Question

Open Wide and Say “Ultra”
In fourth place behind McDonald’s, A&W, and Burger King, Harvey’s, the Canadian quick-service
hamburger chain with more than 340 restaurants, needed a new idea in the mid-1990s. Harvey’s is
part of Cara Operations Ltd., the airline food services company that also owns the Swiss Chalet
chain of restaurants, approximately 100 Air Terminal Restaurants, and Summit Food Services
Distributors. Harvey’s had had new ideas before (open grill and fresh vegetables, for one), but these
had become old hat by 1995. Gabe Tsampalieros, Cara’s new president, who was a major franchisee
with 60 Harvey’s and Swiss Chalet restaurants, started working on the idea in October 1995, and by
the following month the mission was clear: “Create Canada’s best-selling hamburger.” Tsampalieros
and Harvey’s vice-president planned the launch of the new burger for May 1996.
Harvey’s began polling burger lovers across Canada in January 1996, first by telephone and later in
focus groups of 8 to 12 people. While the tradition of burgers had so far led to flattened-out,

Frisbee-like burgers that hung over the edges of the buns (giving customers the impression that
they were getting more for their money), feedback from the market produced another idea: go
thicker, juicier, chewier, and tastier. To bring this simple idea to life, Harvey’s brought in chef
Michael Bonacini, whose upscale Toronto restaurants had been a big hit. Bonacini’s challenge was not only to produce a tasty burger, but also to produce a burger that could
handily survive the fast-food process (mechanically produced, frozen for weeks, and shipped
around the country). Bonacini produced 12 “taste profiles”—from the bland to the bizarre—and
introduced them to the Harvey’s executives at a suburban Harvey’s training centre. This would be
the first in a long series of tasting exercises. (Bonacini thinks he ate 275 bite-sized burgers in a fourmonth
period.) Each of Harvey’s executives tasted a portion of the 12 unlabelled patties and ranked it for “mouth
feel,” taste, linger, fill factor, and bite. Exotic offerings (Cajun, Oriental, Falafel, and so forth) were
rejected, leaving three simply seasoned burgers on the short list.
McCormick Canada Inc., Harvey’s spice supplier, was employed to determine the final proportions
of seasonings and secret ingredients to replicate the taste of Bonacini’s samples in a way that could
survive the fast-food process. “They [the meat packagers] would give us a 500-pound batch—that’s
2,000 burgers—and we would taste them a couple of days after they had been mixed. Then we
would also taste them at one-, two-, three-, and four-week intervals to see how the flavours would
change,” said Bonacini. McCormick’s food technologists varied the seasonings by slight amounts
with different results, and each change was followed by testing. For two months, all of Harvey’s
head-office workers gathered before breakfast to test the newest batches; it became clear that the
May launch date was unrealistic, so they bumped back the launch to mid-September.
Though missing deadlines is rarely advisable, in this case it was fortuitous. On May 9, exactly one
week before the Page 147 original launch date, McDonald’s introduced the Arch Deluxe with the
most aggressive marketing campaign yet seen from McDonald’s.
As the burger making neared completion, Harvey’s turned its attention to choosing a name for the
new burger. The company considered several (the Ultimate, the Canadian, the Big Burger, the One
and Only), but settled wisely on the Ultra, a bilingual name. The company chose a foil packaging for
better heat retention (and because the traditional box would appear larger than the burger itself),
and re-initiated the advertising campaign, promoting a $1.88 price. Testing the burger in Calgary,
Sudbury, and Quebec, Harvey’s found customer reaction to be very positive (“It’s more like a homemade
burger,” “It has a steak-like bite”) but went through five more adjustments to the amounts
and mixing time of the ingredients.
On September 16, 1996, Ultra was launched and resulted in record sales, transaction counts, and
restaurant visits. With over a million sold in the first two weeks, the Ultra resulted in more than 85
percent of Harvey’s sales.
Since then, Harvey’s has introduced other types of hamburgers such as bacon and cheese, veggie
burger, and Big Harv Angus, as well as a chicken sandwich.
Big Harv, introduced in 2003, was an attempt to buck the trend of low-fat, low-calorie burgers
offered by the other fast-food restaurants. It had double the calories and fat of the Original burger.
Big Harv targeted male customers craving thick home-made barbecued burgers.
Cara has expanded its full-service restaurant offerings by purchasing the Kelsey’s chain and the
Second Cup chain. In 2004, Cara bought back its outstanding shares and became a private company.
In 2006, Cara sold Second Cup to Gabe Tsampalieros’s new company, Dinecorp Hospitality.

Questions
a. Identify the steps of the product design process used by Harvey’s. (Specifically, consider
market analysis, concept development, prototype development, and (external) testing and
validation).
b. Did Harvey’s use any other concepts discussed in the chapter?
c. Prepare a house of quality for Ultra’s design. Fill in four customer requirements. For each
customer requirement, determine a technical requirement and relate the pair using a check
mark. For each technical requirement, determine a reasonable target value.

Answer 1

1. Product design process used by Harvey’s

1. Idea Generation: Harvey needed a new idea in mid-1990. In the year 1995, he came up with the idea of the open grill and fresh vegetables
2. Idea Screening: Not involved as the single idea was though and selected for further development
3. Concept Development and Testing:
   1. Harvey’s used market survey though polling, telephonic survey, and focused group technique to gauge customer need.
   2. It also used Expert advice and simulated test marketing for developing product and testing it amount controlled group.
4. Market Strategy Development:
   1. Harvey’s used brand identity for recognition/ product name; and packaging concept to get attractive and heat retention foil packaging for the product
   2. Iterations in pricing and content mixing were performed based on customer responses
5. Business Analysis: Harvey’s was already into Fast food and Franchising business. So this step was not carried out.
6. Product Development: The product had been developed through iteration based on test marketing results and customer responses. Exotic offerings were excluded from the final product line. The final product line includes three simply seasoned burger.
7. Test Marketing: Simulated test marketing
8. Commercialization: Product was launched in Sep 1996 and resulted in record sales. Launched in Franchising medium from Harvey’s own stores.

b. Simulated Test Marketing

c.