Amid Chi-Chi’s comeback, experts cite examples of other brands’ successes

By CAT SANDOVAL
WISH-TV | wishtv.com

Chi-Chi’s, with more than 200 restaurants nationwide, closed more than 20 years ago.

Now it’s staging a comeback. Chi-Chi’s will reopen in 2025. Menu items have not yet been released.

The chain has had a storied past with links to an outbreak of hepatitis A.

Despite a checkered history, brands can make a comeback, marketing experts say.

According to CNN, the chain closed in 2004 after one of the largest hepatitis A outbreaks. A total of 650 people were sickened and four people died. The outbreak was traced to green onions served in their free salsa at a Pittsburg location.

Alexander Mitchell, an assistant professor of marketing at Butler University, said, “Nostalgia is a really powerful emotion for consumers.”

Mitchell says companies with a storied past will have to rebuild trust and commitment with consumers. Other companies have done it before by tapping in to good memories of the past, and introducing themselves to new customers, a new generation. “Converse, who used to be big, disappeared and re-emerged, and tapping into nostalgia especially young Gen Z consumers, you’ve got Polaroid, Crocs, Old Spice.”

Mitchell said, “The really interesting thing about brands that have some sort of notoriety or negative impact is the time delay. You need time for things to go by, and for people to accept the situation and, in some ways, move forward from it.”

Mansur Khamitov is a marketing professor at Indiana University. He says even some of these companies were on the verge of bankruptcy, yet managed to successfully re-introduce themselves and make a big push.

Khamitov said if companies can define their brand beyond the scandals, they can move on. He says Johnson & Johnson is a huge example. The maker of health care goods is thriving regardless of the scandals around its drugs and products. “If you’re able to acknowledge and recontextualize history, own up to it, and sometimes it takes a good apology and admitting your faults is how as a company can move on and improve and hit the market.”

The son of Chi-Chi’s founder, Michael McDermot, is determined to honor his family’s legacy by bringing the restaurant back and reintroducing it as a dining experience with “the same great taste and Mexican flavor.”

George Vlahakis is a former Chi-Chi’s customer. “I would really love it if they brought back the prices.”

Vlahakis says he remembers good times with friends at Chi-Chi’s in Bloomington years ago. “It was a really great place to go. They had happy hour with the fishbowl margaritas, ‘buy one get one free,’ and they had this amazing nacho bar with queso cheese.”

This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/i-team-8/chi-chi-s-comeback-nostalgic-brands-successes.