COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS OF PIZZA HUT AND NANDOS

FOOD AND BERVERAGE MANAGEMENT

Contents
1 2 3 THE FAST FOOD SECTOR: ................................................................................................................ 2 FAST FOOD IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: .......................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION TO THE RESTAURANTS.......................................................................................... 2 3.1 NANDOS: ................................................................................................................................. 2 Customer profile ............................................................................................................. 2 SWOT analysis: ................................................................................................................ 3

3.1.1 3.1.2 3.2

Pizza Hut:................................................................................................................................. 4 Customer Profile: ............................................................................................................ 4 SWOT analysis: ................................................................................................................ 4

3.2.1 3.2.2 4 5

COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS OF SERVICE: .................................................................................... 5 RECOMMENDATIONS: .................................................................................................................... 6

1 THE FAST FOOD SECTOR:

For the purpose of this report two fast food restaurant chains have been compared; Pizza Hut and Nandos. Both the restaurants come under the category of Fast food industry. Fast food is a term used to describe food that is cooked and served to the customer very quickly (Jackle, 1999). This term first came into the mainstream use during the 1950s in the United States of America, at that time any complete meal that was took a relatively small amount of time to prepare was put under the category of fast food (Williams, 2011). In the fast food industry a lower lead time (order processing time) and standardization are key factors for defining the success of any restaurant.

2 FAST FOOD IN THE UNITED KINGDOM:

In the United Kingdom the fast food had traditionally included mostly local shellfish and other seafood, with fish and chips being the most popular among fast food items. However, UK has adopted other cuisines from foreign cultures as well.

3 INTRODUCTION TO THE RESTAURANTS

3.1 NANDOS:

Nandos is a Casual Dining Restaurant chain from South Africa; the term Casual Dining Restaurant is used to describe those restaurants which serve moderately priced food and fall in neither the fine dining nor the explicitly fast food category but rather this category bridges the gap between the two. Nandos menu specialises in spicy chicken dishes, which also serve as the chains main attraction (Joseph, 2013). Nandos first came to UK in 1992 and opened its first outlet in London, now it has more than 250 restaurants throughout UK. Nandos marketing has been called the best among all fast food chains by marketing enthusiasts and gurus.

3.1.1 CUSTOMER PROFILE

Nandos has a very different target market compared to that of Pizza Hut, where Pizza Hut has always positioned itself as the family restaurant in its advertisements; Nandos on the other hand has always targeted itself to a much younger audience (Lanchester, 2011). The tag lines used in Nandos billboards and ad campaigns are often cheeky and poking fun at current events and popular celebrities, which the younger audience, including college students, and recent graduates would find intriguing. Even the ambiance and setting of the restaurants points towards the notion that Nandos wants its audience to be young people who want to hang out with their friends.

3.1.2 SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths: 1. Brand Equity: Nandos has strong brand equity, developed over time through advertising and maintaining quality in its menu items. 2. Peri Chicken: Nandos grilled chicken is widely acknowledged as the best in the work. 3. Strong Marketing: Nandos marketing campaigns has been acknowledged by marketing gurus as one of the best among all restaurants. 4. Nandos targets the young population of the society, which is also the largest segment by age in almost every country of the world. 5. Celebrity Endorsements: Nandos has been endorsed by numerous celebrities in its recent advertisements, adding further credibility to its already well-established name. Weaknesses: 1. Nandos opens its outlets mostly in metropolitan or urban cities, so far it has ignored the suburban localities. 2. A chicken focused menu acts as a deterrent for red meat lovers or vegetarians.

Opportunities: 1. New menu items can be introduced which include vegetables and have to be consumed alongside chicken; this will help in attracting the vegetarian market as well as in increasing conjunctive consumption of other menu items. 2. Nandos can expand into suburban territories. Threats: 1. Nandos faces severe competition from other restaurant franchises and small scale local restaurants in the UK.

