What is a brand? You might think of the Nike symbol – but that’s just a swoosh on clothing or shoes. Maybe you think of the golden arches of Mcdonald’s or the cool shape of an Absolut Vodka bottle. These shapes and images remind us of feelings, flavours, sounds and memories – they’re much more than just colours and logos. The combination of experiences, presented in a consistent way, is what will create your memorable restaurant brand.
Standing out from the crowd is a challenging task for restaurants and cafes. You’re usually facing fierce competition from other restaurants and cafes, all vying for attention. To stand apart, you need a clear brand identity, an investment in marketing, consistent customer experiences, and willingness to adapt to changing trends. All built on a foundation of great service and quality products.
When a restaurant brand is developed with care, it can lead to increased customer loyalty and return visits and positive word-of-mouth recommendations. Loyal customers are also more likely to have a higher average spend.
Let’s look at the different elements you need to build a strong brand for your cafe or restaurant:
1. Know your target audience: Consider factors such as their age, income, lifestyle, and dining preferences. This helps you understand what your customers want and what they value, which in turn helps you create a brand image and messaging that appeals to them. Here are some ways to get to know your target audience:
Analyse your existing customer base: Look at your existing customer data to see who is already dining at your restaurant. This information can give you valuable insights into your target audience, such as their age, income, and location.
Check the competition: see who they are targeting and what strategies they use. You can then differentiate yourself from the competition by targeting a different audience or offering something unique.
Engage with your customers: Interact with your customers on social media, in-person, and through email to gather feedback and learn more about their preferences. Ask for their opinions on menu items, service, and the overall dining experience. For example, if your target audience is health-conscious millennials, you may want to offer more vegetarian and vegan options on your menu and promote your restaurant as a healthy and sustainable dining option.
2. Define your brand personality: Your brand personality is the set of human characteristics associated with your brand. For example, a casual family-friendly restaurant may have a friendly and approachable personality, while a fine-dining restaurant may have a sophisticated and more stylish personality.
Identify your brand values: What values do you want your brand to embody? For example, do you want your restaurant to be known for its commitment to sustainability, its friendly atmosphere, its community focus or its high-quality local ingredients?
Choose brand personality traits: Think about the personality traits that best align with your brand values. For example, if your restaurant is focused on sustainability, you may want to convey a personality that is earthy, nurturing, and responsible. If your restaurant is focused on fine dining, you may want to convey a personality that is elegant, sophisticated, and upscale with the lighting, furnishings and tableware.
Create emotion: The best brands evoke an emotional response from their target audience. For example, if you want your customers to feel relaxed and carefree, you may want to convey a fun and playful personality. The acoustics, furniture and music can have a strong influence on this.
Consistency is key: Once you have defined your brand personality, it is important that all elements of your brand reflect that personality. This includes your menu design, signage, marketing materials, and even the way your staff interact with customers. Be clear on the things that you don’t do – so many places sabotage their brand identity with careless use of different colours and fonts, or staff who don’t know the menu or follow service standards.
3. Create a unique physical identity: Your brand identity includes elements such as your logo, colour scheme, font, physical design, and furniture. These elements should be consistent across all touch points, from your menu, uniforms and signage, to your website and social media presence. You know a place has a strong brand identity when you visit somewhere else and say ‘this is just like xyz cafe…’ – the xyz design evokes brand memories.
Develop a logo: the centerpiece of your brand identity. It should be simple, memorable, and easily recognisable on and off the restaurant premises. It should work in black & white and colour.
Choose a colour palette: Choose a colour palette that reflects your brand personality and is consistent with your logo. Your colour palette should be used consistently across all aspects of your brand, from your menu to the signage, and the interior colour scheme.
Create a consistent design style: Ensure that all elements of your brand identity, such as your menu, signage, packaging, and website, have a consistent design style. This helps to reinforce your brand identity and create a cohesive look and feel. Put these onto one or two pages as your ‘brand guidelines’, so they can be shared with designers or other contractors.
Use typography carefully: Choose a font that reflects your brand personality, that’s easy to read and available online – Google has a wide variety of free fonts available that can be used in design services like Canva. Make sure that your typography is consistent across all materials, from your menu to your website.
