hooters philippines - misplaced brand equity?

the picture on the left, of hooter girls in the US tells you exactly what the hooters brand equity is or are. their hands are exactly on their brand equities.

and just to tell you that's exactly what the hooters brand equity is - i go to this forum where the men in it where all talking about the hooters manila opening. a few of them were actually planning on going to hooters to look at the brand equities and maybe get some food or drinks on the side.

pictures of the hooter girls manila were shown to them, and almost immediately, the men decided not to go anymore. that's how devastating the off-strategy brand equity of hooters manila have become - a turn off. they quickly lost triers when the brand equities were shown in pictures.

aside from the flatter than expected brand equities hooters manila showed, what caught the attention of the men where what appears to be another brand equity. look closely at the picture of hooter girls manila on the left. look at the shirt of the girls, way down below the hooters logo, where the text that says "manila bay". notice the distortion being caused on the text? if you lay that shirt flat on a surface, the printing will not show any distortion. the text only got that way after the girls wore the shirt. (with great apologies to the ladies on the picture. we're just discussing the merits of brand equities here.)

this is a great lesson in marketing and we know that very well - BE TRUE TO YOUR BRAND EQUITY or lose customers!

hooters philippines - brand equity that can't make mountains out of mole hills

we don't know if it was a soft launch, but hooters launched its first restaurant in the philippines at the mall of asia in pasay city. didn't see any ad or anything in media, just by word of mouth, specifically the mouths of men.

the interesting part is that just a few days, probably within hours of it's opening, pictures of the waitresses of hooters philippines circulated in the internet. and that got me thinking about a pair of errrr brand images and brand equity.

restaurants have them too. any owner of a restaurant will tell you, to succeed in the restaurant business, you need to be known for something. the more specific you are known for, the better.

in marketing research, there is a tool called word association where the respondents are shown or told certain words and the respondents playback the word that comes to mind upon seeing the word stimulus. this tool allows researchers to determine what are the images consumers associate with certain thoughts or concepts. for restaurants, it is almost always the food they are known for.

here's a short exercise. there are some restaurants that are a no brainer. please say the names aloud and say them quickly.

pancake house = pancakes; chicken bacolod house = chicken bacolod; lapid's = chicharon.

there are some that's not in their names, but its a quick answer. again, say them aloud and say them quickly.

ferino's = bibingka; starbucks = coffee; max's = chicken; jollibee = spaghetti; digman = halo-halo; aristocrat = chicken barbecue.

hooters = boobs!

what? boobs? is that food? well, boobs aren't food (at least not edible) but let's be honest here, when you say hooters, the first thing or first pair that comes to mind are female boobs. i don't think anyone has ever said steak, ribs, soup or salad when you say the word hooters.

simply put, perhaps to annoy the feminists, big female boobs is what hooters is known for. and it is these pairs of reasons that hooter girls are famous for and most probably the most photographed waitresses in the whole world. just like the hooter girl on the picture, what she has in front of her, a pair that are proud and smart is what hooters is known for.

that's really very hard to explain to my 10 year old son - "son, let's have dinner at hooters, i want to look at some things." but that's a separate story all together.

don't blame me, the hooters logo says the same thing, too. ok, so an owl hoots and that explains the image of the animal being there. sure, the eyes of owls are huge but the shape of the eyes and the two dots are conveniently placed in the middle of each eye and that tells us exactly what we are supposed to look at, well ok and to hoot at.

perhaps, this hooters logo should have PG13 rating?

that takes care of clearly establishing what the hooters brand equity is.

like the hooter girl counterparts in the US, the pinay hooter girls were also photographed extensively. and by looking at the poses of the pinay hooter girls, aside from how to carry a tray of food and having an intimate knowledge of the hooters menu, it seems how to pose for pictures has been part and parcel of the hooter girl training program. the poses of the pinay hooter girls are exactly the same with those of the hooter girls in the US.

BUT, there is a big difference. based on the pictures of the pinay hooter girls, it appears hooters philippines have failed to deliver on the hooters brand equity. it's a deflated brand equity that even the best of the underwires failed to compensate for.

if i was the asia regional marketing director of hooters, i would definitely tell hooters philippines is off strategy and off brand equity. recommendation - hooters philippines need to uplift and upgrade it's brand equity, if you know what i mean.

hooters philippines brand equity - it's a WAWAM!

here are some pics of the pinay hooter girls. with profound apologies to the ladies in the pictures.