El Bulli started its life in 1961 and over several years became the most called-for restaurant whose visitors waited for over a month to dine there. What made El Bulli so popular? This place amazed its visitors with practically everything, starting from the original design of the premises and ending with the meal that was served. Creativity, a limited number of customers, ways to serve the customers, unusual combinations of products, constant renewal of the menus, and use of the customers’ feedbacks are the 6 dimensions of the elBulli product; from these, unusual combinations of products and ways to serve the customers are the elements most sustainable and ownable by El Bulli and they, together with using the customers’ feedback are most important to transfer to any new products.
Creativity is one of the 6 dimensions is, perhaps, the most important. It characterizes the elBulli product best of all. Once Adria understood that creating is not copying, the restaurant became successful (Norton, Villanueva, & Wathieu, 2009). Creativity served as an innovation that helped Adria develop his product successfully (Trott, 2008) because his creative cuisine served as the best attraction for the customers.
A limited number of customers is another important dimension. People have always striven for the unattainable. The only fact that it was hard to get a table at the restaurant in question attracted the diners. To limit the number of customers (50 per evening, as in the case with El Bulli) is a guarantee that the restaurant will function for quite a long time, at least until new people stop reserving the tables, which is rarely provided the good quality of food and service.
One more dimension of the elBulli product is the ways to serve the customers. The visitors reported about the “unbelievably attentive staff” (Norton et al., 2009, p. 3) that instructed them on how to better eat the served dishes. Such service helps to retain the already existing customers and attract new ones.
Furthermore, unusual combinations of products are a dimension that is hard to overestimate. This is what elBulli products can be characterized by. The combinations of caviar and marrow or meat and fish can hardly be met at a traditional restaurant. It was namely the unusual blending of tastes that made Adria’s cuisine so specific and popular for people are always attracted to something unusual (Brown & Henkel, 2007).
Moreover, constant renewal of the menus is also an important dimension of elBulli products. The recipes were to be used for one season only (Norton et al., 2009) after which they were entirely replaced. This ensured the restaurant with new customers in the new season.
The final of the 6 dimensions is the use of the customers’ feedback which the waiters received when redesigning the recipes. Taking such feedbacks into account is the best strategy to stay close to customers (Timm, 2002) who most probably will come back to taste their variant of the dish.
Thus, it can be easily noticed that unusual combinations of products and the ways to serve the customers are the most sustainable and ownable elements of the elBulli product. These are the dimensions by which the product is recognized and which guarantee that the customers will return to the restaurant in this way sustaining the business of the owner. These elements together with lending an ear to customers’ feedbacks are important to transfer to new products (hotels and fast food) to make elBulli popular throughout the world.
Reference List
Brown, D.R. & Henkel, S.L. (2007). The non-commercial food service manager’s handbook. Ocala: Atlantic Publishing Company.
Norton, M., Villanueva, J., & Wathieu, L. (2009). ElBulli: The Taste of innovation. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Timm, P.R. (2002). 50 powerful ideas you can use to keep your customers. New York: Career Press.
Trott, P. (2008). Innovation Management and New Product Development. London: Pearson Education.