4. Develop a mission statement: It’s a brief statement that defines your restaurant’s purpose, values and goals. It should be more than just words on a page – it should be a guiding principle that informs all aspects of your work, what sets you apart, and what you hope to achieve. It could be as simple ‘good food, good times and great memories’. Something you can put on the wall, on the menu and explain to new staff.
5. Create a consistent customer experience: Ensure that all employees understand your brand standards (especially service), and that they consistently deliver the same high-quality experience to every customer.
Train your employees: they are the face of your brand, and it’s important that they understand and embody your brand values and mission. Train them so they know all about your brand and offer consistent, high-quality customer service.
Develop a menu that is consistent with your brand: It should offer items that are consistent with your brand values and mission. If you’re focused on using fresh and locally sourced ingredients, your menu should feature these ingredients prominently. Or if it’s about fast and fresh for lunch, the food will be simple with rapid service.
Consistent branding across all locations: A consistent look and feel, including signage, menu boards, and restaurant décor. e.
Use technology to enhance the customer experience: You could use online ordering and delivery platforms, or customer feedback tools to respond to customer comments and concerns. Fast takeaway venues could be using kiosks for speedy ordering – they’re widely accepted by millennial customers. Text messaging sends people speedy information about last-minute special deals.
Continuously monitor and improve: Regularly evaluate the customer experience and make changes to ensure it remains consistent and in line with your brand values and mission.
6. Use social media effectively: It’s a powerful tool for building and promoting your brand. Use platforms like Instagram and Facebook to showcase your menu, feature customer testimonials, and engage with your audience.
Develop a social media strategy: Start by defining your goals – do you want to build brand awareness, drive traffic to your restaurant, or showcase your menu and specials?
Choose the right platforms: Not all social media platforms are suited to your brand and your audience. For example, Instagram is ideal for showcasing food and drink photos, while TikTok is a great platform for millennial engagement. Add LinkedIn if you’re after professional people.
Be consistent with your brand voice: This includes everything from the images you share to the tone of your posts – make sure whoever is handling social media is well briefed in the ‘look & feel’, colours and style of your brand.
Share engaging content: Share a mix of original content, such as photos and videos of your menu items, and user-generated content, such as customer reviews and photos.
Engage with your audience: social media is a two-way conversation – engage with your followers and respond to their comments and questions. This helps to build relationships and community.
Track and measure your results: Use tools like Google analytics and reporting to track engagement, reach, and conversions, and adjust your strategy as necessary.
7. Build customer loyalty: Loyal customers visit your restaurant or cafe more often, recommend it to others, and share positive reviews and feedback.
Communicate frequently: Share special promotions to encourage customers to visit your restaurant more often. Regular social media posts and email communication will be key drivers of this, plus occasional text message reminders.
Provide excellent customer service: Treat your customers with respect and provide them with a high-quality experience every time they visit your cafe or restaurant.
Listen to customer feedback: Encourage customers to provide feedback and take their suggestions and comments into consideration. Respond to negative reviews and use them as an opportunity to improve your customer experience – set up monitoring of Google, Facebook and Instagram reviews and respond promptly with thanks, whether it’s 100% positive or not.
Create a sense of community: Encourage customers to connect with one another by hosting events, offering group dining options, and creating social media communities. This helps to foster a sense of belonging and creates a positive association with your restaurant.
Continuously innovate: Stay current with industry trends and continuously innovate to provide your customers with new and exciting experiences. For example, you could introduce new menu items, host events, or offer unique dining experiences.
Time for Action: When your brand is developed with care and consistency, it can lead to much stronger recognition, increased customer loyalty, return visits and regular word-of-mouth recommendations. Loyal customers also spend more – they are your champions!
Don’t be intimidated by all the details above – start by focusing on one of the most important elements: consistency. Look for, reduce and eliminate all the things you do now that are inconsistent with your restaurant brand – maybe it’s fonts or colours, or disappointing service, scrappy uniforms or menu items that don’t belong with your culinary theme. Then work on #2, brand personality, and it will inform your work on the other parts. Ask for suggestions, and if you have a marketing student on your staff, get them to help. #5, customer experience and #6, social media will also be good for quick wins, as you develop a strong, memorable and impressive identity.
