The New School of Hard Rock
Homework Pays Off for a Storied And Dynamic Brand

“It’s hard,” The Who once sang.They were right. In the hospitality industry, it is, in fact, quite hard to cultivate a singular on-premise brand, hard to reinvent it over time, hard to find success in live music and hard to merge all that with a hotels and casino side — and make it all rock like Pete Townsend. But Hard Rock International has managed to develop a unique empire, including multiple prototype packages for properties around the nation and the world. Around 12 years ago, the brand was, and still is to a degree, controlled by two different entrepreneurs — co-founders Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett — who agreed to develop Hard Rock Cafes in different parts of the globe. In 1990, The Rank Group acquired Tigrett’s interest, followed by Morton’s cafe rights in 1996 (excluding Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and some gaming rights west of the Mississippi), consolidating worldwide control of the brand. In 2006, The Morgans Hotel Group retained the rights to the Las Vegas hotel and casino from Peter Morton. In March 2007, the Seminole Tribe of Florida acquired Hard Rock International Inc. and other related entities from The Rank Group for approximately $965 million. “Peter Morton had a mixture of vision and passion and the wherewithal to make the bet in Vegas on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino,” says Hamish Dodds, CEO and president. “Because he was one of the founders, he had his vision of the brand and was able to articulate an experience in Vegas that has helped sow the seed for many folks in that market trying to replicate some of the edginess that he achieved. “The rest of our organization was a little perplexed in trying to understand that,” says  says  Dodds, a Scot with global experience, most recently with Pepsico. “Once they understood how successful it was, our organization was a little slow off the mark in terms of trying to drive an agenda that looked at hotels and casinos as an expansion platform.” But Hard Rock has made up for any lost time with talent, precision and unique style — equal to that of Edward Van Halen finger-tapping on his fretboard. “I think over the last three or four years, we’ve attached a very high degree of importance to accelerating our growth in hotels and casinos,” Dodds says. “Strategically we believe that’s very important. At the same time, we feel that we’ve maybe commoditized our cafe brand in some U.S. and U.K. markets. So, we’re comfortable closing a few cafe locations to make sure that where we do have cafes we have wonderful experiences, but we don’t need to have a cafe in every corner of the United States. “If we can keep our cafe brand fresh and young and lively, then that gives us ample brand equity to spare to put into hotels and casinos, which are more long-lasting Hard Rock experiences for our guests.”

Are You Experienced?
The Hard Rock brand is a very dynamic one. “We are trying to grow a hotel product that is a 4-Diamond product, whereas our cafes are pitched as much more casual dining,” Dodds says. “The price points of the experiences are very different.” As a brand attempting to offer myriad quality experiences to different target consumers — on an international scale — Hard Rock turned first to a measure any global brand worth its frequent flyer miles would consult: research and development. “We invested three or four years ago with an intensive internal review process to try to understand the components of our brand and our positioning so we could effectively market ourselves in hotel, casino and cafes and explain to investors and consumers how our brand operates successfully in each of those segments,” Dodds says. “The result was that we realized we would be better off improving the underlying cafe experience to more of a premium casual dining perspective.” There was a time when Hard Rock stood alone as a certain kind of concept, but every Tom, Dick and Jimmy Buffett has come forth with a version, from Planet Hollywood to Margaritaville. Hard Rock, some would conclude, arguably was trapped in the traffic. But as in the career of any good rock star, a substantive makeover, along with some soul searching, has led to a comeback. “We are in the process of upgrading our menu in terms of quality,” Dodds says. “We look for the best possible ingredients. We’ve paid special attention to the environment — upgrading the memorabilia look and feel and moving to wooden tables instead of tabletops, for instance. As a result of all of that, we’ve been able to deliver a higher level cafe experience.” After all, it’s that experience that brings them back or sends them packing. Hard Rock realizes that the only way to bring them back is to make sure everything involved adds up to one stellar brand memory. “I look at this business from a brand perspective,” Dodds says. “Before I look at T-shirts, hamburgers, hotels, memorabilia, my primary preoccupation is the brand and what I can do to stimulate the continued growth and esteemed value of our brand. That is something I brought with me from Pepsico.” His global experience, of living in many countries in Europe, South America and the Middle East, has benefited Dodds. “I have a very clear understanding of how to interrelate, engage and motivate folks in those markets,” he says.

