Pizza Hut Sri Lanka All You Can Eat 2011 – Promotion FAIL !!

Posted on November 24, 2011 by ChamindraH

Summary: Pizza Hut Sri Lanka will be holding their most popular All You Can Eat promotion next week. But this time, the promotion has some glitches which has already created a sour state even before it has started. This post look at them and how Pizza Hut Sri Lanka could have thought better when planning the whole promotion process.

Pizza Hut has always been one of my favorite place to go and have something to eat. There Pizza is second to none and their Lava Cake is my favorite item of all their recipes.

I got to know on Monday that they are planning to have their All You Can Eat promotion on the 28th , 29th and 30th November 2011 at all Pizza Hut outlets except in express stalls such as the ones in Majestic City and Liberty Plaza. At first , I was excited about the whole promotion. But, when I went into the details of it, I was really upset.

The first thing I noticed was the promotion time which is scheduled from 2pm to 5pm. I was totally disappointed since most working people ( like me) won’t be able to attend the promotion since that time conflicts with the office working times.

I inquired Pizza Hut Sri Lanka regarding it on twitter and also asked them if they are planning the promotion just for school kids ? ( which was the impression I got since those are the majority of people who will be available at that time period ). They answered me with the following

“Nope, we’re trying to help u guys to get out of work on a Monday (or Tue or Wed) with a really good excuse lol 😛 ”

Well, I hope my boss would be generous in that sense. But seriously I have to say, that is a pretty lousy time period to have a promotion.

Then yesterday , i saw this image spreading around Twitter where they state that one person is only permitted to have all the pizzas they can eat “just for half an hour “. Frankly , i went bonkers when I saw this. How can they even think that a person can have a at least two pizza slices in half an hour ? ( i don’t think anyone can manage even 1) will they be serving the pizza slices on time? Won’t it be just another pizza mess? I feel any person who has a bit of common sense can answer those questions with a no , its not practical and yes.

Lots of people have been ranting their displeasure regarding this rule and Pizza Hut Sri Lanka is trying their best to answer them by giving logical explanations which realistically, they cannot do.

What Pizza Hut Sri Lanka Could Have Done ..

The first thing they could have done was to change the date and timings. Monday to Wednesday is the most hectic days of the week at any workplace and specially November to December being the hectic time period of the year, it is impossible to get out of work for most employees . They could have organized the promotion from Thursday to Saturday which are days the workloads are manageable. Also , since it is close to the weekend most people would have wanted to have a great time and a super meal.

Next, they could have tweaked the timings a bit. It is true that they want to catch the people who are hungry and bored ( 2 to 5 is generally a time period where people are bored , stressed and also feel a bit hungry if they had an early lunch ). They could have mixed the timings to give the working people a chance at the promotion ( a time period of 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 would have been more ideal).

Finally ,they should not have added the only 30 minutes rule. If they wanted to give more people the opportunity they could have extended the number of days they have the promotion , increase the timings or just let it be. Or just keep it as it is ( most people cannot eat a lot of pizzas though they say they can. ) Even having the time period for 1 hour would have been realistic. Half an hour as I have said before, is just not logical.

Pizza Hut Sri Lanka has clearly forgotten the difference between a competition and a promotion (eat a lot of pizza slices in half an hour. sounds like a competition right ? ) Any business should always try to create a Win-Win situation with their customers when having their promotions and sadly, Pizza Hut Sri Lanka has created a Win-Lose with this one.

The funny thing is they are not telling about the half an hour rule when they are promoting the promotion through radio which is another black mark for poor promotion advertising.

The All You Can Eat 2011 promotion has become a Fail even before it has started; much to the disappointment of many who have always loved it.

Let us hope that Pizza Hut Sri Lanka will learn from their mistakes and plan a better “All You Can Eat ” next time around.

What are your thoughts about the All You Can Eat promotion 2011 of Pizza Hut Sri Lanka ? Do you like how it has been planned out ? Do share your thoughts and Ideas through the comments section.

Also, for more idiosyncratic thoughts and ideas like the above; please follow BuildingMyBrand on Twitter or become a Fan on Facebook. I assure you, that you won’t get disappointed :).

Cheers!!

37 thoughts on “Pizza Hut Sri Lanka All You Can Eat 2011 – Promotion FAIL !!”

Rukshan on November 24, 2011 at 8:52 am said:

Nice artical, and thanks for the detailed info on “All You Can Eat promotion 2011”. Bottom line is Pizza Hut wants to carryout the promotion for the sake of doing it.

