CASE#1 Chapter#2 “Hard Rock Café’s Global Strategy”
Q1. Identify the strategy changes that have taken place at Hard Rock Café since its founding in 1971?
Ans. Hard Rock Café has been serving food and rock music with enthusiasm since the opening of its first café in London in 1971.The strategy changes that have taken place are as follows: 1. Hard Rock introduced the concept of ‘experience economy’ to its café operations .The strategy was to incorporate a unique ‘experience’ into its operations which was similar to mass customization in manufacturing. 2. The experience concept provided a unique dining event that included a unique visual and sound experience which was not duplicated anywhere else in the world as the staff of Hard Rock café served customers with enthusiasm and showed passion for rock music. 3. Special consideration was given to the supply chain management for the restaurant and its accompanying retail store by introducing collectible merchandise of various artist such as Kurt Cobain, Jon Bon Jovi, and Green Day etc and sshowcasing its collection of rock and roll memorabilia. It also introduced location specific merchandise, such as tees, apparels and fashion merchandise which contributed to 48% of café sales. 4. Special preferences was given to menus for local taste and introducing new international food items into its menu by taking reviews from customers about the new food item. They would also asked customers to rate the food from a scale of 1-7, if the rating of new food item was high then it was added to the menu. For instance, in European countries such as London, whichstill had fear of mad cow disease. Hard Rock café focused more on fish and lobster compared to its traditional hamburger and beef. 5. Finding new market throughout the world by opening hotels, cafe’s, casinos and theme oriented hotels in destination cities as 70% of Hard