Pizza Hut Fills Papa John’s Void

Papa John’s leadership challenges have created an open opportunity one of its chief rivals Pizza Hut.  There is no doubt now that Papa John’s franchisee are paying the price for recent leadership missteps according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

When Pizza Hut announced that they have added the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers to its roster of local team partnerships for the 2018 NFL season it was clear it will take years for Papa John’s to recover from the miscues of its leadership team and that Pizza Hut has found its new electricity to drive top line sales and bottom line profits. . 

Zipporah Allen, chief marketing officer, Pizza Hut stated “Since their return to Los Angeles, Rams fans have ignited a new wave of excitement with NFL fans. We are proud to partner with the team and elevate the fan experience all season long,” Throughout the multi-year partnership, Pizza Hut will team up with the Rams to bring fans exciting new activations in the stadium and give fans watching the game from home the opportunity to win one-of-a-kind prizes every week through a new digital platform launching in September.

Jamie Reigle, executive vice president of business operations for the Los Angeles Rams stated “As Los Angeles gets back to football, we’re thrilled to partner with Pizza Hut to enhance the game-day experience for our fans,”  “We are proud Pizza Hut has chosen to amplify their NFL partnership with us and we look forward to working together to deliver creative ways to bring our fans closer to the Rams all year-round.” 

The multi-year partnership will provide Pizza Hut with an array of marketing rights, benefits and designations that will unmistakably connect the brand with Chargers fans throughout Los Angeles.

Chargers president of business operations A.G. Spanos  “As an organization, everything we do begins and ends with the fan in mind,” “With the start of football season right around the corner, we’re excited to establish a local relationship with league partner Pizza Hut—one that enables the Chargers to bring additional value to our fans while creating fun new ways for them to engage with both brands.”

So, what is your new electricity driving top line sales and bottom line profits?  Are your customer counts growing?  According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, sports partnerships, coins /currency urban clothing, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, , cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing.

Foodservice retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing new avenues of distribution, fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant