Hard Rock International has a 40 year history with many new products and product lines. Early in its existence tee shirts and pins and glassware were the big sellers at every Hard Rock. In the past 10 years, Hard Rock has expanded its company from restaurants to hotels and casinos. The brainstorming for these ideas came from corporate marketer but the success came from loyal consumers.
The launch of Hard Rock brand hotels and casinos were risky investments but if successful would be lucrative. There was definitely brainstorming about the location of the first hotels because location is everything. The first locations were Biloxi, Chicago, Vegas, San Diego, Tampa, Orlando and Hollywood, Florida. All these had casinos by other companies surrounding them except San Diego and Chicago (San Diego and Chicago have no casinos). Building hotels in these places where there is already a demand is logical. There would be little test market analysis because Hard Rock would be fulfilling a need for casual accommodations near higher end hotels. Even if there were already hotels in in these areas adding competition can result in high profits.
Developing casinos would take expertise found outside the Hard Rock company. In 2006 Hard Rock had two established casinos in high traffic gaming cities; Vegas and Biloxi. After seeing high profits at both properties, naturally the company would want to develop new properties. A large amount of capital and the right locations would be needed to have success in the new market. In 2006, The Seminole Tribe from Florida purchased Hard Rock International for 965 million dollars. The Seminole Tribe had many years of experience with casinos and provided both the capital and the know how to develop Hard Rock’s casino business internationally.
After 40 years Hard Rock has is taking larger risk by developing new product lines to add profit to their bottom line. Since 2007 Hard Rock international has added seven hotel and casino properties with seven more coming soon.
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