestions:
• Telling more of a story within posts that create a better connection of what it has to do with the company as well as provoke thinking by the consumer, similar to how competitors have done so.
• Finding a new face of Pizza Hut, with spokesmen that are either characters people can relate to or some type of celebrity.
• Offering more deals like coupon codes within posts that are offered for limited time, not just deals like the triple threat box that anyone can get, ones that only the social media followers can use to promote more people following the brand on social media.
• Create more calls to action for customers by partnerships with good causes and non-‐profit organizations, and clearly define how the cause or non-‐profit group will be benefiting.
Pizza Hut should be posting on all three social media platforms discussed and should be doing so on a regular basis i.e. 3-‐8 times a week, where it pans out to be at least every other day to the limit of maybe every day with two posts in one day. 6-Month Calendar Plan: 2016 Pictures should accompany all of these posts when on Instagram, and some for Twitter and Facebook. June 3-10 “School’s out,
what’s on your summer bucket list?
June 5th: “15 years and 15 days ago, we were the first
Picture of slice of pizza with sunglasses on, “I’m tasty and I
Pizza party with friends.”
to deliver pizza to the International Space Station.”
know it.”
June 11-18 Promo code offered for one day only through social media.
June 17th: National Eat Your Veggies Day: “Why not eat those veggies on some pizza?”
June 19-26 First day of summer June 20th: “What’s your favorite summer toppings for pizza?”
June 24th: Spaceballs came out in 1987 and one of the bad guys is named Pizza the Hutt, show with picture.
June 27-July 4
“Summer is nothing without the three P’s: Pool, parties and pizza.”
July 4th: “Fireworks, bonfires, pizza. Why not have them all tonight?”
July 5-12 “Find your summer love with Pizza Hut”
Try something new, like a new pizza crust flavor.
July 13-20 “Why not go on a picnic with pizza?”
July 21-28 Picture of a night sky with a pizza replacing the moon, saying “that’s amore”
Picture of someone bringing pizza to the table with caption “surprise the family with pizza for dinner”
July 29-Aug. 5 July 29th: National Chicken Wing
Day: “Try our Wing Street Wing meal with waffle fries!”
Aug. 6-13 Throwback Thursday talking about how Pizza Hut started
Aug. 14-21 Transformation Tuesday: showing the transformation of TMNT but note that their love for pizza hasn’t changed one bit.
Aug. 22-29 GIF of rolling dough out with caption “they seem me rolling, they hating”
Postcard of box full of pizza on the beach saying “wish you were here”
Aug.30-Sept.6 Celebrate the first day of school with a family favorite for dinner.
Sept. 5th: National Cheese Pizza Day: “Celebrate with a large cheese pizza for free with purchase of any large 2-‐topping pizza.”
Sept. 7-14 “How you eat pizza can say a lot about you, so how do you eat pizza? Send us your pictures and say why you eat pizza the
The crust can define a pizza, what crust is your favorite?
way you do.” Sept.15-22 Twitter
hashtag, “why college kids love pizza”
Sept. 20th: National Pepperoni Pizza Day: Picture of Michelangelo from TMNT with pizza and words saying “Pizza Time”.
Sept. 23-30 Yearbook picture of pizza with caption “stay in touch”
Oct. 1-8 Oct. 9-16 Oct. 15th:
Sweetest Day: “Show your sweet you care, let them pick the toppings”
Oct. 17-24 Picture of delivery car with caption “Not all super heroes drive the batmobile”
Oct.25-Nov.1 National Red Ribbon Week: Repost pictures of TMNT with slogan “Say no to drugs and yes to pizza”
Oct. 31: “Treat yourself.”
Nov. 1: “Missed out on the treats last night, make up for it today with a cookie added to your order of pizza.”
Nov. 2-9 Nov. 7th: “Elf came out on this day, and you sit on a throne of lies if you say you
don’t like pizza” with picture from the movie.
Nov. 10-17 Nov. 11th: Veterans Day: Partnership with Wounded Warrior Project where a portion goes to their proceeds.
Nov. 12th: National Pizza Day: “Share pictures of your favorite kind of pizza with chance of winning a free pizza.”
Nov. 18-25 Nov. 23rd: “Take a break before cooking your Thanksgiving feast tomorrow, let us make dinner for you.”
‘Tis the season for pizza and memories.
Nov.26-Dec. 3 Cyber Monday: Order online and get 10% off.
“Looking for a way to make everyone smile in holiday cards? Bring pizza into the picture.”