MarketingDoctor.tv
John Tantillo's Brand Winner... And Loser: ABC News and Pizza Hut
Posted by The Marketing Doctor at 6/23/2009 8:45 AM 
Categories: Marketing
Tags: ABC News levi's hut network brand levi health care Domino broadcast Domino's ratings White House levis annexation WWII controversy white knot Austria marketing target market branding town hall World War II Edward R. Murrow traffic healthcare Pizza Hut Dominos Obama
Categories: Marketing
Tags: ABC News levi's hut network brand levi health care Domino broadcast Domino's ratings White House levis annexation WWII controversy white knot Austria marketing target market branding town hall World War II Edward R. Murrow traffic healthcare Pizza Hut Dominos Obama
Brand Winner… | And Loser |
 |  |
John Tantillo’s Winner and Loser of The Week:
Winner: ABC News
Loser: Pizza Hut
Folks, this week our winner and loser are both dealing with the publicity dimension of marketing.
One company has done it right; the other company is doing it very wrong.
The Winner
There’s been a lot of criticism of ABC News from many quarters for its supposed abandonment of journalistic principles with its health care program at the White House this Wednesday.
Somehow, the thinking goes, doing so turns the event into an infomercial for the President and his health care plans. By this logic, press conferences at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and questions posed by reporters on the White House lawn are also infomercials —as are the kind of magazine-style profiles that all broadcasters do about public figures.
My diagnosis is that the reaction basically stems from envy by the other networks. ABC News saw an opportunity to grow their audience and seized it, beating the other networks to the punch.
This is all about real marketing.
We live in a time when traditional media is crumbling, and if you have a strong news brand you need to scramble to find ways of making it pay (because if it doesn't pay, you won't be able to cover the news). ABC may have decided to take an unorthodox route to expand its reach, but broadcast journalism has grown this way ever since Edward R. Murrow reported live during the annexation of Austria in World War II.
ABC News is benefiting from all the outrage they've generated by getting plenty of airplay on the other networks in the form of controversy coverage. They would never be able to pay for this kind of exposure if it were advertising.
My guess is that the venue choice and format was a shrewd calculation by ABC to generate this controversy because, bottom line, they will see plenty of traffic to both their website and the Wednesday program.
Here's the kicker: In the end, ABC has control over how it performs, and it will be able to show its journalistic chops by delivering something that even its critics will have to agree isn't an infomercial. The controversy will drive viewers to the program and give ABC the opportunity to show all the new viewers a news organization performing strongly.
Hats off to ABC News for getting the marketing right.
The Loser
Hats kept firmly on for this week’s loser: Pizza Hut.
Frankly, I’m not sure what’s going on here. Essentially, there have been various reports, including in Media Week, that the international pizza restaurant owned by Pepsi is going to cut the “pizza” out of its name and be known as “The Hut.”
If true, it is amazingly dumb.
Pizza Hut is a globally known and readily identifiable brand name. You can always alter your menu (which they’ve been doing), but unless you’re going to drop pizza entirely, how could you even think about dropping the name? “Hut” is so generic, and there are already other “Huts” out there like the Sunglass Hut.
Tantillo’s Marketing 101: First, do no harm to your brand. (See my post here on how Levi’s broke this rule with its White Knot program.) This means never risk alienating your customers through a half-baked brand change that is likely to confuse them and unlikely to define your brand for new customers.
Now, I can see some people thinking that this might be an example of guerilla marketing (i.e., Pizza Hut trial-ballooning a name change and hoping for buzz). Remember the Domino’s Pizza give-away. (See my post on that here.)
Well, it’s possible, but unlikely. After all, guerilla marketing is all about getting your message to your Target Market through buzz —and, frankly, the young demographic that is the likely Target Market won’t be hearing much buzz out of this one. This is media talking to itself, not to the skateboarding youth. All you’re getting here is a confused message that makes marketers scratch their heads and makes the brand slightly fuzzy for everyone else.
It is never good to create ambiguity about your brand in any context. Look, it’s hard enough to get your brand in your consumer’s mind in the first place —why muddy the waters?
It’s one thing to give away 11,000 free pizzas like Domino’s did; it’s a totally different thing to act confused about your company’s name.
More likely: this is an Internet rumor that grew media legs and, if so, the good people at Pizza Hut should build a definitive campaign around rejecting the name change and the ambiguity.
Bottom line: never toy around with the central elements of your brand. If you are going to change them, then change them in a carefully thought out and decisive way that responds to real marketplace demand and feedback.
And remember, it’s always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.
TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY -
Everything you do (or don’t do) affects the integrity of your brand.
Comments