Eat, Memory

Quick, think about a TV commercial. Odds are 7 out of 10 that it’s a spot for food. Nielsen reports that’s the case with the most-liked ads for the month of July. Target was in first place with their lifestyle spot of a busy mom, her preferred chips and juice brands, and the retailer’s cause-related marketing. McDonald’s, Applebee’s, Pizza Hut, and Dr. Pepper are also among the top 10. The McDonald’s spots are two different ones for their McCafe menu; Applebee’s spots are 15 and 30 second pitches for their 2 for $20 menu. Now here’s another pop quiz. Are you starting to see a pattern?

When it came to most-recalled ads in July, again, 7 out 10 were food related with Pizza Hut, Gatorade, KFC, Kool-Aid, McDonald’s, Skittles, and a second Pizza Hut spot among others for low cost insurance and a discount clothier. Are you seeing a pattern now?

Advertising may be the first thing that companies cut back on during a recession but food is somewhat recession proof. Companies with value-added menus would do well to continue to advertise, especially fast food purveyors such as McDonald’s and low cost chains like Applebee’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Everybody has to eat, albeit some better than others. People may be dining out less during this recession but when they do, it’s at places where they can do so economically. When you’re spending little to nothing on big ticket items like vacations, a family meal out anywhere becomes a real treat. In the excellent book, “Eat, Memory”, writers report their Proustian remembrances of food including the humblest of all, baked beans.

One of my favorite commercials is for the iconic New York City department store, Barneys. Not because I’m a customer although I have browsed there with my smelling salts at the ready. The spot imagines a young Louis Armstrong, Humphrey Bogart, Fiorello LaGuardia, and Casey Stengel talking about their respective aspirations as musician, actor, mayor, and World Series winner. They all turn to a nattily dressed young man and ask him, “What about you, Barney?” to which the boy replies, “You’re all gonna need clothes.” I was a New York kid myself when I first saw it and because I didn’t have much, I was hungry for more. It was a classic bit of advertising and although it wasn’t for food, it was food for thought.

Much Ado About “Hut”-ing

Brand purists are up in arms over Pizza Hut’s efforts to reinvent itself in this down economy. It seems counterintuitive that pizza chain sales are down in a recession but thrifty consumers are even eschewing pizza delivery in favor of frozen grocery pizza. Pizza Hut has extended its menu with chicken wings, sandwiches, and pasta dishes. They’ve already exceeded $1 billion in sales of their Tuscani pasta line. Because they’d like to really emphasize the fact that they offer more than just pizza, they’ll be omitting the word “pizza” ” in some marketing efforts and will just use the abbreviated name, “The Hut”.

Apparently, some customers and marketers are not happy about this. The company is defending their choice, saying that the shortened name makes sense in an era when even our tweets are kept to a minimum. I don’t agree with marketers who feel this is brand tampering. It’s not like Pizza Hut is changing their name to “Doughy Discs” or “Cheesy Circles”. To me, this is like Coca-Cola’s “Coke”. Well, minus the monster market share.

I’d usually agree that building a brand is serious business and hard-earned brand equity should be sacrosanct. But we live in a seriously changed world. Tweaking a brand name just enough to maintain customer recognition is not a sin of omission, it’s actually a bold move. And let’s give consumers some credit; they can make the leap. After all, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Or in this case, as savory.