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Mixing In Softly
Without Diluting Its Identity, Hooters Adds Spirits
For 23 years, Hooters restaurants have made a name primarily on wings
and beer, with wine available on the menu as well. Scratch that.
Hooters had more than made a name; it’s grown a phenomenon that now is
as far reaching as including a casino resort in Las Vegas and even an
airline under the Hooters emblem.
And still, the brand is absolutely, keenly aware of the importance,
as the saying goes, of dancing with the one who brought them. That is
to say, Hooters’ leaders have not lost sight of the age-old marketing
concept of “who we are.” And Hooters, to most consumers, is beer, wings
and friendly, attractive girls.
But importantly, Hooters — as shown already by the aforementioned
casino and airline — also knows that a brand can expand its offerings
and still stay true to who and what it is.
As cocktails pervade consumer tastes, Hooters could not ignore the
profit potential of adding liquor and mixed drinks to its beverage
program. In a deft plan heeled in marketing savvy, the brand with the
bright orange, controversial brand name that makes a splash in every
market it enters actually gave its cocktails a soft introduction,
location by location. The idea was to avoid blurring “who Hooters is”
but quietly say, “... and we also have this.”
“Spirits are on the rise,” says Christine Krenos, beverage director
of Hooters Management Corp. “A lot of restaurants we compete with serve
a full liquor bar. A lot of people said, ‘Why didn’t you do it sooner.’
We didn’t want to change who we were, and we didn’t want to become a
bar. We wanted to remain a family restaurant — that serves spirits.”
Far from switching gears to follow trends, one might say that
Hooters instead added yet another gear to its already successful
package. Since liquor was new territory for the brand, ready successful
package. Since liquor was new territory for the brand, Hooters did what
any self-respecting but cautious brand would do: testing.
“Our first test store ran for six months and was very successful
and opened everybody’s eyes,” Krenos says. “It just took off and keeps
climbing.”
Krenos says the initial cocktail menu, in early 2007, was somewhat
blind; Hooters had a hunch that its guests would enjoy cocktails and
some frozen drinks and offerings other than just Jack & Pepsi.
“I’m revising it for January 2008, and the nice thing is I can look
back now and really have a better idea of what our guests are looking
for,” she says.
Store by Store
Krenos is not at liberty to speak too much about the forthcoming
2008 menu, but the 2007 “surfboard” menu included the Hooterita (the
house Margarita) the Sunshine State of Mind and other specialty drinks.
A coaster program helped alert guests to the drinks available, with
each coaster profiling a certain drink.
“A lot of our guests were still coming in unaware that we had (a)
full (selection of) spirits,” Krenos says. “Once we’re nationwide,
there will be more marketing going on. It’s one store at a time, and
then three weeks later we roll out (spirits) at another store.
“We’re taking it slow and making sure our training programs are in
place and we take the time to instill the program. We’ve got a lot of
great employees we had to train to be bartenders.”
While the idea was tossed around that Hooters should hire
bartenders already trained, Hooters felt training from within would
help stay true to the Hooters identity.
“We have such great girls who are a part of our concept and know our
concept, so we trained them to be bartenders,” Krenos says. “They’ve
done a great job
so far.”
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