process book

PROCESS BOOK

Piz

za H

ut R

ebra

ndNATALIE SINGLETON

TABL

E O

F CO

NTE

NTS

Introduction 2 Objectives 3 Research 4 Brainstorming 5 Ideation 6 Refinement 7

Refinement II 8 Typography 9 Color Theory 10

Packaging 11 Final Logo Design 12

Final Packaging 13 Outcome 14

IntroductionWHY PIZZA HUT? When most people think of Pizza Hut pizza, they think of an outdated, sit-down pizza spot with the infamous “red roof.” Founded in 1958, Pizza Hut has been one of the top dogs of the pizza industry, and in terms of quick service restaurants (QSRs) in general. But, 50+ years later, and they’ve begun slipping.

WHY CHANGE NOW? Because not much has. Pizza Hut has attempted rebranding itself in the past, focused on the “Flavor of Now”... a bunch of pizzas focused on wild flavor combinations, attempting to appeal to the millenial crowd.

WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO OFFER? In recent decades, Pizza Hut has begun offering more than just pizza: • Classic pizzas • “Skinny” pizzas • Flavor of Now pizzas • Tuscani pasta bakes • WingStreet chicken wings and fries • “Flavorstick” bread sticks and cheesesticks • Brownies, cookies and cinnamon stick desserts Pizza Hut offers delivery and sit down experiences as well, but overall suffers from a lack of knowing what they want to be, but in the same vein, having too much to offer.

SO... HOW DO WE CREATE A FOLLOWING FOR PIZZA HUT?

Objectives

1 KNOW WHAT PIZZA HUT WANTS TO BE 2 CREATE A FOLLOWING Give consumers a reason to switch to Pizza Hut

3 IMPROVE BRAND RECOGNITION Differentiate from its competitors, position itself above & away from typical QSRs 4 CREATE VALUE PROPOSITIONS market itself so that consumers are willing to pay full price for a pizza

5 NEW LOGO & PACKAGING

We found that our primary problem with Pizza Hut was that they seemed indifferent. With a cluster of a menu and an overwhelmingly mediocre attempt at rebranding, our main objective with this job was to narrow down Pizza Hut’s target audience. Finding a niche in a massive quick service market would be huge, and Pizza Hut needs to take some tips from competitors like Papa Johns and Domino’s, who have sucessfully targeted sports fans and millenials. We used these observations of Pizza Hut’s positioning (or lack therof) to come up with 5 main objectives:

ResearchCOMPETITOR BRANDING

Most pizza chain QSRs promise the same thing- price and taste- both of which should be givens. Pizza Hut needs to get out of the “coupon rut” associated with cheap pizza. While competitors like Domino’s and Papa Johns do the same, the former has rebranded to focus on delivery and a “cool” new millenial market, while the latter (Papa Johns) has grown by sponsorships with the NFL and NHL.

DIFFERENTIATION?

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Brainstorming




A lot of my brainstorming involved just writing everything down- notes from research, word maps, lists of anything and everything I could think of that related to our idea of using family time and togetherness as a table stake.

IdeationOur initial ideas were focused more on family and less about playing with time. We played a lot with the idea of still using the classic roof in a logo, but it felt too safe and a little punny. I know I was also still stuck on how to show things less literally... there’s a lot of pizza in our first sketches.Scanned by CamScanner

Refinement

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SKETCH ROUND 2 FINAL SKETCHES

After meeting and discussing where we wanted to go with the theme of togetherness, we decided we really wanted to focus on family and spending priceless family time together... A lot of our sketches so far had been very literal so our primary challenge became how to draw a logo that explained our theme but wasn’t too literal.

Refinement II

For my digital roughs, I wanted to build on some of the sketches we thought were stronger. We really liked the idea of the hourglass as an abstract symbol for time & we loved that it could be literally built into the logo lockup as one of the Zs in Pizza Hut. I played with various alignments for the logotype and slogan, as well as minor color additions to begin looking at color theory. I also switched the order of our slogan here, putting “We make the pizza” first, as I felt like it was more welcoming, like taking a burden off of a family, as opposed to aggressively demanding they make time.

TypographyPIZZAHUT PizzaHUT pizzaHUT pizzaHUT PIZZAHUT PIZZAHUT PIZZAHUT PIZZAHUT

Make Time. Make Time. Make Time. pizzaHUT Make Time.

To continue with the modern theme of our logo sketches, I knew I wanted to pair it in a lockup with a very clean, contemporary typeface that would be miles away from Pizza Hut’s previous handwritten-serif stylized type. I played with pairing more heavily weighted contemporary fonts with thinner fonts for the logotype, and pulling them together with serifed typefaces for the slogan. We decided on CWG Sans & Helvetica Neue for the logotype.

Color TheoryORIGINAL PALETTE Pizza Hut’s original logo colors, even the ones used in their most recent rebranding feel lost in the mix. Using primary colors is bold, but feels too similar to their competitors’ schemes. The simplicity of the newer logo’s palette is not bad, but lacks any pop of an accent and feels flat.

NEW PALETTE We chose to play with various shades of red as the primary color in the new logo. We felt that red conveyed a sense of warmth, which tied into our theme of family time and love and togetherness. We knew black was also necessary for type in any color palette, and thought that a cool slate grey would be a nice balancing accent.

Packaging



From the beginning, we knew we wanted our box to serve as a tool to allow families to interact and do something fun while eating Pizza Hut pizza... inspired by the fun hand-drawn feel of Domino’s boxes, we all began looking at games and questions and other interactive ways we could design a box that not only was aesthetically pleasing, but would make families feel like they made use of dinner time well, as opposed to having the same conversation-- or none at all, every night.

Final Logo

We make the pizza. You make the time.

We make the pizza. You make the time.

We selected this design as our final logo, since it envelops every aspect of our branding theory. It feels modern and contemporary. The slogan appeals to the busy American family, by taking a load off, while allowing for priceless family time. The logomark visually represents this idea of time, while still utilizing the triangular pizza shape in an abstract way.

Final Packaging

Outcome

I think overall, I am very happy with our final logo and packaging design for Pizza Hut. I think it’s unique that as a group, we really found our niche early and fought for our idea, trying to develop it time and time again. I think we could always do more, though, and if we had all contributed a bit more effort and everyone consistently came with sketches and work done, I think we could’ve blown it away. But for now, I really like the direction we have Pizza Hut heading. The idea of family time and family dinners together has definitely lost its touch over the years, and while our theory may feel out of touch or a little lame compared to the “cool” and aggressively hip branding trends out there, taking a step back and trying to make spending time with your family cool again is really different from everything out there.