The Marketing Mix

Place
The marketing mix consists in total of 4 elements (Product,Price, Place, Promotion) which are often referred to as ‘the four Ps’. One of those four Ps is “Place”:
Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel through which goods and/or services are moved from the manufacturer/service provider to the user or consumer. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
In our case the Hard Rock Café operates in 38 countries throughout the globe.

The Café’s of the Hard Rock chain are located in:
Hawai, North America, Mexico/Central America, Caribbean, South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Japan and Australia/Oceania.

Hard Rock Hotels are located in the following cities throughout the world:
Bali, Chicago, Orlando, Pattaya and San Diego. In the near future (2010-2012) new Hard Rock Café’s will be opened in Atlanta, Hungary, Palm Springs and Singapore.

Hotels and Casinos of the Hard Rock Chain are available in:
Biloxi, Hollywood (Florida), Las Vegas, Macau, Tampa and Tulsa. In 2009 and 2011 new hotels will be coming soon in Dubai, Panama, Penang.

Since we are in Phoenix at the moment, you have to opportunity to visit the Hard Rock Café’s at the following address:
Hard Rock Cafe Phoenix
3 South 2nd Street, Suite 117
Phoenix, AZ 85004

If you are interested to visit the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas as well. Then head for the following two addresses:

Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas
4475 Paradise Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas (Strip)
Temp Address:4475 S. Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89169

Promotion
The Hard Rock Café uses different types of media to promote them self. They use billboards in crowded areas, short commercials on television, promotional events, organize meetings and auctions, a website for every store and a general one with extra information about the history and upcoming events, live concerts in the Café’s, Hotels or Casinos, actions with famous people (examples will follow later) and the most important one of all; they use the people who like to visit the Hard Rock Café, to create a worldwide known brand. They even organize weddings and parties in a Hard Rock theme.

These people are the fans of the Hard Rock Café; they like the lifestyle and were the merchandise with the brands on it. They want to see all the Hard Rock Cafés all around the world. Some people even go on a Hard Rock Café tour. These fans are very important and the Hard Rock Café offers them an All Access system. This system uses member cards. When a member spends money at the Hard Rock Café he/she gets points, with these points he/she can get free merchandise, drinks or food or a discount. When people spend more than $25 they always get a free gift. Sometimes this is a pin of a glass.

Examples
Some upcoming events of the Hard Rock Café are the pre party for U2, a live concert of Paolo Nutini and Bruce Springsteen and different CD releases. At this moment the Hard Rock Café has a collection of clothes created by Bon Jovi.
As you can see the promotion marketing of the Hard Rock Café is very important. They stay updated and through this strategy they keep the concept working.

Product
The product of the brand Hard Rock exists of 4 different things; the Casino’s, the Hotels, the Café’s and the merchandise stores.
There are 5 Hard Rock Hotels, 6 Hotels/Casino’s and there working on 7 new Casino’s worldwide. The hotels are of a high standard and they offer more than regular hotels. For example they offer a special package for people who want to celebrate an anniversary or a birthday.
The Hotels/Casino’s offers the same high standard rooms but you can also find stores and a spa.
There are 150 Hard Rock Café’s at the moment and they are working on 13 new café’s. The Café’s offer typical American food and drinks. In every Hard Rock Café you can find a store with merchandise. The collection that they offer is made of high standard material.

Pricing
The Hard Rock Café sells expensive clothes. When you buy a T-shirt or trousers, they are expensive, but what you get back is priceless. Merchandise that you buy there, you can use it for years and years and after years the merchandise that you have bought is still good.
The prices for events and concerts start average from $50 up to $150. This is normal for concerts. So The Hard Rock Café isn’t that expensive regarding the concerts and events prices from other places where they find place.
Regarding the prices in the café, it is expensive. For a glass Coca-Cola you pay like $3 or $4 dollar. But for food you pay a lot but you get in return a lot of food. So that is in proportion with the price.

People (personnel)
How do the personnel sell the products to the (possible) customers and how do they take care of the concepts quality?

For a company, the personnel are of main importance, to be able to sell their concept, their products. Very often the company chooses to train their people to sell products and treat the customers the way, they think that fits to their concept. This is also with the Hard Rock Café.

New personnel of the Hard Rock Café are selected on several points as friendliness, then being open to compliments as well to complaints and how they react on certain situations. Every single person who works for Hard Rock Café is trained to stand for the concept (examples will follow later) and to give the customer a once in a lifetime experience, which they will remember. Every visit to each Hard Rock Café is different and exciting. Whether you visit is for the first time or if you visit it on a monthly basis.

Example:
A man isn’t familiar with Hard Rock Café, but did hear his friend talking about the friendly personnel who helped him to get what he was looking for. The personnel helped him with a real smile (no dentist smile) on their face, without being annoyed that his friend looked about 50 minutes to decide which T-shirt he wanted. The friend also tells the man about the perfect quality of Hard Rock Café products.
“You know my friend I have bought some T-shirts between ten years ago and now and it’s still perfectly fitting. And the same bright colors as when I purchased it.”

The man visits a city where Hard Rock Café a café has and the man walks in. He entered a whole different world. It’s a café, museum, diner, store and a world all together. He decides to buy some souvenirs to remind him about his experience but he can’t find what he wants.
Here comes the Hard Rock Café personnel: “Hello, how can I help you? Or do you wish to look around a while?”

The man explains the situation and together they’ll go and find something he likes. When he has found everything, he leaves the shop with a smile on his face, a great experience and a memory to never forget.

When thinking of Hard Rock Café personnel, this list describes then a whole:
· Friendly
· Patient
· Open minded
· Sustainable
· Profit
· Service