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| == Company History == | == Company History == | ||
| Its fur fat peoples :) | |||
| Hardee's founder ] opened his first restaurant in ] in 1960. On the strength of its two distinctive signature sandwiches (the Big Deluxe and the Big Twin), the chain experienced rapid growth by ] and, to a lesser extent, by acquiring other restaurant chains. The first "franchise" store opened in Rocky Mount, NC in May 1961 by Jim Gardner and Leonard Rawls. The chain was headquartered in Rocky Mount until 2001. | |||
| ===The 1960s=== | |||
| Many original Hardee's were built with a hexagonal style building with a pointed roof. In keeping with that theme, for a short period of time, Hardee's hamburgers were actually ], particularly the quarter-pound patties. Some early locations had lobbies, but almost all were fresco-walk-up style. | |||
| ===The 1970s=== | |||
| In the early-], the regular menu featured the Big Twin (a two-patty burger with a unique sauce) and the Big Deluxe (a quarter-pound burger with a tangy mayonnaise). Hardee's purchased ] in ], but primarily emphasized franchise growth on the strength of its menu. During the 1970s, when Hardee's saw rapid growth, the burgers were "charco-broiled" and were frozen patties cooked in a process using heated "char-rocks" that caused the fat content dripping off the cooking beef to ignite for a distinctive "flame-broiled" taste. The charco-broiling process was discontinued throughout the 80's and 90's. Charbroiling (minus the rocks) was reintroduced in 2001 with the addition of their Thickburger menu. | |||
| ===The 1980s and 1990s=== | |||
| Hardee's seemed to have fallen victim to the buy-out phenomena of the 1980s. A new management team in the early 1980s seeking to cut costs immediately changed the signature burger recipe by, among other things, replacing the menu with frozen patties. When sales declined, the chain eliminated altogether the flagship menu items of the Big Twin and the Big Deluxe. Instead, the chain installed condiment islands where the customer had to take a plain fast food patty and bun. The Hardee's of the 1980s and '90s was frequently criticized for its very low hamburger quality. The chain leveraged itself to acquire ] in ] and ] in ]. For a short time in the early 1990s, Hardee's outlets sold the popular fried chicken recipe acquired from Roy Rogers, which Hardee's claimed in their advertisements beat ] in a taste test, 63 to 37. However, they had only compared it to KFC's Original Recipe, thus giving KFC a clever counter-advertisement in which they claim that their Extra Tasty Crispy chicken beat Hardee's chicken. Hardee's chicken was quickly discontinued at some locations a few years later in another series of cost-cutting moves. However, Hardee's still offers fried chicken and traditional chicken dinner side dishes at various locations. Commercials advertising a free bottle of Texas Pete hotsauce with the purchase of a family sized chicken dinner were aired as recently as the summer of 2006. At one point the chain expanded to 2,500 locations in the ], but the chain's expansion has tapered off in recent years. | |||
| ===Hardee's today=== | |||
| In ], the chain was acquired by ], the parent company of the ] ] chain. (Imasco retained the few remaining Roy Rogers locations, though CKE is reported to do some supplying of them). In ] and ] ] bought out the remaining '']'' stores in the ] and converted those in the Eastern part of the country to the Hardee's brand. Over time, some Hardee's restaurants were converted to serve the relatively higher-quality hamburgers and other products available from ], and also took on the ] star logo in the process. Some locations were simply fully-rebranded ]. | |||
| CKE Restaurants has been dual branding some Hardee's locations with ], similar to its ]/] dual brand concept. | |||
| ].]] | |||
| ====Form over substance==== | |||
| Beginning in the early 1990's, Hardee's began trying a number of ] efforts, discussed below, to try to regain the ascendancy it enjoyed in the 1970s. Perhaps the biggest of these ad campaigns used the comedian ] as an irreverent spokesman to try to establish the "Star" brand in the mind of consumers. The ] of the Hardee's name created by the cost-cutting measures begun in the 1980's, however, seems to have caused once loyal customers to no longer give claims of new and improved menu items a chance. Indeed, each successive marketing campaign has tacitly admitted how bad the immediately preceding menu was in an effort to get customers to try the latest menu changes. Most recently, in 2003, Hardee's introduced the highly promoted, diet-busting "Thickburger," made from ] (see below) which tend to take additional time to custom-prepare, resulting in longer delays for fast-food patrons accustomed to prompt service. | |||
| As of 2006, Hardee's operates 1,993 restaurants in 31 ]. By comparison, ], a direct competitor of about equal size in the late-1970s, now has over 6,000 American locations. However, befitting its origins, Hardee's has found a niche market in smaller towns that may lack franchises of the other major hamburger chains. | |||
| == Breakfast at Hardee's == | == Breakfast at Hardee's == | ||
Revision as of 21:31, 14 March 2007
| File:Hardee's.png | |
| Company type | Subsidiary of CKE Restaurants |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | 1960 (Greenville, North Carolina) |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
| Key people | Wilbur Hardee, Founder |
| Products | Fast food (including hamburgers, french fries, and milkshakes) |
| Website | www.hardees.com |
Hardee's is an American fast-food restaurant chain, located primarily on the Eastern half of the United States in Midwest, Southeast and East Coast regions. There are several stores located in the Middle East. Hardee's had a few stores in Hong Kong before it ceased to operate in December 27, 2006 due to problems with franchising rights.