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What is a brand? You might think of the Nike symbol – but that’s just a swoosh on clothing or shoes. Maybe you think of the golden arches of Mcdonald’s or the cool shape of an Absolut Vodka bottle. These shapes and images remind us of feelings, flavours, sounds and memories – they’re much more than just colours and logos. The combination of experiences, presented in a consistent way, is what will create your memorable restaurant brand.
Standing out from the crowd is a challenging task for restaurants and cafes. You’re usually facing fierce competition from other restaurants and cafes, all vying for attention. To stand apart, you need a clear brand identity, an investment in marketing, consistent customer experiences, and willingness to adapt to changing trends. All built on a foundation of great service and quality products.
When a restaurant brand is developed with care, it can lead to increased customer loyalty and return visits and positive word-of-mouth recommendations. Loyal customers are also more likely to have a higher average spend.
Let’s look at the different elements you need to build a strong brand for your cafe or restaurant:
1. Know your target audience: Consider factors such as their age, income, lifestyle, and dining preferences. This helps you understand what your customers want and what they value, which in turn helps you create a brand image and messaging that appeals to them. Here are some ways to get to know your target audience:
Analyse your existing customer base: Look at your existing customer data to see who is already dining at your restaurant. This information can give you valuable insights into your target audience, such as their age, income, and location.
Check the competition: see who they are targeting and what strategies they use. You can then differentiate yourself from the competition by targeting a different audience or offering something unique.
Engage with your customers: Interact with your customers on social media, in-person, and through email to gather feedback and learn more about their preferences. Ask for their opinions on menu items, service, and the overall dining experience. For example, if your target audience is health-conscious millennials, you may want to offer more vegetarian and vegan options on your menu and promote your restaurant as a healthy and sustainable dining option.
2. Define your brand personality: Your brand personality is the set of human characteristics associated with your brand. For example, a casual family-friendly restaurant may have a friendly and approachable personality, while a fine-dining restaurant may have a sophisticated and more stylish personality.
Identify your brand values: What values do you want your brand to embody? For example, do you want your restaurant to be known for its commitment to sustainability, its friendly atmosphere, its community focus or its high-quality local ingredients?
Choose brand personality traits: Think about the personality traits that best align with your brand values. For example, if your restaurant is focused on sustainability, you may want to convey a personality that is earthy, nurturing, and responsible. If your restaurant is focused on fine dining, you may want to convey a personality that is elegant, sophisticated, and upscale with the lighting, furnishings and tableware.
Create emotion: The best brands evoke an emotional response from their target audience. For example, if you want your customers to feel relaxed and carefree, you may want to convey a fun and playful personality. The acoustics, furniture and music can have a strong influence on this.
Consistency is key: Once you have defined your brand personality, it is important that all elements of your brand reflect that personality. This includes your menu design, signage, marketing materials, and even the way your staff interact with customers. Be clear on the things that you don’t do – so many places sabotage their brand identity with careless use of different colours and fonts, or staff who don’t know the menu or follow service standards.
See also: Using Brand Personality to Promote Your Restaurant or Cafe
3. Create a unique physical identity: Your brand identity includes elements such as your logo, colour scheme, font, physical design, and furniture. These elements should be consistent across all touch points, from your menu, uniforms and signage, to your website and social media presence. You know a place has a strong brand identity when you visit somewhere else and say ‘this is just like xyz cafe…’ – the xyz design evokes brand memories.
Develop a logo: the centerpiece of your brand identity. It should be simple, memorable, and easily recognisable on and off the restaurant premises. It should work in black & white and colour.
Choose a colour palette: Choose a colour palette that reflects your brand personality and is consistent with your logo. Your colour palette should be used consistently across all aspects of your brand, from your menu to the signage, and the interior colour scheme.
Create a consistent design style: Ensure that all elements of your brand identity, such as your menu, signage, packaging, and website, have a consistent design style. This helps to reinforce your brand identity and create a cohesive look and feel. Put these onto one or two pages as your ‘brand guidelines’, so they can be shared with designers or other contractors.
Use typography carefully: Choose a font that reflects your brand personality, that’s easy to read and available online – Google has a wide variety of free fonts available that can be used in design services like Canva. Make sure that your typography is consistent across all materials, from your menu to your website.
