Pizza Hut, the largest pizza chain in the world, and its story is described in the book of John Protopapadakis, Known Names, Unknown stories.
In 1997, an ad different from the others goes live.
Its main difference was its protagonist, who was not a model, but Mikhail Gorbachev, former general secretary of the Soviet Union, flanked by his 10-year-old granddaughter, Anastasia, who was enjoying a delicious slice of American Pizza Hut.
At the next table was a typical Russian family who immediately recognized the once mighty leader.
“Because of him we are on the brink of disaster,” said the middle-aged father, who was skeptical about the markets opening.
“Because of him we have freedom,” retorted his fashionable son. “Because of him we’re free to eat our pizza,” the mother concluded, and the conversation ended.
Kansas, 1958
Two college students, brothers Frank and Dan Kearney, follow the prompting of a realtor friend, who convinced them to rent a hotel building that served as a bar and make pizza, an occupation that was rare in those years.
They borrowed 600 dollars from their mother to open, together with a partner, a small restaurant-pizzeria, with only 25 seats, using second-hand equipment, at a central intersection.
The first Pizza Hut had just been born.
There are two options for choosing this brand.
According to the first, the existing building referred, according to the statement of one of the spouses of the founders, to a hut (hut in English), while the second favors the limited space of the sign that had been purchased, which could fit only nine letters together with the spaces between them – the two brothers wanted the word pizza to be there, so there was room for three more letters.
Although the two brothers had no prior experience in the pizza business or business in general, they would soon prosper.
At the opening, in fact, they will give out free pizzas (originally, a large pizza’s cost was 1.5 dollars) to become known in the local community and become popular among the student ranks.
Just one year later, in 1959, the first franchise store will be opened by a friend of the founders, while in 1960 the first franchise will operate that will deliver pizza on a three-wheeled scooter.
In fact, in the first years, Pizza Pete, a mustachioed chef, who serves his hungry customers, will be chosen as a slogan and as a mascot – the logo we all know, the one with the red roof, was established in 1969.
Pizza Hut’s growth, thanks to aggressive marketing (in 1974, $3.2 million on advertising was spent, and in 1999, $1 million was paid in order to be placed a 10-meter billboard on a rocket), has been explosive.
A little later, in the early 80s, Frank and Dan Kearney retired from the company – which was already the largest pizzeria chain in the world since 1971 – and engaged in philanthropy, with the former remaining in the pizza business and he founds together with a friend the pizzeria Papa John’s, in which he reached, until 2001, to control 133 stores.
Under the umbrella of the robust PepsiCo, Pizza Hut would enrich its menu, penetrate emerging markets and strengthen its position in the American market, where in the 80s they began to claim a piece of the pie, beyond the independent local pizzerias and chains such as Domino’s, Little Caesar’s but also McDonald’s, which in 1991 introduced McPizza to the market.
Did you know that…
Pizza Hut entered the difficult Russian market just after the Wall of Shame came down.
Its first store in the former Soviet Union opened in Moscow in 1990 and, adapted to Russian eating habits, offered the Moskva pizza, which included sardines, mackerel, tuna, salmon and onion.
It is characteristic that the store in question soon became the most profitable of the American chain with daily sales reaching 6,500 dollars.
In the 90s, Pizza Hut, which today has 12,000 stores in 130 countries and is the largest buyer of cheese worldwide, taking advantage of the public’s shift from unhealthy fast food to less harmful alternatives, created express units in shopping malls, canteens, stadiums , airports and large offices, thus providing cheap pizza in a short time from the time of ordering.
Even as sales slumped at the dawn of the new millennium, the company launched pro-reading campaigns in an effort to combat illiteracy, and enlisted celebrity ads to boost its image – one of which featured Donald Trump.
Indicative was the presence of Pele at the opening of the 10,000th store in Sao Paulo in 1994, as well as its advertisement at the Super Bowl, the celebration of American football, in 1990, when Americans consumed 1.3 million Pizza Hut pizzas , about 7,000 pizzas per minute.
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