Company History
Its fur fat peoples :)
Breakfast at Hardee's
Main article: Breakfast sandwichWhile Hardee's has experienced extensive changes in its lunch and dinner menus over the years, its breakfast menu has remained largely unchanged. As a result, Hardee's still retains significant customer loyalty for this time of the day. The average Hardee's restaurant generates 40 to 45 percent of its business from breakfast, and the median age of its breakfast customers is 45, as it is particularly popular among the elderly in the Southeastern states.
The core of the Hardee's breakfast menu are its biscuit sandwiches, reflecting the southern origins of this chain. The meats on these biscuit sandwiches vary regionally. Most Hardee's biscuits have traditional fare such as a sausage, bacon, or ham. More unusual biscuits with chicken fried steak or pork chop can be found in the southeast, but are more difficult to find in Hardee's outside this region.
Kids' Meals and premiums
Although the franchise would come to humorously criticize such concepts, Hardee's has conceived several memorable Kids' Meal toys throughout the past few decades. The 1980s featured popular, nonposeable figures of the Smurfs as well as Beach Bunnies. Renditions of other cartoon characters would later premiere, including the Ghostbusters and Nickelodeon characters.
Other popular licenses were garnered as well. Marvel Comics characters would be featured in the 1990 Marvel Super Hero Vehicles collection. And in the summer of 2000, DC Comics' DC Super Heroes finally found a spot in the Hardee's toy scene.
Possibly the most well known Hardee's premiums, however, would be the Dancin' Singin' California Raisins. Several collections of the nonposeable figures were produced in 1987, 1988, 1991, and once again in 2001. Traditionally, they would be available with the purchase of Hardee's cinnamon raisin biscuits.
Hardee's also marketed special Super Bowl celebratory pins in the early 1990s.
Hardee's advertising
In the early days of the take-over by CKE, Hardee's began to use the anthropomorphic smiling star logo that Carl's Jr. had used for many years. "The Hardee's Star", as it was now called, appeared in a series of commercials played by a dwarf in a costume likeness of the star. Norm MacDonald provided the voice for the Hardee's Star. For a time, many Hardee's locations even gave out free antenna toppers in the shape of the recently adopted star. The star remains Hardee's logo, but the mascot ceased appearing in the commercials with the advent of the Thickburger campaign. A new Hardee's logo was unveiled in 2006 that featured script lettering and further minimized the smiling star icon.
Thickburger campaign
Early commercials during the Thickburger campaign made a point of acknowledging and apologizing for the poor quality of Hardee's past cuisine and service. Later commercials demonstrated adults attempting to fit their mouths around the large Thickburger.
The point of most Thickburger commercials, however, is that most adults prefer to eat large, restaurant-quality hamburgers instead of smaller, allegedly lower-quality hamburgers sold by fast-food establishments targeted at children, in particular McDonald's. The commercials took the rival fast food chain to task for the quality of its food and because it offers toys with meals marketed toward children. One of the commercials depicted a pregnant woman enjoying a Thickburger and the announcer telling her to enjoy Hardee's while she can, since she will "be eating at McDonald's for the next 12 years."
Commercials that did not mention McDonald's by name overtly referred to the chain, such as an ad where a man works on a classic car while eating a Thickburger. The announcer then says that "it's awful hard for those other chains to fit a busted carburetor in a bag" and then says that Hardee's "has big burgers because men need big toys."
Hardee's cavalier marketing is not simply confined to burgers. Recent ads for its chicken products state that "we have chicken breast strips because scientists have proven chickens don't have nuggets" and another for its 1/3-pound chicken breast sandwich where a chicken walks around with a black "censored" bar over where its breasts would be if it was a human to burlesque music.
In 2005, Carls Jr. and Hardee's also pushed the envelope with a controversial commercial featuring hotel heiress Paris Hilton soaping up a Bentley in a skimpy bikini while striking poses and eating the Thickburger in a sensuous manner. Carl's Jr. aired the ad first, and Hardee's soon followed.
Menu Items
- Thickburger
- Monster Thickburger
- Big Twin
Notes
- "Good day, sunshine: music in the morning: whether you want to draw customers in or keep them moving, a good mix can set the pace - Ambience". Nation's Restaurant News. 2003-08-11. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
External links
- Hardee's official website
- Hardee's @ Review the World
- official site for Thickburger ad, including Paris Hilton's commentary
- 60 second Thickburger ad
- 30 second Thickburger ad
- Nation's Restaurant News, August 11, 2003
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| Acquired properties | Burger Chef |