TL;DR
CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc. is separating Carl's Jr. and Hardee's as distinct brands to maintain customer perception and integrity. The two franchises will focus on building on their existing images, with Carl's Jr. emphasizing its bold status and Hardee's expressing its authenticity and southern roots.
CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., owner of both Carl's Jr. And Hardee's will be making a conscious effort to separate the two brands. According to a recent article in Nation's Restaurant News, this turning point comes after nearly 20 years of attempting to merge the two.
One reason for doing this is maintaining the integrity of the customer perception of each brand. CEO Jason Maker said that the parent company sees "them as two regionally iconic brands. We think they have distinct customers, I often talk to people [and say] these brands grew up very differently. And they stand for very different things.”
The two franchises will focus on building on the key points of their existing images. For Carl's Jr., that will mean emphasizing its status as a bold brand while saying goodbye to advertising elements that may have alienated a female audience in the past. Hardee's will focus on expressing its authenticity and southern roots.
In this story
This story was originally published in 1851 Franchise on February 19, 2018. Burnaze summarizes and links to the original reporting.
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