Restaurants Need Delicious Branding, Not Just Delicious Food
On the face of it, a restaurant is a business primarily for serving food for customers to eat. However, most in the business know that it’s a lot more. It’s an experience, a night out, a dining event outside of what you would normally find in your home. It’s a lifestyle business, not just a food one, so a lot of work has to go into ensuring that it communicates its appeal beyond just the food that it’s serving. Here, we’re going to look at how to cook up a brand that does just that.
Create a warm welcome
Restaurants aren’t just businesses, they’re destinations. As such, you have to work to make it more appealing to foot traffic. Finding a great location for your restaurant is the number one factor, but there are ways to make it more notable and attractive regardless of location. Investing in unique (and sizeable) signage can grab a lot of eyeballs, as can having an exterior dining area (if you’re allowed the space for it). Even if you can’t have a few outdoor dining tables, try to extend the décor of the restaurant outwards, such as having lamps or potted plants by the door. Do what you can to draw attention to the restaurant while maintaining its aesthetic.
Invest in the aesthetic
As a destination, you also need to ensure that your restaurant has some sort of thought behind its décor and its atmosphere. There are a whole host of décor ideas that you can find by doing your research online. It’s a good idea to pair it together with the theme of the menu, which means that nationality specific restaurants (such as Italian, French, Chinese of Caribbean cuisine places) work well and lay a bit of groundwork for you to build on. However, those aren’t the only themes in town, and there are plenty of ways to add a unique twist to it. Using typography, adding unique wall art, and investing in unique light fixtures are all ways to add your unique spin to the place.
Pay attention to the little details
Your décor isn’t the only thing that contributes to the mood of the place or to how well saturated your brand is. Talking about the brand in particular, you want it tastefully placed throughout the experience. Having your own customized menus is the best place to start off with, as well as logos, drink mats, and glassware bearing the logo of your restaurant. Your brand isn’t the only detail you should be paying attention to. Look at how other factors such as music play into the atmosphere of the venue and ensure that you’re picking fitting choices. When it comes to music, you don’t want to play anything with too strong a melody or overly loud vocals, as they can prove more distracting and get in the way of conversation, which your place should be facilitating.
Whip up a website
Of course, your brand extends beyond the physical premises itself. It’s about how well your restaurant is known, the reputation that it has, and what mood or thoughts it elicits in those who know of it. Your marketing can play a key role in determining how strong your brand is. When it comes to marketing, you can skip the online world, nowadays, and the best base camp for online marketing is a website. Enlist a restaurant web designer to create an online home for your brand. Here, you can highlight your menu, share content for those that love food, and make it much easier to find your business online. You might even want to invest in the route of making your website contribute to the service, such as some restaurants that allow customers to book a reservation, order a meal, and pay for it before even setting foot in the venue.
Spread the word
Your online marketing should not, however, be reserved solely for the website. One of the most powerful tools for growing visibility, getting great word of mouth, and building customer loyalty is social media. There are a whole host of restaurant marketing ideas that are perfect for this platform. For one, it works well as a customer support platform, but is also a great place for sharing and platform boosting positive receptions and reviews. If you’re not already on social media, it’s time to make the move.
Make it easier to be found
When you’re thinking about online marketing, you should also think about how people might come across and find your restaurant for the first time. When looking for a place to eat, people are just as likely to use Google as anything else. Improving your search optimization efforts can ensure that your restaurant is the first one that they’ll see when doing just that. High search rankings offer your brand visibility, but there’s also a level of trust that people put in search engines like Google. They’re more likely to recognize the legitimacy and prestige of whatever brands hold onto those top spots.
Don’t fear the critic
Yes, critics can be merciless, but if you don’t provide the kind of food and experience that is likely to get good reviews, then your brand is never going to grow to the heights that you want it to, anyway. Do what you can to get your restaurant visited and reviewed by critics and bloggers. A good reception from those who are trusted as authorities can quickly see your foot traffic growing exponentially. Mind how you react to any mixed reviews as well. Unless they’re blatant falsehoods, show some respect and dignity, and try not to draw too much attention where it isn’t necessary. You could end up turning a footnote into an entire chapter of your brand’s history with the wrong reaction.
Of course, a professional restaurant quality brand has to be backed up by the food and, just as importantly (if not more so), the kind of service that your customers are going to expect. Put the effort in of your brand is going to blow over like it’s made of paper.
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