"In many ways, the Hardee's brand was built on the appeal of our biscuits, which are truly the gold standard in the industry,'' said Brad Haley, Hardee's executive vice president of marketing. "So, it made perfect sense to use the biscuit as a brand-building tool to help us transfer Hardee's equity and credibility at breakfast to other meal occasions. The new biscuit icon also can serve to let consumers know that we're going back to our roots by providing the kind of food quality and service levels that they associated with Hardee's in the past.''
The back to basics idea is carried through in the new tagline for the campaign: "Hardee's. Come on Home.'' In the ads, the biscuit sings the praises of a variety of menu items via a follow-the-bouncing-biscuit approach, which was designed to appeal to a broad cross-section of both current and potential customers. Initially, the campaign will spotlight food quality improvements on Hardee's Original Roast Beef sandwiches and Chicken Fillet Biscuit.
"While we take Hardee's renewed commitment to the basics seriously, we also wanted our commercials to be irresistibly fun,'' said Cliff Freeman, the advertising agency's chairman, chief creative officer, who closely supervised development of this new campaign. "The Hardee's biscuit is a positive symbol for a brand that has a lot going for it, including employees focused on giving their guests an experience that will make them want to come back again and again.''
Cliff Freeman and Partners was founded in 1987 by Cliff Freeman, Arthur Bijur and Peter Regan. Known for its strong creative work, Cliff Freeman & Partners garnered the "Agency of the Year'' award two of the past three years from Creativity Magazine. The group is, perhaps, best known for its Wendy's "Where's the Beef?'' and Little Caesar's "Pizza! Pizza!'' Campaigns, two of the most recalled advertising campaigns of all time. Current clients include: Budget Rent a Car, Staples Office Supply and FOX Sports.
Hardee's Food Systems, Inc., based in Rocky Mount, NC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: CKR) of Anaheim, Calif. CKE Restaurants is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as CKR. Hardee's operates a system of approximately 2,700 company and franchise restaurants in 32 states and 11 foreign countries.
