Page 178 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

85 VARY THE AMBIENCE

Most people in service industries know the importance of getting
the ambience right. Having the right lighting, the right decor, the
right smells, and even the right customers are all part of an old
story. Some ambiences encourage people to linger, thus exposing
themselves to more opportunities to buy, while others encourage
customers to eat and run—fast-food restaurants are typical of this
type of ambience.

But what happens if you have a business where there are many peaks
and troughs in demand during the day? How can the ambience
be changed?

The idea

Hard Rock Cafe is a music-themed restaurant chain. The restaurants
serve American-style fast food, to the accompaniment of rock
music, with the diners surrounded by rock memorabilia such as
Jimi Hendrix’s guitar or the rough notes for a Beatles song.

The restaurants are open pretty much all day, but of course there
are peaks and troughs in demand—at lunch and dinner times the
restaurants are hardly able to fit everyone in, and there are queues
down the street: in the afternoons, things quiet down a lot and the
restaurants empty. Hard Rock therefore use the music to change the
ambience: during busy periods, they play fast rock ’n’ roll, making
diners eat faster and even getting the staff to move more quickly.
Once the rush is over, the music slows down, and ballads or slow
songs are played. Those diners who do not have to go back to work
settle down for another coffee or a dessert, and a more relaxed

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