we have a set of capabilities that drive easy experiences for our customers,” he said. “Second, we have capabilities that drive easy operations for our Team members and franchisees, and third, we have capabilities that allow us to drive easy insights from our data. That allows our marketing, development, and other teams to make better and faster decisions.”
Yum! 2021 acquired two technology companies: Dragontail Systems Ltd. and Kvantum, Inc.
Dragontail, a provider of technology systems for the food industry, focuses on optimizing and managing the food preparation process from order through delivery.
“Dragontail grew up in the Pizza Hut system,” Mr. Turner said. “We acquired it, brought it in-house. We're now deploying it across our other brands with considerable success.
“What it does, in a multichannel fulfillment environment, is it directs our kitchen when to cook the food so that the food is coming off the line at the right time. Our customers get fresher, hotter products when a delivery driver is available. Customer experience goes up. Plus, we’re seeing productivity improvements in our driver force.”
According to Aaron M. Powell, global chief executive officer at Pizza Hut, Sixty percent of Pizza Hut's transactions are digital.
“Colombia was one of the first countries we had that went all in with Dragontail,” he said. “Simple fact about pizza: the hotter, the better. Hot pizza is great. Within Colombia after Dragontail, the time from the average time the pizza goes in the oven until when the consumer eats it went down by 8 minutes — hotter, fresher pizza.”
Kvantum develops and deploys algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) models to help brands understand consumer behavior and make informed media and calendar decisions.
“Kvantum’s calling card is marketing optimization,” Mr. Turner said. “In each of our 150-plus countries around the globe, the transition from traditional marketing to digital marketing is happening at different paces. Quantum helps us get that right in each market. You see an example here in Pizza Hut UK, more than a 40% increase in return on ad spend.”
He added Yum! is using TikTok for its conversational commerce capabilities, including the ability to order in chat or social media channels.
“We're using TikTok’s e-commerce capabilities to scale up our digital business rapidly,” Mr. Turner said. “We’ve implemented it in some smaller markets. You see two examples: KFC in Mexico and Pizza Hut in Costa Rica, where TikTok’s e-commerce engine has driven significant conversion lift.”
Technology and digital sales have picked up at Taco Bell.
“We had virtually zero sales in 2018 in Taco Bell that were digital,” Mr. Turner said. “This year, we will be north of $3 billion in digital sales: 23% mix. So a lot of progress. Of course, that 23% is way behind our 40% overall mix. So there’s still a lot of opportunity.”
Mark King, chief executive officer of Taco Bell, added, “Digital has opened up a huge opportunity for us, not just in transactions, not just on the increased check, but really on connecting on a personal level to our consumers because we believe that this personal connection, which is connecting to the heart of a consumer, not just the head of a consumer but the heart, is what will maintain that consumer over an extended period.”
KFC has taken steps to simplify operations in the back of the restaurant, said Sabir Sami, CEO of KFC.
“These include Bluetooth temperature sensors that are placed both in our chicken walk-in coolers and in hot holding cabinets to ensure that the chicken we serve is within brand standards on temperature and also serves more (field) safety standards as well,” he said. “Secondly, we’re also using oil-temperature sensors. So these are sensors specially designed to check the quality of the oil to make sure that the oil is within standards.”
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