One Bourbon, One Scotch,One Margarita
“Hard Rock in general has always been known for providing guests authentic experiences,” Cindy Busi, director of worldwide beverage for the cafes, notes. “In the original culture back in 1971, walking into the cafe in London, Eric Clapton could be sitting on a stool. It was always a unique atmosphere.” Of course, that was a simpler time altogether. “The foundation was burgers and beer,” Busi says. “We certainly had liquor, but you’re looking at single mixes and shots. We really started to dive into it in 2004. Hard Rock really hadn’t changed in a while with what consumers are now wanting. “We took the first step of cleaning up our backbars and getting great products and offering premium well,” Busi says. “People are really expecting that. Hard Rock in general didn’t have a beverage program so to speak, but we had really left it up to our local units, which led to inconsistencies.” Additionally, in 2004 and 2005, Hard Rock revamped many aspects of its beverage program in general, including logos, color palette, menu layout and more.  “With that, we went back to our Rock ‘n’ Roll roots and why people come to Hard Rock. We looked at how we could integrate that into our food and beverage menu. Joe Perry (of Aerosmith) had a hot sauce, so we launched on our food menu a quesadilla and on our beverage menu a Bloody Mary utilizing his hot sauce. “It was exciting for consumers to see the brand come alive.” Other star-connected brands include Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo tequila and Jerry Garcia wines. Cocktail-wise, ingredients at Hard Rock now are as fresh as “Smells Like Teen Spirit” infiltrating mainstream radio for the first time. “We’re huge on fresh products,” Busi says. “We’ve got a very diverse beverage menu,” Dodds says. “We’ve had a huge investment recently in non-alcoholic cocktails that has tripled our volume in that area.”

Food Sales Become Legendary
Busi drives the research and development of beverage, and Michael Winkler, as senior director of worldwide culinary, does the same for food. Both work closely with purchasing to procure the right products. “The two categories that I think are our strengths are that we’ve reintroduced the (barbecue) smoking in-house again, which was a signature back in the early days of Hard Rock,” Winkler says. “That category has grown tremendously since we’ve upgraded and added some products to it. We added a beef brisket that has taken off and grown the category. “One of the proposals our department came up with last year was the Legendary Burger, which is a 10-ounce, very unique burger,” Winkler says. Initially, about one in 10 people was ordering the Legendary Burger. “We proposed to expand the category and put that into a test. We put it into five cafes — two in Europe, three in the states — and the category more than tripled. It went from 10 percent to over 35 percent of people who ordered burgers shifting to this new, bigger burger. It’s our signature burger anyway, so now the category has taken off.” 

The Hotel California, Miami, Chicago
And Beyond As Dodds points out, the Hard Rock Hotels are a different proposition altogether from the cafe, but still all part of one singular brand, rooted in Rock ‘n’ Roll. For many, especially frequent business travelers, once inside an average hotel, it’s not that difficult to forget what city you’re in. You might slip downstairs for a generic hotel restaurant dinner, perhaps even in a chain restaurant that, while upscale, is no different from where you dined in Kansas City last week. “You have to look at every single hotel as an individual hotel,” says Trevor Horwell, vice president of hotels. You design a hotel to fit the market. What may work in Los Angeles is going to be different than what would work in Chicago or Atlanta. Interior design touches in the rooms are the beginning of where Hard Rock creates its differentiation, with style and sophistication. The public venues within the hotel, too, are held to a high standard. “The way we look at an urban hotel, if you’re a 4-Diamond hotel, you need to put into your spaces a high-end restaurant
and bar as opposed to a mass market restaurant and bar,” Horwell says. “If you take San Diego, the only way you can position that hotel at that level was to bring in concepts that are very high-end. So we brought in Nobu and brought in Rande Gerber and that level of concepts that have, to a certain degree, a very strong local pull. “The key to making a hotel a success in an urban environment is that it has to be the place to be for locals. You do that by bringing in concepts that appeal to locals but at the same time have their own draw and a certain celebrity angle to them as well.”

And the Cradle Will Rock
Other growth within the brand is taking place in the area of live music — and yet always as one element of the overall Hard Rock brand and not its sole hallmark. Hard Rock Live locations accommodate smaller-scale concerts, providing artists and fans an intimate but not too small concert experience. “What we try to do is now replicate that in our local units,” Dodds says. “This year, we will do in excess of 3,000 music events across our system, which is huge. We see this as integral part of an overall brand experience.” Rock ‘n’ Roll, of course, is a family affair in America, and it always surprises. Future plans include a prototype Hard Rock theme park in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Stay tuned.