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- buildingmbrand on November 24, 2011 at 9:24 am said:
  
  Hi Rukshan , I agree with you they seem to be doing the promotion for the sake of doing it and it is pretty clear there have been enough planning and promotion gone on to the whole thing before it was initiated.
  It is a bad advertisement for promotions as well as the Pizza Hut brand as a whole.
  Thanks a Lot for checking out the Post and your thoughts. Cheers !!
  
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indi on November 24, 2011 at 8:22 pm said:

Honestly, I rarely sit down and eat anything for more than 30 minutes.

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- buildingmbrand on November 25, 2011 at 3:11 am said:
  
  But this is all you can eat 🙂 you are bound to stay longer and eat more rather than being satisfied with 1 pizza slice. If you are, i think there’s no point in going for the promotion at all.
  
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Dulasha on November 26, 2011 at 2:08 pm said:

A business carries out a promotion to increase sales at low sales periods in order to attract more customers, and that’s exactly what they have done!

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- buildingmbrand on November 27, 2011 at 5:30 am said:
  
  Hi Dulasha,
  
  I totally agree with your argument and yes any business should do that. But, just thinking about them is not correct right? You have to create a Win-Win situation. People perceive All You Can Eat as All You Can Eat , not eat for 30 minutes and go.
  
  They could have added a simple statement like “Terms and Conditions apply ” or branded the whole promotion with a different name. Somehow they didn’t do it and went with their most popular promotion.
  
  Somehow I feel this the lack of poor planning.
  
  Thanks a Lot for checking out the post and your thoughts. Cheers !!
  
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Niroshan on November 27, 2011 at 8:02 am said:

Great Article Chamindra!

I totally agree with you. Having been at previous “All-You-Can-Eat” promos, the moment I saw the 2pm-5pm rule, I was out. Working crowd is totally ignored. And then it was the half-an-hour rule. That’s just absurd. I mean, they dont even want us to enjoy the food. And on top of all that, it costs us Rs.500. Seriously, this something that’s done just for the sake of doing. Outer failure in promotion and to the brand name.

Cheers,
Niroshan

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- buildingmbrand on November 27, 2011 at 10:57 am said:
  
  Hi Niroshan , Thanks a Lot or sharing yours thoughts. I cannot agree with you more. They are doing it for the sake of doing it and as you said accurately, they really don’t want us to enjoy the food this time . Just eat for half and hour and go :). I am really glad you loved the article 🙂 do visit often and check out the other posts too :).
  Cheers !!
  
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Nelly Pras on November 27, 2011 at 9:57 am said:

Hey.

This promotion is insane and better for people who just haven’t had pizza for life. lol. Just to enjoy the food how dare they think 30 min will be enough. even to cool down the whole pizza it will take 30 mins. never gonna drag my friends there. its just a funny, money grabbing promo

Regards
Nelly

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- buildingmbrand on November 27, 2011 at 11:12 am said:
  
  Hey Nelly, Thanks a Lot for sharing your thoughts 🙂 . I completely agree with you and regarding the fact of this promotion being organized for people who never had pizza , that was my impression too :).
  
  Lets hope they will learn from this unplanned mistake and organize better promotions in the future. Cheers !!
  
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Hiru on November 27, 2011 at 10:06 am said:

Completely agree.

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- buildingmbrand on November 27, 2011 at 11:13 am said:
  
  Hi Hiru , Thanks a Lot for checking out the Post glad you agreed with me 🙂 Cheers !!
  
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Izmee Laxana on November 27, 2011 at 1:57 pm said:

Great article…
What i feel is that this campaign was not in their plans. This was done as a counter attack to DOMINOS. They are trying to re establish in Sri Lanka with a new management and new taste. All Pizza Hut is trying to do is to take that hype of Dominos away from the Pizza market. Hence, they chose to introduce “all you can eat”
I agree with your article… its just that Pizza Hut had to take a timely strategic decision. May be they dont have the resources and capacity to implement a fully fetch “all you can eat” or may be they sense that Dominos are trying to target the school crowd, What ever the reason is if Pizza Hut does not pull this off, it can tarnish their brand name.
thnx

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- buildingmbrand on November 27, 2011 at 4:49 pm said:
  
  Hi Izmee, Thanks a Lot for sharing your thoughts and ideas. Personally, I think Pizza Hut is not doing this because they are threatened by Domino’s, if they think they are I feel they are sadly mistaken.
  Domino’s has issues with their locations and packaging ( which is given a cardboard parcel that I think is way beyond being professional or handy). Pizza Hut is 100 percent better than Domino’s and I feel they are the leaders in Pizza in Sri Lanka.
  Somehow though , this promotion will take that glitter off Pizza Hut to a
  certain extent, they should have given at least a small concern on what customers want and kept the promotion according to that without thinking of business motives only. Lets hope they can learn from their mistakes and plan out better promotions in the future.
  Thanks a Lot for checking out the Post :). Cheers !!
  
