In the grand tradition of Kentucky Fried & Grilled Chicken, it appears that Pizza Hut is toying with a large-scale name change to Pasta Hut. At least according to the UK website pastahut.com. On that site, you’ll see a terribly cheesy video of two workmen changing a neon Pizza Hut sign to that of Pasta Hut. The subtext isn’t too subtle, out with the old and in with the new.

But is this for real? According to the plain ole pizzahut.com, the company is still Pizza Hut, but is “now serving pasta.”

So this brings up two WTF questions: WhyTF would Pizza Hut, a highly recognisable global brand whose name is appropriately tied to their core offering, change to Pasta Hut? And if they are not, in fact, changing their name, WTF is going on with these websites?

To be fair, this is a difficult area for brands to navigate. When your core offering becomes diluted or outdated, a name change may be in order — National Cash Register pulled this off when they became NCR and got into the mainframe business. On the other hand, you risk positioning yourself as a single-focused brand, when in fact your offerings are many — Cheesecake Factory sells more than cheesecake, for example.

But I have the feeling this is less about a serious brand overhaul focused on pasta instead of pizza, and instead some bizarre marketing stunt to let the people know Pizza Hut now serves pasta. If they really wanted to shake things up, they’d pull a complete shadow operation, and overnight switch all signage, cups, uniforms, ads, etc. to say Pasta Hut. After a while they could change it back, of course. But in the meantime, imagine the news coverage.

What do you think, could Pizza Hut change their name without doing damage to their brand?

via Noisy Decent Graphics »

// a tale of Britain, brands & branding, design: web
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