Germany is known for its sausages and innovate technology. When I first went to Alexanderplatz, I was attracted by Grillwalker, which combines sausages and technology. Many Grillwalkers wore a tank of gas, with an umbrella jutting up from the device, cooking and selling bratwursts. I bought a bratwurst with mustard and ketchup since the price was so cheap – only 1.2€ per bratwurst.
Bratwurst from Grillwalker
Bertram Rohloff founded Grillwalkers in 1997 as a way of skirting city street-vendor permits in the city (Eats, 2016). On Grillwalkers’ back, they have a tank of gas which is enough to grill 500 sausages. At their belly is a grill full of sizzling wares. They have a movable refrigerator to protect the sausages and bread rolls. The umbrella jutting up from the device keeps off rain and anything the birds might drop. These are all the equipment for a Grillwalker!
A Grillwalker in front of the Alexanderplatz
Grillwalker has a very successful marketing strategy. Their marketing segmentations are mainly tourists, so they tend to choose places like Alexanderplatz, the Fernsehturm and the Berlin Wall, where most tourists visit. Grillwalkers wear orange shirts and the jutting up umbrellas are also orange. The Influence of Colour on Memory Performance shows orange has been found to have a greater effect on attention compared to the cool type of colours like brown and gray (Mariam Adawiah Dzulkifli, 2013). Grillwalker can easily attract attention by using orange color in popular places. Another competitive advantage for Grillwalker is price – only 1.2 € per bratwurst. They hang up the price sign on the umbrella so that people can easily see that. Normally, it’s 3€ to get a bratwurst in store. I interviewed some Grillwalkers and knew that they could offer a much lower price because they don’t need to pay for rents. However, weakness for Grillwalker is that some consumers are concerned about their food quality. People tend to think that street food like Grillwalker is more likely to have some food problems than the in store food.[1] In order to solve the problem, Grillwalker implemented a strict policy of choosing suppliers and training. I interviewed some consumers why they would like to buy bratwurst from Grillwalker. “Standing out there, they can’t hide a thing”, one Grillwalker customer said she liked to watch the sausages getting cooked. Consumers enjoy watching the cooking process and it is also a way to show the food quality to the consumers.
Timing is another competitive advantage of Grillwalker. It only takes three to five minutes to cook a bratwurst. Grillwalker customer can normally get a bratwurst right away or wait up to five minutes. One Grillwalker said that their customers were not only tourists, but also people who wanted to have a bratwurst on their way to work. Customers can choose to add mustard, ketchup, both or neither on their bratwurst. Grillwalker provides these two sources because they did a research and found that mustard and ketchup are the most common and popular sources used with sausages around the world. Grillwalkers interact with customers directly. In order to make sure they have enough passion for customers, Grillwalkers always take turns to work. They can receive suggestions from customers and make improvements immediately.
Grillwalker is ready to enter the global market. They already started selling equipment to South America and South Korea. They cooperated with the World Cup soccer tournament to strengthen their brands. They also changed to a rainbow umbrella to support LGBT. As more and more people know Grillwalkers, some copiers also show up, like Grillrunner. Mr. Rohloff has hired a lawyer to try to crack down on the competition, but they have not gone to court yet (Kulish, 2016).
Grillwalker used a rainbow umbrella to support LGBTQ
Will Grillwalker be a moneymaker? Let’s see in the future.
Reference (1). Kulish, N. (2016). Ovens on Feet Beckon Germans to Bratwurst. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 14 December 2016, from https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/world/europe/24bratwurst.html
(2). Mariam Adawiah Dzulkifli, M. (2013). The Influence of Colour on Memory Performance: A Review. PubMed Central (PMC). Retrieved 15 December 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3743993/
Author & Copyright: Yinwei Sun
Published Date: December 2016
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