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Sanuththara on November 28, 2011 at 4:53 am said:

exactly… 6 to 8 would have been ideal.. i mean come on, we work and our bosses wudnt like us going and havin pizza instead of working on the first three days of the week!!!

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- buildingmbrand on November 28, 2011 at 5:36 am said:
  
  Hi Sanuththara , I cannot agree with you more. Infact , that was the first point I thought about when I heard about the whole promotion.
  
  From their point of view, I guess they are doing this to target a different set of customers. Yet they have seem to forgotten that a majority like their All You Can Eat promotion since it is unique and one of a kind.
  
  As I said from the beginning , this is a result of inaccurate vision and planning. Hopefully, they will learn from this experience and I am sure they will plan better promotions in the future.
  
  Thanks a Lot for checking out the post and your thoughts.. 🙂 Cheers!!
  
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samudra on November 28, 2011 at 6:15 am said:

Well clearly they just want to hold the promotion for the sake of having it, as a tradition.

If you can recall this promotion first started when there was a niche market for Pizza and when pizza hut faced fierce competition from the other pizza providers such as dominos.

However the present situation is that there is a larger customer base for Pizzahut with the new range of foods provided, and since the competition from previous providers such as dominos is negligible for Pizzahut they are not in need for a promotional strategy like this at this stage.

Thus they opt to have the ALL YOU CAN EAT IF YOU ARE REALLY DESPERATE!

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- buildingmbrand on November 28, 2011 at 7:44 am said:
  
  Hi Samudra, I totally agree with your observations. It is very true that they are doing this for the sake of doing it. A Promotion going ahead without too much thought ; that is how I see it.
  
  Pizza Hut is far more better than Dominos. If they did this promotion with a better strategy they could have increased that reputation. I sincerely that this is just a minor setback. Hopefully Pizza Hut people will understand this issue and plan better promotions in the future.
  
  Thanks a Lot for checking out the Post :). Cheers !!
  
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Hesh on November 28, 2011 at 6:42 am said:

What’s the point of having a time limit of all you can eat?
This should clearly by advertised as “how fast you can eat”.

Going to an “All you can eat” for 30 mins is like going to a shower and only washing your face

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- buildingmbrand on November 28, 2011 at 7:34 am said:
  
  Hi Hesh, Love the example you have given 🙂 I agree with you totally. They have really forgotten to name the promotion correctly. Thanks a Lot for checking out the Post and your thoughts :). Cheers !!
  
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Winnie on November 28, 2011 at 7:33 am said:

Totally Agree…. Its just a scam! a Money grabbing Scam! And even if u go, u wont benefit but u might end up loosing half ur money.. 😀
I’d rather go during the regular time and enjoy my food, that I’m paying for…

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- buildingmbrand on November 28, 2011 at 7:57 am said:
  
  Hi Winnie, I cannot agree with you more 🙂 I am also going to do the same. By going at regular time, you get the chance to eat as much as you want and pay the amount that is worth for that meal. In this case , it is not worth it at all. You will pay for the food for half and hour but you will remain hungry.
  Thanks a Lot for checking out the Post and your thoughts 🙂
  Cheers !!
  
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Pizzalover on November 28, 2011 at 9:26 am said:

Do you realize how much food goes to waste in these kinds of promotions and how many people eat themselves sick and throw up? And I suppose in that situation the criticism would be ‘Pizza Hut encourages the waste of food etc. Our culture has never been one of waste and by setting these limits ensures that people phisically cannot eat themselves in to a coma. I like the fact that they have set rules.

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- buildingmbrand on November 28, 2011 at 10:10 am said:
  
  Hi PizzaLover Thanks a Lot for your very interesting observation. I agree with you that this kind of promotion means that a lot of food will go to waste from that point of a view the rules look kool so people will eat only the food they are given to eat.
  
  But personally, I don’t think many people will waste their food ( there are some who do it though and I am not saying no; but that is the point of ” All You Can Eat right? ” you eat as long as you can eat and then say no 🙂 )
  
  The issue is with the whole advertising campaign . They gave a wrong interpretation of the whole promotion and it doesn’t constitute with how much pizza can you eat in half an hour . All You Can Eat doesn’t mean that since majority of people perceive it in a different way.
  
  Again this is just my personal opinion 🙂 There could be others who think otherwise. Thanks a Lot for checking out the Post and your comments :).
  
  Cheers !!
  
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M. Thawseef on November 28, 2011 at 3:23 pm said:

There are a few reasons why ‘All you can eat promotions’ are carried out:

1. To promote restaurant among customers. Restaurant may be willing to incur a loss while carrying out promotion. Why is this? Because the long term revenue coming in will be more, because there will be increased customer recognition.
2. To create a sales boost. Why is this? Not meeting enough revenue, carry this out and boost sales a bit.

