Pizza Hut marketing head Richard Leong has an appetite for F&B

Pizza Hut was founded in 1968 and has been doing business in Hong Kong for 45 years. Leong joined the brand 30 months ago, in what is his first marketing director's role. 

An accounting and finance graduate, Leong is glad he left the accounting industry after a year and ventured into the advertising and marketing field, as it is "so much fun".

With a career spanning over two decades in 4A agencies such as Ogilvy, DDB, JWT in Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand and running his own Italian restaurant in Bangkok, Leong sees himself as an "old dog that can learn new tricks".

Campaign Asia-Pacific caught up with Leong recently to find out what he sees as the challenges and opportunities for Pizza Hut in the competitive fast-food industry.

How do you market pizza as nutritious, given that people are more health-conscious?

Younger people are more exposed to other brands and more well-travelled. We can't position fast-food as healthy food, but that is not to say it is unhealthy, the key is to create a balance.

However, we still have many loyal users who prefer the thicker crust pizza, hence we need to cater to the core users as well as the emerging customers who prefer healthy options.

Why do you have two brands: PHD and Pizza Hut? Do they compete with each other?

PHD is the delivery channel, but Hong Kong is the only country in the world with these two brands with two different menus. In most countries, PHD and Pizza Hut share the same menu, and in some markets there is only one of them.

We decided to have two brands to address the two market sector needs here. This is effective in addressing competitive threats.

McDonalds and KFC recently launched rice-based set meals. Is Pizza Hut still pizza-oriented?

We launched the ‘Pizza and more’ ad campaign last year and introduced quite a few new product offerings, such as Swiss cheese fondue, baby back ribs, roast chicken and fish-and-chips across our 80-plus restaurants in Hong Kong.

Coming from a 4A agency background, I am a very creative person. I think many marketing people in Hong Kong don’t understand that if they make some changes to a brand, they should respect the brand value. A brand is like a person: you need to gain respect and reputation.

When I first joined Pizza Hut, there was too much stuff on the menu. So I did lots of cutting out to focus on quality as less is more and food quality is increasingly crucial.

Hong Kong has high-end pizza restaurants like Pizza Express and Fat Angelo's, not to mention expensive Italian restaurants in hotels. How do you compete with them?

Leong says that while striving for balance on its menu, Pizza Hut aims to ensure its employees have also have work-life balance. Pizza Hut has a 'Talk Talk Club' where senior management take their employees out for dim sum to listen to their opinions, such as in this picture (right), where Leong (in blue T-shirt) enjoyed a BBQ night out last week with Pizza Hut employees.

Customers are not stupid. In the past, they thought our ingredients were the same, and there was not much innovation, but Hong Kong consumers are quite willing to pay more if the food is good, like the Tuscany pizza and portobello mushroom pizza. In July, we will launch the new buffalo mozzarella pizza as part of our gourmet cheese of the world campaign. The fondue meal sets are also attracting more high-end customers.

We are no longer focusing on the low-cost menu, but have been on the ‘affordable premium’ marketing platform.

Compared to our competitors, which are often in a niche market, we are a mass brand with over 80 restaurants for Pizza Hut and 22 PHD outlets in various districts in Hong Kong, from Causeway Bay to Tin Shui Wai.

Does your menu cater to local tastes?

Yes and no. We don’t do that for the high-end range, but for example, the thousand island sauce pizza was our signature pizza since day one. People in the US may laugh at that. And we also have spaghetti Americana, which is a unique dish for the Hong Kong market only.

McDonald’s has McCafé, Delifrance has Bistro Deli, will Pizza Hut also develop a higher-end business division?

No, though I definitely would like to. However, Pizza Hut in Hong Kong is already the gold standard for most markets. We are in the most mature market with our restaurants, service and menu: top of our chain in the world at the moment.

In lots of countries—even in Japan and Taiwan—Pizza Hut is a delivery outlet instead of a dine-in restaurant. Meanwhile emerging markets like Vietnam are at the opposite end of the spectrum to Hong Kong, as Pizza Hut is only a five-year-old brand there. For the average Vietnamese, Pizza Hut is quite high-end, while in tier-two and-three cities in China, as people there are not so well-travelled, Pizza Hut to them is like the window onto Western culture. It is all relative.

How do you drive more customers to order online?

Customers who order with us online are very important. It saves us the cost of going through a call centre, which is a third-party provider. Online ordering does not have that cost burden.

The online ordering platform and iphone app must be sophisticated with a simple interface.

We found that customers who do online ordering are loyal and spend more. We give them more discount incentives, such as extra free pasta or pizza, eDM coupons, birthday gifts, cooking classes for kids, innovative products (if they are boring, then people won’t come back), and coffee brewing classes.

When I first joined there were only 2,000 fans. Today the brand has 90,000 fans, among the top in the fast-food restaurant sector, though still behind Starbucks Hong Kong, which has 200,000 facebook fans.

What advice would you give to younger executives in the marketing industry or fresh graduates?

It does not matter which industry you are in, always try to explore the unknown. I realise that lots of people in the workplace, if they do something well, they tend to do the same thing over and over and don’t take risks. 

There is no shortcut; the more you get out of your comfort zone, the more you become a solid person in the longer term. Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks.

What is the riskiest thing you have done?

Running my own restaurant in Bangkok. Restaurants are easy come, easy go; for every successful restaurant, there may be nine that have failed. You have to know how to manage your food costs, you have to worry if there is any rat in your warehouse, even good restaurants are struggling to hire good staff.

I once had a full house of 20 twenty tables in my restaurant in Bangkok, but 11 of my 15 staff were drunk after pay day. I almost panicked and sent everyone home.

What do you enjoy eating?

Eating is one of my biggest weaknesses. I eat anything, whether in cheap or Michelin-star restaurants. Being Malaysian, I have a passion for food. I don’t care where the place is, as long as the food is good.