3.2

Pizza Hut:

Pizza Hut is an American Fast food chain with different types of pizzas forming the majority portion of the menu. Pizza Hut is one of the most widely distributed restaurant chains of the world, with more than twelve thousand outlets in more than 95 countries (Malouf, 1995). Pizza Hut varies its menu to conform to the tastes of the country it is operating in. Like Nandos, Pizza Huts outlets dont vary much in their ambiance, regardless of the location of the outlet. 3.2.1 CUSTOMER PROFILE: Ever since it started advertising Pizza Hut has always target the family setting. In most of its advertising campaigns Pizza Hut would always show parents sitting with their kids for a meal. Even the deals are focused towards catering to the family, something which is absent in Nandos.

3.2.2 SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths: 1. Brand Name: Pizza Hut has established itself as a top quality highly professional fast food brand, inculcating a sense of loyalty in those families who visit it. 2. Innovation/ variation with culture: Pizza Hut has always innovated and changed its cuisine to include varied flavours of pizzas to match the local taste pallet all under the same roof. 3. Hygiene: Pizza Hut has also successfully associated its name with good hygiene. 4. Large number of globally distributed restaurants. Weaknesses: 1. Recently, a large number of loyal customers have started to complain about the declining quality of pizzas. Opportunities: 1. Pizza Hut can always diversify its menu with a new mix of already existing toppings. 2. It can improve its home delivery network, and capitalise on its strong network of outlets. 3. Include new items in its menu that could be consumed alongside pizzas, for conjunctive sales. Threats: 1. Pizza Hut constantly faces threats from rising prices of raw ingredients. 2. A lot of new pizza franchises are gaining traction in the global pizza market, like Dominos. 3. Other fast food chains can also add pizzas to their menus; something which could be a huge blow to Pizza Hut.

4 COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS OF SERVICE:

One aspect of the service which was common in both the restaurants was the hygiene (Finley, 1994) As per their reputation the waiters and every restaurant representative which the customer or the food would come into contact with looked clean and neat. The staff was also very friendly and well informed about the menu and also keen on giving recommendations to the customers, depending on the customers questions and whether any dish would be sufficiently filling for the customers or not. One aspect of Nandos which made it stand out from its competition was its promotion strategy (Finley, 1994). Nandos targets the younger target segment by focusing on making cheeky and sarcastic remarks on current affairs and trending news. By doing so, not only does Nandos differentiate itself from most of its competition but it also manages to stay relevant in the minds of its consumer (Smith, 2002). Pizza Hut on the other hand has not innovated or changed its marketing strategy and has continued to target the family setting through fairly generic and sometimes even boring and repetitive campaigns, even its deals do not have anything new to offer to the consumers. Merchandising is another aspect of Nandos where it stumps Pizza Hut. While Pizza Huts merchandise is fairly generic and like other fast food chains, Nandos in addition to its conventional merchandise, also sells its trademark sauces, which make Nandos stand out from its competition, as they allow the customers of Nandos to put the unique Nandos flavour to their home made dishes. The product mix, i.e. the items on the menu is where Pizza Hut has the upper hand (Smith, 2002). Pizza Hut is known for introducing localised versions of pizzas to cater to different market segments, and to fit the taste pallets of the consumers of different areas that it operates in. However Nandos has the more or less the same spicy cuisine and hot menu items regardless of the country or area that it has opened its outlets in (Anker, 1987) . Adding a local touch to an international brand is always a plus point in favour of Pizza Hut. Delivery is another service where Pizza Hut triumphs over Nandos (Osborne,1993). Where Nandos has virtually no delivery service and focuses more on dine in and casual dining aspects of the food business, Pizza Hut has capitalised on the delivery business as well. Customers can call the Pizza Hut call line and order a delivery or find a branch closest to their location on the Pizza Hut UK website, which adds to the quality of service offered by Pizza Hut. The target market and the way that market is targeted through the promotion campaigns is also very different for both the restaurants. Nandos, quite successfully targets the younger generation through its witty ads and taglines, whereas Pizza Hut is struggling to cater to families, as its reputation and quality is perceived to be going down, even by its loyal fans.