I feel Pizza Hut is attempting the second motive. And this is actually dangerous because if Pizza Hut doesn’t appropriately manage this campaign properly, they will actually incur a rise in costs and their initial motive of increasing revenue will actually fail.

This is Pizza Hut Sri Lanka. Not Pizza Hut America, Dubai, or Singapore. So eventually, they are going to be extremely cautious managing their costs. Hence, the very cruel terms and conditions such as omitting the working class, and setting a 30 minute time limit. This is just a prudent promotion campaign that will work in favor of Pizza Hut.

But, maybe in the future we can expect a better ‘All You Can Eat’ campaign that will ensure all types of customers being able to take part. Pizza Hut will learn from this campaign and eventually, will have another one that will have better conditions in the eyes of the customer.

Overall, what I’m really anticipating now is, how many more restaurants are now going to copy and offer this same kind of promotion? 😀

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- buildingmbrand on November 28, 2011 at 4:57 pm said:
  
  Hi Thawseef , First of all I Thank You for taking time and commenting on my post and giving a clear picture of the motives behind Pizza Hut Sri Lanka’s All You Can Eat Promotion 2011.
  
  I totally agree with you on the facts you have mentioned and as I analyzed more on their promotion motives I figured they must be planning something like this 🙂 you know do something without telling. I guess that is art of marketing right ? 🙂
  
  Some how though, I am totally disappointed with them for ignoring the
  working class. Lets say they want some sales , most of the Pizza Hut outlets are situated near the office premises ( ex: The Outlets at Union Place, Dehiwela ) so if they allowed a concession for the working class as well they could have got more sales. And surely, you can generate sales without some spending right? 🙂
  
  The whole point I was trying to make from this post was all about creating a win-win situation. Pizza Hut has not done it this time and sadly the creditability of All You Can Eat promotion is also lost.
  
  They will generate some sales and get their cost and revenue issues in order. but , they have a left a lot of loyal customers disappointed. Lets see what they do to win their hearts back :).
  
  Thanks Again for checking out the Post and your comments 🙂 .
  
  Cheers !!
  
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Pizzalover on December 2, 2011 at 4:43 am said:

I think the promotion had been a big success. Some 13,000 ppl served I did not go but saw the lines outside the outlets. Seemed crazy. The average number of slices per person was 13! At 499 per person, I think it is safe to say that Pizza Hut didn’t make any money out of this at all. Really makes you understand why they chose to have it at that time. If they had it on a weekend they probably would not have been able to cope. I think in this case the loyal customers were very very satisfied.

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- buildingmbrand on December 3, 2011 at 2:15 pm said:
  
  Well with all those people in queues, I am sure they have made some kind of profit 🙂 the other funny thing is people like KFC and Dine more also gained profit since most people who were frustrated in long queues went to those restaurants to dine. If PH introduced two time periods they could have easily gained those customers too.
  
  Overall , I am glad to see the promotion ended in success. But I sincerely hope they plan their next AUCE promotion well. There are people who are devoted that promotion and some who even wait till it comes. So treating them well is important and also gaining new customers is also important so the company can sustain their success and customer loyalty in the long run.
  Thanks a Lot for your comment 🙂 Cheers !!
  
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Tona Puorto on December 23, 2011 at 5:00 pm said:

Keep up the great work, I read few articles on this web site and I think that your blog is real interesting and holds lots of fantastic information.

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- ChamindraH on July 18, 2012 at 12:01 pm said:
  
  Hi Tona, Thanks a lot for your comments and I am glad that you enjoyed reading my articles. Please do visit often Cheers !! 🙂
  
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Chris Jayamanne on July 8, 2012 at 12:12 pm said:

People be aware that Pizzahut/sri lanka cheating on you. Sunday newspaper brought me a leaflet apizzahut promotion ONE FOR ONE 3-5 PM
when I go there they are saying itis to Monday -Friday
nowhere on the message is written there mon – friday. they get away saying that “conditions apply.”
So Don’t waste your time and money on this cheeky traps. someone must complain to customer protection authority..

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- ChamindraH on July 18, 2012 at 12:06 pm said:
  
  Hi Chris, Thanks for sharing your experience with everyone here. I think the two most important words in any marketing promotion is ” Conditions Apply “. It is important to read between the lines and understand this conditions before going for any promotion. Otherwise, you will end up getting the service just as the same way before.
  
  My Personal feeling is that this is how organizations do business. They try to connect a win win situation to both them and the consumer but as your experience says in detail , it is more of a win for the business rather than the consumer. Thanks a Lot for sharing your thoughts .. Cheers !!
  
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