Custom made menus

Whenever any new, especially an American chain, came along to India, it would not do well until it 'indianised' the menu. That is something I strongly disliked. Till date. I hate the fact that I cannot eat a pizza without chicken tikka or tandoori chicken or mutton kheema on it. Or a sub with murg kali mirch or an chicken Mc grill with mint chutney....I never understood it. Which was this proverbial Indian it was catering to?

Then in today's TOI (Mumbai edition) I came across this story and as usual cannot find the link so am pasting the entire story. Though I was still not convinced, I wanted to keep this story for posterity. That basically means that the population who like to experiment and try sushi and new fusion cuisines and tasting menus, is basically so small a minority, that it cannot influence any decision, eh?

CHANGING RULES
Adding pizzazz to the dining experience
Arvind Mediratta of Pizza Hut provides some insights into how the way to a consumer’s heart may well be through his stomach

Dining out on Saturdays is a ritual Diwanchand Mehra and his family seldom interfere with. The family is quite clear that only restaurants that dish out Indian delicacies will be visited. Pizza joints? No, the Mehras are not interested. This despite a swank Pizza Hut outlet that has opened near their residence in an uptown area of Ludhiana with quite a few Indian variations in its toppings. Ditto for consumers in Kanpur, Jalandhar or for that matter Bhubaneshwar. “At best, we can snack on pizzas. Beyond that it fails to excite us,” is the refrain.
For Yum! International Restaurants, the owner of the Pizza Hut food chain, these Great Indian families across the length and breadth of urban and smaller urban centres, are the stuff a profitable market could be made of. And yet, this is what has eluded them until now. Arvind Mediratta, chief marketing officer, Indian Sub-Continent, Yum! Restaurants International, talks with Aradhana Takhtani on how they intend to make deeper inroads into this market.

The recipe for growth
The story of international food chains making forays into the Indian market has been all about localisation and affordable prices. The Mcburgers and the Tandoori Murg Pizzas have had their share of popularity and yet, as a category of food, pizza has been crawling along at a mere 15% growth.
According to Mediratta, “The penetration of pizzas across the top five cities is as high as 55%. But the downside is that in the last thee months, only 10-15% of consumers have actually converted into loyal customers.” Here lies the gap Arvind Mediratta and his team is trying to fix with an Indianisation effort they believe will signal exciting times for both the existing and new consumers of Pizza Hut.
“We carried out a segmentation study between December 2005 and March 2006, which also observed the usage and attitude patterns. It was quite a revelation: we found that consumers, especially from tier-II towns, were not fully satisfied after dining on pizzas. Though the ambience and the service we created was really aspirational, the disconnect occurred with the menu,” says Mediratta.
So now, barely three months after its new brand positioning around low pricing, Pizza Hut has an entirely new market plan, baked and ready. Called the ‘great Indian treat’, the new offering is expected to popularise the concept of a pizza meal and push up sales by 15-20%.

So how much more Indian can one get?
In early 2006, Pizza Hut had shelved its ‘good times and great pizzas’ slogan to weave in a new learning they picked up along the way: ‘When Indians want to dine out, they essentially want to have fun and an indulgent atmosphere’.
The new positioning was ‘treat you just can’t beat’, where customers were offered ‘treat bundles’ for an affordable Rs 75. This included one portion of tomato soup, one veg personal pan pizza and one scoop of vanilla sundae. Says Mediratta, “Our objective was to target consumers who wanted to try out pizza but held back due to the popular perception of it being expensive. We succeeded in getting in a new set of consumers.” But low price was not good enough to break the mindset surrounding pizza. And what are these perceptions Pizza Hut is grappling with in India?
“Indians fashion their needs as per the occasion. Pizza can be a good snack with friends during office hours but with families, most prefer to have a lavish spread of Indian dishes. Further, the idea of it being bland is deeply rooted, even though we tried varied Indian toppings, both veg and non-veg,” says Mediratta.
With pizza being intrinsic to the company’s offering, the only way forward was to amplify the range with absolute Indian fare. So there will be many additions that read like the menu of a typical north Indian eatery—hara kebab lollies and shammi kebab lollies as starters, and main course pizzas like Peshawari chana paneer, tandoori paneer chutneywala, teekha paneer makhni and so on. For dessert too, Mediratta leaves no trace of the borrowed concepts. Instead of the colas and the vanillas, on offer will be pista kulfi.
With this new range that will be formally announced in a week from now, Pizza Hut is seeking the attention of SEC B and SEC A minus consumers: people who easily spend an average of Rs 350 - Rs 500 in a restaurant per visit. TNN