4. Develop a mission statement: It’s a brief statement that defines your restaurant’s purpose, values and goals. It should be more than just words on a page – it should be a guiding principle that informs all aspects of your work, what sets you apart, and what you hope to achieve. It could be as simple ‘good food, good times and great memories’. Something you can put on the wall, on the menu and explain to new staff.
5. Create a consistent customer experience: Ensure that all employees understand your brand standards (especially service), and that they consistently deliver the same high-quality experience to every customer.
Train your employees: they are the face of your brand, and it’s important that they understand and embody your brand values and mission. Train them so they know all about your brand and offer consistent, high-quality customer service.
Develop a menu that is consistent with your brand: It should offer items that are consistent with your brand values and mission. If you’re focused on using fresh and locally sourced ingredients, your menu should feature these ingredients prominently. Or if it’s about fast and fresh for lunch, the food will be simple with rapid service.
Consistent branding across all locations: A consistent look and feel, including signage, menu boards, and restaurant décor. e.
Use technology to enhance the customer experience: You could use online ordering and delivery platforms, or customer feedback tools to respond to customer comments and concerns. Fast takeaway venues could be using kiosks for speedy ordering – they’re widely accepted by millennial customers. Text messaging sends people speedy information about last-minute special deals.
Continuously monitor and improve: Regularly evaluate the customer experience and make changes to ensure it remains consistent and in line with your brand values and mission.
6. Use social media effectively: It’s a powerful tool for building and promoting your brand. Use platforms like Instagram and Facebook to showcase your menu, feature customer testimonials, and engage with your audience.
Develop a social media strategy: Start by defining your goals – do you want to build brand awareness, drive traffic to your restaurant, or showcase your menu and specials?
Choose the right platforms: Not all social media platforms are suited to your brand and your audience. For example, Instagram is ideal for showcasing food and drink photos, while TikTok is a great platform for millennial engagement. Add LinkedIn if you’re after professional people.
Be consistent with your brand voice: This includes everything from the images you share to the tone of your posts – make sure whoever is handling social media is well briefed in the ‘look & feel’, colours and style of your brand.
Share engaging content: Share a mix of original content, such as photos and videos of your menu items, and user-generated content, such as customer reviews and photos.
Engage with your audience: social media is a two-way conversation – engage with your followers and respond to their comments and questions. This helps to build relationships and community.
Track and measure your results: Use tools like Google analytics and reporting to track engagement, reach, and conversions, and adjust your strategy as necessary.
7. Build customer loyalty: Loyal customers visit your restaurant or cafe more often, recommend it to others, and share positive reviews and feedback.
Communicate frequently: Share special promotions to encourage customers to visit your restaurant more often. Regular social media posts and email communication will be key drivers of this, plus occasional text message reminders.
Provide excellent customer service: Treat your customers with respect and provide them with a high-quality experience every time they visit your cafe or restaurant.
Listen to customer feedback: Encourage customers to provide feedback and take their suggestions and comments into consideration. Respond to negative reviews and use them as an opportunity to improve your customer experience – set up monitoring of Google, Facebook and Instagram reviews and respond promptly with thanks, whether it’s 100% positive or not.
Create a sense of community: Encourage customers to connect with one another by hosting events, offering group dining options, and creating social media communities. This helps to foster a sense of belonging and creates a positive association with your restaurant.
Continuously innovate: Stay current with industry trends and continuously innovate to provide your customers with new and exciting experiences. For example, you could introduce new menu items, host events, or offer unique dining experiences.
Time for Action: When your brand is developed with care and consistency, it can lead to much stronger recognition, increased customer loyalty, return visits and regular word-of-mouth recommendations. Loyal customers also spend more – they are your champions!
Don’t be intimidated by all the details above – start by focusing on one of the most important elements: consistency. Look for, reduce and eliminate all the things you do now that are inconsistent with your restaurant brand – maybe it’s fonts or colours, or disappointing service, scrappy uniforms or menu items that don’t belong with your culinary theme. Then work on #2, brand personality, and it will inform your work on the other parts. Ask for suggestions, and if you have a marketing student on your staff, get them to help. #5, customer experience and #6, social media will also be good for quick wins, as you develop a strong, memorable and impressive identity.
Want to get some 1 on 1 help? Talk to one of our coaches
Check the other useful blog posts on the Foodie Coaches website…