Hardee's road to riches
We've all seen them, the Hardee's/Carls Jr. commercials. The ones that make you want to slap the skinny women that are in them who pretend to eat the 1,400 calorie burgers the fast food giant is pushing these days. (because you KNOW they're not eating them...)
In a time when McDonald's and Burger King are trying to be more health conscious, how in the world does Hardee's get away with selling you a $4.95 heart-attack on a bun? Easy, they're not number 1. Heck, they're not even #2 or #3. Although CKE Restaurants, Inc., the parent company of both Hardde's & Carl's Jr. has approximately 3200 stores nationwide, they're still not even in the same league with McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's. Nobody got famous making a movie about eating all the garbage Carl's Jr. peddles because it wouldn't be as sexy.
So, while nobody is paying attention, Hardee's has unapologetically become a heart clogging, cholestrol raising, media converging fool! Hey, if you don't believe me, just go to their web-site. Hardees You can check out “nutritional” information, watch a trailer for an upcoming movie, win an iPod, listen to music and more!
Hardee's is so sure they won't have the kind of backlash McDonalds has experienced, it even introduced a new Philly Cheesesteak Monster Burger earlier today. St. Louis Post Dispatch reports "Hardee's newest burger gives health critics plenty to chew on", but come on! This burger only has 930 calories compared to the 1,420 calorie Monster Thickburger Hardee's introduced last year, so what's the big deal? St. Louis Today
Although I can guarantee you I will never eat one of these creations myself, I have to say I admire Hardee's marketing approach. While McDonald's is back-peddling and trying to put as many healthy options as possible on their menu, Hardee's has an in your face attitude about its products and is using every means possible to promote them. I'm just wondering when Hardee's is going to hire some high priced athlete to start blogging on their web-site about food and sports like Subway did.
Comments
Very interesting post--believe me, I won't be trying one of those "heat-attacks on a bun," either, but that's (mostly) because I'm vegetarian!
At any rate, I couldn't help make the connections between Hardee's approach and the dilemma facing newspapers as they try to compete with blogs.
The similarity I see is that newspapers (like McD's and BK) are trying desperately to be something they're not. Customers can see through these fast food giants' attempts to be healthy (if you've read the nutritional content of their salads, you'd know most are far from healthy...the salad dressing alone often contains your daily requirement of calories).
The same goes for newspapers and other media (namely TV). They can't be blogs and it's pretty transparent when they try to convince us they are blogs.
Rather than trying to play catch-up (or is that ketchup), newspapers should revel in their uniqueness, just like Hardees does.
Perhaps Knight-Ridder can get Paris to browse through a newspaper while stradling the hood of a Jaguar...maybe that would help with sales (then again, maybe it wouldn't).
Posted by: Ranjit Arab | April 21, 2006 9:43 AM
The similarity I see is that newspapers (like McD's and BK) are trying desperately to be something they're not. Customers can see through these fast food giants' attempts to be healthy.
Lately, I've developed this consciousness as both a businessman and a journalist, which seem mutually exclusive at times. I want to figure out ways that newspapers can do well without compromising their integrity.
As a journalist and a businessman, I think newspapers should provide the witty, caustic writing of good bloggers.
However, maybe you're right to believe that blogging and newspapers can't share the same roof without destroying each other. Newspapers have embarassed themselves by trying to meld the two lately.
Posted by: Steve Lynn | April 25, 2006 2:32 AM