THERE'S a reason why Carl's Jr ads set the brand's slogan 'It's gonna get messy' alongside a massive trademark burger. In a rumble between food and brand, it's the brand that wins out.
Mason Tan, the man who brought Carl's Jr to Asia, attributes his company's momentum to the brand behind the burger joint. 'Brands drive businesses,' said Mr Tan of his company, Aspac F&B.
Since its inception in 2004, Aspac has launched four Carl's Jr restaurants in Singapore, including a 24-hour drive-through at Playground@Big Splash. Six outlets have been opened in Malaysia.
Then, in June this year, the company announced a partnership with BreadTalk Group to venture into the China market. The plans are voracious: 100 restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai within the next eight years, with the first before next March.
While the business sounds like it's riding the wave of mass market fast food brands like MacDonald's and KFC, it really isn't offering the public a cut of the common pie.
Its burgers are priced higher, the ingredients are more top-of-the-line (avocados and portabellos do not a generic burger make) and its restaurants target the young and trendy.
'We're offering customers a premium burger and a type of lifestyle. Right now, consumers in Asia are brand-conscious, image-conscious. So I'm giving them another brand to choose from. I'm offering them a choice.'
The element of choice informed his business strategy significantly.
Describing his pre-Aspac life as 'not enough time with the family, and all my time with work', Mr Tan shifted gears from work to lifestyle, whittling down his work life from a time-guzzling job as an asset manager in an NYSE-listed company to an entrepreneur who could choose his own time.
Franchising was the most attractive option for him. And Carl Kracher's Enterprises (CKE) Restaurants seemed like a natural choice because of its well-established brand in the west coast of USA and its willingness to bring a premium lifestyle concept worldwide.
But first, he had to win the bid to franchise Carl's Jr in Asia.
A glimpse at CKE's franchising requirement would make any company think twice. Any interested entity needed to be marketing-oriented, experienced in the service industry, but also have expertise in running a multi-unit outfit so property acquisition knowledge was key.
And its sights were large indeed: it wanted to eventually gain a competitive position throughout a region.
Carl's Jr's burgers are priced higher, the ingredients are more top-of-the-line and its restaurants target the young and trendy.
Aspac, being under the Fong Tat Group that had a vehicle parts, service arm and a real estate arm, won out 10 other F&B companies to secure the Master's Franchising Agreement. This, despite the lack of experience in the F&B line.
One thing that won CKE over? Aspac's ability to think regionally, in a stepwise manner.
'I've always had China at the back of my mind,' said the youthful Mr Tan.
'I pitched it to them that with Fong Tat Motors, we understood not just distribution but supply-chain processes. With Fortune Realty, we had a keen sense of location. I wanted to use Singapore to springboard into the rest of Asia and they too wanted to go into the region.'
But it wasn't and still isn't a one-way partnership, either. 'When I chose Carl's Jr, I chose a brand that I thought would have regional impact. Its taste was international, but it still understood that there needs to be some degree of localisation. I chose them because they saw us as an equal and a partner.'
Ditto its partnership with the BreadTalk Group. Mr Tan said that there were few firms that were suitable to partner with. He chose BreadTalk because of its similarity in its emphasis on brand positioning and its 10-year presence in the Chinese market would help in learning about Chinese consumer patterns.
'CKE had advised us to partner with a Chinese player initially. But because they have their own mindset, we wanted to partner with a team player so that it would be a win-win for everyone,' said Mr Tan.
For the time being, Aspac has its hands full with its China project.
He has teams scouting out locations in China, but like its first Singapore flagship in Marina Square, it is being picky and has not settled on an ideal location.
'Location matters, because it affects how your customers view you as a brand.
'If I set up the first Carl's Jr restaurant in Yio Chu Kang, people think it's a Yio Chu Kang brand. But if I put it downtown, it conveys immediately that I am offering a premium experience.'
Ultimately, Mr Tan's project is to 'evolutionise' the Asian F&B industry, by emphasising Western concepts like marketing, quality and training - three crucial ingredients for a successful brand.
His young team has absorbed these ingredients well. Youth is not a barrier to responsibility or success. Many of them have been with Mr Tan since Aspac's birth in 2004. He gives them autonomy in starting up more restaurants in Malaysia and also taking the Carl's Jr brand to other parts of South-east Asia.
His team is rewarded in turn for their creativity, not just by Aspac but by the larger CKE corporation. The advertising campaign thought up by the team in Singapore, with the slogan 'It's gonna get messy', has since been exported to Carl's Jr outlets worldwide.
From the looks of things, franchising has served its masters well, but Mr Tan doesn't see it being limited to just the food and beverage industry.
Looking beyond, Aspac is toying with changing its suffix from Aspac F&B to Aspac Hospitality. The company, after all, is all about brands that embrace a trendy lifestyle, and with Asia looking more brand forward, why should it stop at a dining brand?
This article was first published in The Business Times on Aug 12, 2008.
