Iconic Brands Provides Branded Liquor For Iconic American Bar & Restaurant Chain
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Spirits Blogger
You can’t bottle the enthusiasm that Richard DeCicco, Chief Executive Officer of Iconic Brands, has for the company’s new Hooters Spirits but you can, apparently, put the Hooters brand into a bottle.
That’s what Iconic Brands has done with a lineup of branded spirits that’s like the front three starting rows of a NASCAR race: vodka, gin, rum (light and dark), tequila (silver and gold), American whiskey and the pole-sitter of them all, Hooters Heat Cinnamon Whiskey.
The spirits, with the iconic Hooters owl on the label, is being rolled out into Hooters corporate restaurants, franchises and eventually into grocery and liquor stories nationwide. It will be the house pour of Hooters, and it’s no bottom-shelf booze. In fact, DeCicco says customers will be “blown away” with the taste and quality of the spirits.
“The rum is a Puerto Rican-imported rum,” he said. “The dark is blackstrap sugar cane molasses aged in barrels. The gin uses select natural botanicals and Juniper Berries. The silver tequila is a rare, hard-to-find high quality blend of 78% tequila and 22 % agave. The Hooters Heat Cinnamon Whiskey is our top-seller and people have told us it’s their favorite cinnamon whiskey.
As we talked, I could almost feel the enthusiastic DeCicco rising out of a Hooters barstool ready to pound his fist on the bar. Then taking a shot of Hooters Heat Cinnamon Whiskey.
“Why not a Hooters’s branded spirit!?,” he proclaimed when asked why Iconic Brands created Hooters-branded liquors. “Hooters strives to provide the best to their customers, so why should it not be serving the best quality spirits out of the well? And why would customers then not want to put that spirt on their own shelves at home?”
That’s a very good point, as well as a being the basis for a shrewd business philosophy. To DeCicco, Hooters Spirits are just the ice cubes in the cocktail.
After all, how many times have you been to a bar or a restaurant – or these days, a craft brewery or winery – and not wanted to have what you were drinking in your own fridge or on your shelf? DeCicco envisions other themed and multi-location bars and restaurants wanting to have their own branded spirits. All provided, of course, by Iconic Brands.
“What we’re doing is disruptive and changing the industry,” DeCisso said. “Any bar or restaurant owner should be asking ‘why not promote my brand in my restaurants?’ There is value for the company and value for the customer. We (Iconic Brands) are the pioneers in this area.”
Regarding Hooters, DeCisso could not reveal now much those branded drinks will cost.
“The pricing comes from Hooters corporate, so I can’t give you specific price points,” he said. He did say, tho, that the drinks will be on the Happy Hour menu. After all, they are the house liquors.
Hooters Spirits will be promoted through various marketing methods, including the restaurant’s strong association with NASCAR, giveaways, social media campaigns and the iconic Hooters girls, who will be doing promotions in liquor and grocery stores across the country.
Imagine walking into your local store seeking a 6-pack only to encounter a Hooters girl wooing you to purchase a bottle of a dark rum from Puerto Rico or a Hooters-branded cinnamon whiskey.
Yeah. That’s the kind of branded marketing DeCisso seeks and, if the product lives up to its promise, is likely to achieve.
Website: hooters.com/spirits
Social: @HootersSpirits
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