5 RECOMMENDATIONS:
Although both Pizza Hut and Nandos are among the highest rated and most preferred fast food chains, not only in UK but all over the world, there are areas which each of them could improve upon to offer their customers better quality service and improve their experience(Alperson, 1987). Pizza Hut has been perceived by many of its loyal customers to be losing the same quality and taste that it once had; to overcome this perception Pizza Hut can conduct small scale BTL activities and promotions to help itself in retaining the old customers and at the same time attracting new ones as well (Lane, 2010). Such BTL activities can include service quality assessment cards for all customers to make them feel more welcomed and to assure them that their input is welcomed an appreciated. Pizza Hut and Nandos can both issue customer loyalty cards to give their customers more incentive to dine at each restaurant. In the long run, it is my opinion that Nandos should go for a franchise wide rebranding. Ambiance is where Nandos seriously lacks in and through rebranding it can improve its ambiance and setting from its current dark old countryside style setting to a better lit more lively setting, which in my opinion would help them in attracting more customers.

REFERENCES
1. Alperson, M. and Clifford, M. 1987. The Food Lover's Guide to the Real New York: 5 Boroughs of Ethnic Restuarants, Markets, and Shops. Prentice Hall Press. 2. Anker, M. and Batta, V. K. 1987. Basic restaurant theory and practice. London: Longman Scientific & Technical. 3. Ball, C. O., Olson, F. C. W. and Others. 1957. Sterilization in food technology. Theory, practice, and calculations. Sterilization in food technology. Theory, practice, and calculations. 4. Bowers, J. 1992. Food theory and applications. New York: Macmillan. 5. Cousins, J. A., Foskett, D. and Pennington, A. 2011. Food and beverage management. Woodeaton, Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers. 6. Joseph, S. 2013. Nandos overhauls loyalty scheme to take marketing to the next level | News | Marketing Week. [online] Available at: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/nandos-overhauls-loyalty-scheme-to-take-marketingto-the-next-level/4007723.article [Accessed: 5 Mar 2014]. 7. Lanchester, J. 2011. Restaurant review: Nando's. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/15/nandos-restaurant-review-johnlanchester [Accessed: 5 Mar 2014]. 8. Okeiyi, E., Finley, D. and Postel, R. T. 1994. Food and beverage management competencies: Educator, industry, and student perspectives. Hospitality \& Tourism Educator, 6 (4), pp. 37-40. 9. Osborne, B. G., Fearn, T., Hindle, P. T. and Osborne, B. G. 1993. Practical NIR spectroscopy with applications in food and beverage analysis. Harlow, Essex, England: Longman Scientific & Technical. 10. Peach Report. 2014. Nandos tops the casual dining popularity stakes. [online] Available at: http://www.peachreport.com/BrandTrack/1428841/nandos_tops_the_casual_dining_popularity_stakes.html [Accessed: 5 Mar 2014]. 11. Smith, J. L. 2002. The psychology of food and eating. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave. 12. Williams, Z. 2011. Nandos, London WC2, restaurant review - Telegraph. [online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8550365/Nandos-London-WC2-restaurantreview.html [Accessed: 5 Mar 2014]. 13. Lane, C. 2010. The Michelin-starred restaurant sector as a cultural industry: a cross-national comparison of restaurants in the UK and Germany. Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of MultidisciplinaryResearch, 13 (4), pp. 493--519. 14. Malouf, N. M. and Colagiuri, S. 1995. The effects of McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut meals on recommended diets. Asia Pacific J Clin Nutr, 4 (2), pp. 265--269. 15. Mbaskool.com. 2014. Nandos | SWOT Analysis | BrandGuide | MBA SkoolStudy.Learn.Share.. [online] Available at: http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/food-andbeverages/6037-nandos.html [Accessed: 5 Mar 2014].

Appendices:

Check list idea Pizza Hut: 1

Excellent
Restaurant cleanliness Friendliness of staff Knowledge of staff Staff appearance Speed of service Food presentation Variety of menu/ vegetarian choices Value based on quality/portion Meal delivered hot/fresh Competitive price Location Target market Licences Merchandising Delivery Promotion Product Mix

Good

Fair

Poor

Check list idea Nandos: 2

Excellent
Restaurant cleanliness Friendliness of staff Knowledge of staff Staff appearance Speed of service Food presentation Variety of menu/ vegetarian choices Value based on quality/portion Meal delivered hot/fresh Competitive price Location Target market Licences Promotion Merchandising Delivery Promotion Product Mix

Good

Fair

Poor