The Background
The Butchers Club Group launched in April 2013 at Tin Wan, Aberdeen as a butcher’s shop, a private dining room and a space for cooking classes. A masterpiece of a group of passionate chefs and butchers who together have created a truly unique concept based around high quality dry-aged beef have since received numerous awards, been named “Best Steak” and “Best Burger” by both local and international publications and bloggers and received a mention in the Michelin Guide.
The beef is sourced from one of three different suppliers sourced from the USA and Australia. Each farm raises their cattle to different specifications, resulting in very different flavour profiles. The Butchers Club then dry-ages each cut of beef at their own facility on Hong Kong Island for different time periods to highlight the unique flavours of each steak.
After dominating Hong Kong’s private dining scene, the brand quickly expanded (due to the high demand of loyal steak-loving customers) to a second venue. The spacious industrial space in Wong Chuk Hang opened in late April 2014 and acts as both a private dining room and a large-scale event space. The 7,000 square foot indoor space has a dining room that seats up to 150 people and an additional 7,000 sq ft rooftop that will accommodate parties of up to 400 guests.
Soon enough, the brand grew even more with a new concept: The Butchers Club Burger opened in Wan Chai in June 2014. The Butchers Club Burger opened a second branch in Central in December 2014, a third in Tsim Sha Tsui a year later and a fourth at Tai Koo Shing in the Spring of 2016. Now, along with the four Butchers Club Burger locations in Hong Kong and one in Singapore’s Clarke Quay, an event space, private dining room, public cooking classes, numerous seasonal public events and an online butchery, The Butchers Club has just launched The Butchers Club Steakhouse in Bali’s Seminyak.
The Challenge
After two very successful years on Wellington Street in Hong Kong’s Central neighborhood, the second location of The Butchers Club Burger was forced to move from their popular (and heavily trafficked) address. The owners quickly found a corner spot on the nearby Stanley Street, a pedestrianized zone dominated by traditional dai pai dongs (open-air food stalls and eateries) known solely for Cantonese “cart noodles,” milk tea and quick meat and vegetable dishes cooked in woks. The team was sensitive to the character of the historic street that was home to some of Hong Kong’s oldest and most famous local street eateries.
“We are trying to blend in, not change it,” says Jonathan Glover the MD of The Butchers Club. “We are confident that we can attract some of the local customers that frequent the dai pai dong stalls to try our burgers as well as give back by having some of our regular customers try the stall’s offerings too. The area should become a melting pot of flavors and cultures and we are excited to be part of it.”
In addition to settling amongst the legendary dai pai dong establishments, the task of convincing fans of The Butchers Club Burger to venture from their typical walking routes as well as enticing new burger lovers to visit the Michelin Guide-recommended (in the Street Food category) burger joint was going to be a challenge.
The Solution
The Butchers Club Burger went off the beaten Western food path and never looked back. The team embraced the new street, found ways to support the neighbors, introduced secret menu items that reflected the area for that one Butchers Club Burger location and create a fun marketing campaign that kept to the brand’s cheeky personality. This location became the new hub for media tastings, photo shoots, limited time chef collaboration menu launches and special events (such as the Hong Kong Magazine anniversary after party).
The How
Our integrated efforts launched months before The Butchers Club Burger’s grand opening with the limited time availability of The Burger at another Central restaurant concept from the group called Steak Frites. We kept the customers guessing about where the new location would be while introducing steak fans to our burger and vice versa. A month out, we created dim sum burger basket stickers which were distributed around the city and inserted into media packets during other tastings and events. Once people started to ask what Butchers Club Stanley Street was, we began releasing illustrations of recognizable Butchers Club staff in very local settings and our logo in the form of neon street signs above a dai pai dong street across our social media channels. When the restaurant was ready for a soft launch period, we added a restaurant microsite, and behind-the-scenes time lapse videos of our teams creating the new space. Local media and social influencers were treated to early tastings and they reciprocated with positive digital, print and TV coverage, plus drool-worthy social posts of the restaurant’s Stanley Street-only secret menu items.
Katie Kenny 