Killer App-etite

To Pizza Hut, the iPhone order app launched last summer may be a sticky channel to an affluent consumer. To users, it’s a convenient pipeline to pepperoni goodness. But according to Ian Wolfman, chief marketing officer for IMC2, the digital branding agency that consulted on the app, among other Pizza Hut digital initiatives, it’s a strategic branding tool and a customer relations solution rolled into one.

“Fifteen years ago, 90% of pizzas were sold with FSI coupons and 1-800 numbers,” Wolfman says. But then as now, every phone order ended with the same question: “Can you repeat my order please?” Then the customer hangs up and waits 45 minutes suspecting, like Joe Pesci’s character in “Lethal Weapon 2,” that he’s about to get screwed at the drive-thru.

The Pizza Hut iPhone app increases consumer trust that they’ll get what they ordered, and that heightened assurance is a valuable branding metric, Wolfman says. “We believe that in this new transparent social world, you shouldn’t just be evaluating yourself on transactions anymore, but on whether you’ve added to or detracted from trust — comprised of credibility, care and congruency with brand values.”

“BUILDING” AND BRANDING

By letting consumers “build” their pizzas through visual ordering, the iPhone app and the relaunched Pizza Hut Web site are building relations with users that are valuable far beyond their utility as transaction channels.

The experience also tends to add engagement to the order process. As Wolfman points out, the prior Pizza Hut online experience was lacking: It had beautiful food photos, but when it came time to order, there was a sterile grid of menu options.

“With visual ordering, we allow you into the kitchen,” he says. “You ‘see’ your own pizza being constructed. You can add the pepperoni and then shake it off one half of the pizza.

“Afterward, if you ask a consumer, ‘What was that experience like? Are you sure your order will be correct?’ the answer will be: ‘Of course it will be right. I built it myself.’”

Over time, new-media solutions like mobile apps and interactive ordering will make their impact felt on a company’s bottom line, because increased trust builds conversions. But in Wolfman’s view, many CMOs are too focused on siloed metrics to see that effect and too often let IT take the lead on developing apps and other new media.

“They’re marketing tools,” he says. “Shame on any CMO that lets IT handle that responsibility.”