March Madness and Pizza Hut Pie Top IIs

Talk about doing all the right things Pizza Hut is doing just that according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  In fact Pizza Hut has found the fuel to drive new electricity to drive top line sales and bottom line profits according to Johnson.

In the minds-eye of Johnson, there is one dominating element that will power success within retail and foodservice over the coming years and that is partnerships and as the Official Pizza of the NCAA March Madness and the Final Four Pizza Hut will drive branded relevance to new levels in 2018.

Johnson calls partnerships the new electricity that new electricity is partnerships specifically strategic partnerships.   The new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh food, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, clothing, shoes, plates, cups  digital hand held marketing of which Pizza Hut is doing with this partnership.

Retailers the ilk of Pizza Hut to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable in some form.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Pizza Hut did not stop with the March Madness they also partnered with famed sneaker designer, the Shoe Surgeon, on a second iteration of the first-and-only shoe ever created that orders pizza at the push of a button. Talk about the ability to create buzz, garner attention, all while creating customer brand relevance. 

This year not only do the Pie Top IIs order pizza, but this year’s version—comes in two colorways (red and wheat)—also pauses live TV. Yes, a button inside the tongue of the other shoe will pause the game so March Madness fans do not have to miss a minute of the action.

The technology highlights the Pizza Hut special offer for this year’s tournament—two topping medium pizzas for $5.99 each when you order two or more. Thus the fresh food component!

Zipporah Allen, Chief Marketing Officer, Pizza Hut  stated “This year, the Pie Tops II were created to showcase our focus on giving customers the best delivery experience while making sure that tournament fans can feed their pizza craving without missing a moment of the action,” .. “It’s called March Madness for a reason. We don’t want anyone to miss a play while answering the door to get their pizza.”

In addition to the new color scheme and ordering/pause capabilities built into the tongue, the shoes have plenty of unique features, including:

·         Extreme marinara splash

·         Cheese grater mesh

·         Branded Pizza Hut lace tags

·         Extra “cheese pull” laces

·         Branded inner soles

·         Mixed material upper—patent, suede, nubuck and gum

Success does leave clue and an integrated branded platform can work for any company.  Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.