Restaurant Branding Deconstructed
QUESTION FROM: Chef Franco in PA/NJ
“Our investor wants us to focus more on developing a “focused brand”. What does it really mean to build or develop a brand and how can we ensure that we’re doing everything we’re supposed to be doing without paying thousands of dollars to some marketing or branding expert?”
HH ANSWER:
tl:dr
Branding is essentially developing an identity for your business, product or service - and then promoting that identity through marketing, advertising and distinctive design.
In order to understand branding on a deeper level, I think it’s important to first understand that marketing, advertising and design are not only inexorably linked - at times...they’re can also be synonymous.
One of the most important aspects of restaurant marketing, IMHO, is branding through intelligent design. Intelligent restaurant design is, in many ways, the most significant portion of the marketing that occurs within a restaurant’s four walls.
It starts with choosing a concept, name and logo that differentiate your restaurant from every other one out there…and ends with your name, logo or building taking on an identity that’s synonymous with (or elicits the feeling of) your product, service and/or slogan.
But before you achieve that ends, your focus, after developing a concept and settling on a name, should be your restaurant’s interior design.
When a restaurant’s design is intentionally rooted in a thoughtful brand strategy, it can give an operator just enough of a competitive edge to facilitate guests not only identifying with the restaurant - but feeling like they belong there (See Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) - and that goes along way to ensuring sustainability.
So how do you begin to define your brand?
Ask yourself a few questions when beginning the arduous task:
What is your company's mission?
What are your company’s values?
If your restaurant had a slogan, what would it be?
If your restaurant was a character, how would they speak?
What are the benefits / distinguishing features of your physical space?
What are the benefits / distinguishing features and origin of your menu?
What do your guests already think of your restaurant?
What do want your guests to say about your restaurant?
What would you like to hear people saying about your staff?
What words would you like guests to associate with your restaurant?
What colors “go with” your concept?
If you have trouble answering the above questions, try thinking of your business as a daily and nightly performance.... with the front of your house as the stage and the BOH as “behind the scenes”.
Everything the guest sees, hears, smells and touches is part of the “set” and therefore must be consistent with regard to the overall plot of the show/performance.
If every guest is experiencing the same show, most should be able to walk away with the ability to explain, with some consistency, what the show was about.
The “about” in this scenario is: who you are, what kind of vibe you want and what it is you’re sharing (and I don’t mean “mexican food” or “molecular gastronomy” or comfort food” - I mean, on a much deeper level...i.e., what is it that you’re really selling at your restaurant? I.E., Is it Community? Family time? Value? Exclusivity? Sex? Adventure? Luxury? Fun? Escape... to a different place and/or time?
For some, it may be french modernist’s art studio in Montmartre. For some it may be a 1960s American diner, a pub in Ireland, an Italian villa in Bologna, a spaceship, an acid trip, a walk through a gallery, a forest, a mountain ranch in Colorado or a corner bistro in Paris... whoever you are and wherever you’re taking your guests... everything on the “set” needs to look like it belongs there.
Every aspect of the guests’ experience needs to, in some way, facilitate the suspension of disbelief the same way a filmmaker pulls you into their story with the set, actors, soundtrack, special effects, etc... only for you - it’s the façade of your building (which should stand out against the streetscape), the font and style of signage, your logo, door handles, decor, color palette, artwork, tables, china, silver, glassware, music, lighting, uniforms, promotional materials....everything right down to the ingredients on the menu, the font you use on that menu and the material that menu is made of.
It’s been scientifically proven that the subconscious mind’s impact on our conscious notion of taste runs incredibly deep. In fact, our individual personal biases are inexorably linked to our perception of food and therefore our individual preferences.
So, why is that important for restaurant owners and operators? It means that when guests are eating and evaluating the food you’re serving, everything around them is subconsciously influencing how that food tastes. In other words... they’re “tasting” more than just the food.
In order to be a successful restaurant, you need to serve more than just food.
That’s why great branding requires paying attention to more than just the physical stuff like tables, chairs and uniforms. It means delving deeper.
The most successful operators take branding far beyond physical design, FF&E and smallwares - they adopt a style of service, manage flow and encourage an inter-personal dynamic among staff and management that relates to the central theme or message and concept so that the consistency in message and feeling is so strong and multi-faceted that it’s virtually inexplicable to the common observer.
In a nutshell, all of these things working together create your brand...and these are the things you have to keep in mind when assembling your training materials, designing your space and staffing it as well.
I wrote an article on branding that details the numerous seemingly mundane elements that go into successfully branding a restaurant from a design perspective. I refer to the successful application of these principles as: “The Acupunctural Effect Of Holistic Design in Hospitality” and you can find it here.
Entrepreneur’s Encyclopedia says this about branding:
“Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.”
I hope that helps clarify things a bit.
Best of Luck and Regards,
Josh