Restaurant Branding crash course: 6 know-hows for developing your restaurant's brand

In a fiercely competitive restaurant industry, it has become more important than ever to build and maintain a brand to navigate this market.

The brand isn’t just limited to a logo, a color coordinated ambience, it is much more than that. Branding for a restaurant is to generate recall within the minds of customers, it's an identity that people will associate the food and taste with.

So, for a restaurant it is extremely crucial to undertake branding efforts and ensure they go in the right direction. A restaurant can hire branding or advertising agencies, so that they can bring out the niche in the communication, but usually, only budgets on the higher end would afford that.

So, how do restaurants go about it? What should the process of branding commence with, and what follows commencement? Below is a small list of things a restaurateur can use to brand his restaurant the right way. Here we go -

Know your restaurant values -

While planning to have a lot of advertising and branding activities for your restaurant, it’s important to put down what your restaurant stands for. WHat are the value systems you want to advertise and market about and exactly what resonates with your customers. Eventually, putting out content for your restaurant like banners, images or even blogs, the value systems being talked about in all these communication mediums must be the same.

Food -

This goes without saying, that food has to be one of the star attractions of the restaurant. Nobody enters the restaurant business thinking that they could serve average food to their customers and see their restaurant business growing. Food is a very important part of the restaurant success equation and no restaurateur should ignore the taste, texture and presentation of dishes at their business place.

Checkout competition -

It makes the right sense to checkout major competition in your local area, research about their target customers, and their offerings. Doing a complete SWOT analysis of local competition would help you know what is already being offered to your prospective customers and what you should stay away from.

Similarly, checking out successful restaurants who have similar offerings like yours helps you analyse what they did right and what has helped them attract most of their customers.

Immense emphasis on customer service -

the whole objective behind building a brand for your restaurant is to create recall, trust and the desire within customers to come back to the place.

In the hospitality industry, customers look forward to the quality of service and they would want to come back if they enjoyed the experience at your restaurant.

So, while developing your brand strategy for customer service, keep your customer and their conveniences always at the back of your mind. The purpose of a business is to make the experience a memorable one and the customers happy. If you fulfil the purpose a customer will always come back to you and your brand for more.

Crystal clear Branding and marketing strategy -

After zeroing in on a few of the elements of branding about your restaurant, there comes a time to be specific. You have to narrow down your food, your timings, and the kind of customers you wish to cater to.

Once you have decided on these specific things, it is time to set yourself apart from the competition you have narrowed in.

So, how do you cater to your customers differently? Do you have a seamless delivery or ordering from anywhere experience? Or, are you a 24 hour open restaurant for your customers?

Once you narrow these things down, it’s time to create a mission statement and send it along on mail, flyers and anywhere else your potential customers may find it.

Using technology to your advantage -

The hospitality industry has recently seen an influx of new technology such as koisks, softwares that help make reservations and order ahead and even drone deliveries. These tools not only make the experience of ordering with the restaurant a pleasant one, but it’s also memorable. So, technology for some restaurants can also be a unique selling point that many people will be interested to try out.

Announcing new softwares, new technology changing the ordering and customer experience, will help you stand out and make a recall value for your brand.

The process of branding for a restaurant may sound like a tiresome and tedious task, but proper planning and regular efforts in the direction ensures constant progress. Are you in above your head with this one? Contact the experts at - info@restolabs.com