Analyzing Pizza Hut with BCG Matrix

This marketing analysis assignment examines Pizza Hut's product portfolio using the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix. It categorizes their offerings into Cash Cows, Stars, Question Marks, and Dogs based on market share and growth rate. The assignment highlights how pizza is a cash cow for the company, while items like sandwiches and breads are considered stars with growth potential. It also discusses the challenges faced by chicken items as question marks and the unsuccessful pasta offering classified as a dog.

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Marketing and Management
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MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT
BCG Portfolio Matrix
Pizza Hut can use the BCG matrix for analyzing what is the present situation of the
company and also find out what possibilities the company has for growing in the fast food
market. This tool is used by companies to get help in measuring all their businesses in
accordance with their relative market share and market growth (Palia, De Ryck and Mak 2014).
The following section has an overview of the BCG matrix product portfolio for Pizza Hut:
Image: BCG Matrix for Product Portfolio
Source: (Wang and Ge 2013)
Cash Cow

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For Pizza Hut, their highest revenue generating product is pizza, which makes it the cash
cow for the company. The advent of internet and the use of digital channel for booking and
taking orders has helped the company grow and use its position as a cash cow for advantage
(Pizzahut.com.au 2017). The company sells more than a million pizzas daily with the help of the
different franchise it has all over the world.
Stars
The second category of products inside the matrix are stars that are categorized as the
emerging products in the product portfolio of any organization. The pizza industry in Australia
has the potential for development and expansion, which turns these business units into targets for
investing and growth oriented activities by the management of the company (Brown 2017). The
stars have the potential for developing into cash cows as soon as the industry gets into a mature
stage. As long as the products of Pizza Hut remain in the star category, they are on a constructive
path of development in regards to market share and revenue generation. Products like
sandwiches and breads are still growing in the context of demand and sales and are experiencing
a slow growth in market shares and revenues.
Question Marks
Pizza Hut has added certain items in their menu that have failed in gaining a similar
constructive reception as seen in the case of their pizza domain. Addition of some chicken items
also could not create a beneficial response in the target market. These chicken items are thus
acting as a question mark for the company. It has been acknowledged by the management that
there is a probability of failure of some of their products (Menulog.com.au 2017). Pizza Hut has
pursued investing in marketing and production of their special chicken items with an objective of

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increasing their market share in the domain. The risk of failure is there, but if the product gets
successful the company would thrive more in the fast food industry.
Dogs
For Pizza Hut, the inclusion of pasta in the menu has not been a beneficial decision. The
consumers of the company could not see Pizza Hut as a pasta offering fast food retailer, which
led to the pasta becoming a dog. The main issue was the target market not being able to relate
Pizza brand with pasta, which led to negative criticism from the fast food consumers. It faced
rebuke from people on the grounds that they are more possibly inclined towards ordering a fast
food option instead of the salad (Lutz 2015).

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References
Brown, V. 2017. ‘Our goal is to have more than 400 pizza shops in Australia’. [online]
NewsComAu. Available at: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/eat/little-caesars-hopes-to-
overtake-australian-pizza-market/news-story/5fda403237a4a8207b12199e23299250 [Accessed
19 Sep. 2017].
Lutz, A. 2015. Pizza Hut's attempt to be gourmet flopped. [online] Businessinsider.com.
Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/Pizza-Huts-attempt-to-be-gourmet-flopped/
articleshow/46764061.cms [Accessed 19 Sep. 2017].
Menulog.com.au. 2017. Pizza Hut Takeaway & Delivery Restaurants - Menulog. [online]
Available at: https://www.menulog.com.au/browse/chain/pizza-hut-au [Accessed 19 Sep. 2017].
Palia, A.P., De Ryck, J. and Mak, W.K., 2014. Interactive Online Strategic Market Planning
With the Web-based Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix Graphics Package. Developments
in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, 29.
Pizzahut.com.au. 2017. Pizza Hut. [online] Available at: https://www.pizzahut.com.au/
[Accessed 19 Sep. 2017].
Wang, Z.J. and Ge, L.L., 2013. Comparison between SWOT model and BCG matrix in
competitive intelligence. Library & Information. Lanzhou, 3, pp.87-93.