Global Campus students in London attended a strategy talk by the famous Hard Rock Café‘s Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Sarah Handy and Sales & Marketing Manager Zoe Clements.
The talk was in relation to the students’ final project, where they had to creatively redesign Wings Café into a contemporary networking hub/club for young entrepreneurs, with office and meeting room facilities. Students had previously carried out a research tour of other cafes in Piccadilly and Leicester Square, exploring differences in café design, layout, menu, facilities and service in preparation for their project.
Students were particularly interested in the café‘s interior design, which has developed over the years. The café’s original branch is located in Hyde Park Corner, near the University campus, and has since grown to 198 branches around the world. The décor began as some eclectic theme in the early 1970, and has developed into the current ‘rock museum’ design. Its main rock museum; The Vault, located at the basement of the original café; is a repurposed bank cellar that displays many popular culture memorabilia across time, with over 77,000 pieces of rock and pop collectables; the largest private collection in the world.
Handy emphasized the importance of branding in making a café successful in a crowded marketplace. She said brand identity was a key part of the Hard Rock chain, with merchandising playing a very important role. T-shirts, baseball caps and sweatshirts are a popular souvenir for café visitors, particularly since the merchandise displays the location of the branch visited.
Students also learnt the importance of indirect marketing, examples being of the cafes’ sponsorship of many music festivals like the Hyde Park/Hard Rock Calling, Hard Rock Rising: Battle of the Bands, and the Isle of Wight Festival 2015. The café also promotes an interactive relationship with customers, having a ‘Rock Wall’; an interactive screen where customers can zoom in on the various memorabilia. They also have a ‘Memorabilia Phone Tag’, a mobile app which gives audio details about the impressive collection of rock history, and ‘Vibe Hosts’; an audio-visual DJ who performs at each cafe.
At the end of the tour, students were given an exclusive tour of The Vault. The students were excited to see many creative pop culture items including fashion designs by top international designers and musical instruments previously owned by rock legends.
