Heino's Blog

Here's why Bennigan's and Steak and Ale failed:

1)  Metromedia had horrid and almost non-existent marketing combined with a complete disconnect from an ever-changing and fickle customer base.  Hey, I know you're owned by a 93 year old billionaire who probably still has you advertising on the back of Grit and Harper's Bazaar, but a lot of the blame still falls on the executives, especially the Chief Marketing Officer.  Might I suggest attending a seminar on leadership hosted by Jack Welch or Lee Iacocca and following it up by thoroughly reading the marketing tome by Jack Trout, Differentiate or Die?  Seriously, how are you different from TGI Friday’s, Chili’s or Applebee’s?  At least TGI Friday’s has a fiery red and bright white color scheme and has upgraded their look. Plus they hired Guy Fieri as a corporate “mascot”.  That’s how they’re standing out and they’re doing a fine job of it.  Bennigan’s, Chili’s, and Applebee’s all practically have the same drab shades of green and red.  Take note Chili’s and Applebee’s. You could be next.  It’s all in the presentation.

2)  The Spanish menu.  Stupidity at its highest level.  Why?  You more than likely offended a fair amount of your customer base who SPEAK ENGLISH.  I recall a spokesperson for Metromedia saying they haven't had any complaints.   Well, unfortunately, because of the PC movement, a lot of those customers probably didn't complain for fear of being labeled insensitive to immigrants.  They probably complained in a more quiet fashion - not going to your restaurants anymore.  Not to digress, but all immigrants who are spoon fed their native language on ATMs, on customer service lines, and on menus should be outraged.  Why should they be outraged?  That's how big businesses are keeping them down!  You can't advance in this society if you don't know the language!  Is it any coincidence that Mexicans in this country perform WAY MORE menial low-paying jobs than say, Indian or Nigerian immigrants?  Hmmm... could it be Mexicans are ENCOURAGED to keep speaking Spanish?!  Don't buy the politically correct idiots’ bill of goods when they say  everything in other languages are to help immigrants.  The liberals are part of the system that's keeping the immigrants poor and downtrodden. 

3)  Your Internet presence is lousy. The news featured on the front page of Metromedia’s corporate site (when it finally loads) shows a story from November 2007 on a Bennigan’s Sport restaurant opening up. Look, if you want to appear as though you’re on the leading edge in the industry and in front of your competition, you need to look CURRENT. You do not.  In all fairness, I did see an article in the "other news" section dated January 2008.  Guess what?  It's still not current.  Current is some sort of news at least once a month if not more frequently.  Even if it's something as simple as a menu change or a change in corporate staff, some sort of news needs to be coming out of corporate on a steady basis.

Of course, this will be ignored.  Why?  Who cares when you are making the salaries you’re making?  You’re just another bunch of overpaid executives proving that even C-levels can be clueless idiots - no better qualified to run a billion-dollar-plus restaurant group than me or Joe Six Pack.  If I had a shot at running Metromedia, all of your a$$es would have been fired a long time ago.  The writing was on the wall for years.  It's just a matter of time before you run the rest of your mediocre restaurants into the ground.