Mr. Vineet Reu is one person who oozes with a world of confidence through the meadows of the marketing world. His soft voice is an aural pleasure, and, his depth of knowledge is worth adoring. He has been instrumental in taking Pizza Hut Delivery (PHD) to a new success panorama within the Indian market. Mr. Reu completed his schooling in the year 1993 from Springdales. In 1995 he finished his graduation from Dayal Singh College with B.Com Hons. Post that he joined IIPM in the same year, and his career’s curtains were raised, when he landed in his first job with HSBC in their cards division. After being there for a short span, he shifted into a company which was in the business of computer peripherals. Mr. Reu adds, “I was involved in setting up their distribution network”. His next stint was with Emery Worldwide where he was in the logistics domain. He was the marketing co-ordinator based in their head office and managed client relations. “I then moved into Gurukool – an e-learning business enterprise, where I handled franchise equipment and sales processes”, he acclaims. His career journey then faced a further interesting boulevard with Mc Donald’s where he had the role of developing business operations through new outlets in North & East regions. Finally, he got into Yum Brands andhas been diligently working towards the expansion of Pizza Hut Delivery (PHD).
According to Mr. Reu, the Food & Hospitality sector has a future with wide and bright scope because eating-out has now become part of almost every section of the society. He explains, “Today, most people are into nuclear families, and they prefer going out as both spouses are working”. Hence the trend towards having meals outside of home has been on the rise. However in comparison with some of the Western nations, Indian Food & Hospitality industry is still in a nascent stage. Yum brands consists Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC as premier brands which themselves are market leaders. “KFC is the world leader in servicing high quality chicken, Pizza Hut is the world’s largest ‘pizza’ dinning place”, highlights Mr. Reu. The USP of Pizza Hut in his view is their young customer base and in that regard there is no competition. He opines that a brand like Domino’s ( Jubilant Foods) is a dominant player but they do not have dining outlets and hence the strategy for Pizza Hut is totally different as they are mostly into restaurants (dining). And in competition to the much renowned ’30 minutes or free’ campaign of Domino’s, they have PHD which aims at delivering the pizzas whilst they are ‘hot’ and ‘fresh’, thus, the hygiene factor is at the helm of their campaign. At Yum, Mr. Reu had to start by working in cross functional teams because when he joined, it was still in the developing phases of their brand strategy. “I set up various aspects to elevate the brand PHD to where it is now”, he adds with joy. Mr. Reu has worked closely with PHD as a brand to define the industry, competition, and brand values. He adds further that the brand expansion plans revolve around these aspects. Mr. Reu views that in order to sustain a positive brand recall; Yum uses platforms like mass media, TVCs, radio, print etc to build sustainable reach. “For brand recall to be strong, mass media is the only cauldron”, he affirms.
Riding on the extensive network waves that have been stirred by the Social Media boom, Mr. Reu says that since so many customers are today part of the social media networks, most brands have their own fan pages. Large fan bases on these pages, he feels are an excellent set up for feedbacks and interactions. Mr. Reu as a leader believes that one should only say things to their team of which one is very clear about. “The idea is to take everybody along by communicating clearly because it is all about actions that lead you towards a goal”. His current role at Yum Foods is specifically about PHD but in the past six years here, he has worked on planning market strategies for all Yum brands. “I have been associated with all brands of Yum at various points”, adds Mr. Reu. One feels the air of nostalgia around when Mr. Reu speaks about his IIPM days, “Those were the days that are never going to come back. I was young and enjoyed going to classes and the company of my friends”. He fondly remembers all the interesting moments like working on projects, and, on a fun note, bunking some particular classes. He adds with pride, “I owe a lot to IIPM for providing me with the knowledge that has been very useful in the later parts of my life”. Mr. Reu used to like the classes by Prof. Gupta and Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s classes on culture still stand out for him as a learning experience. To the young generation, his advice is, “Whatever you do, do it with a passion, clear aim, and no one can stop you from achieving anything”. Like all good men, Mr. Reu loves his family and loves spending time with his wife – Ms. Shefali Reu and two kids – Saksham & Saisha. “On weekends we go out to movies and other days I come back home and sit with them to know how they spend their whole day”, he concludes.
Cult wishes that much like the classic 4-Cheese combination of gouda, cheddar, parmesan, and mozzarella melting perfectly into that savoury blend of pizza base, Mr. Reu’s career keeps blazing with all the essential 4Ps of marketing!
