You might hope that delicious food and great customer service is enough to make a success of your restaurant, café, or bakery. Unfortunately, that’s not the case anymore if it ever was. The brand plays a huge role in business, particularly in the food business. It’s all about standing out, creating a scene, and complimenting the food with every choice.
Presentation Is Half The Battle
Let’s start with the most important of all the business’s branding elements. The décor itself is crucial. It’s about more than looking clean or organized, however. It’s about setting a scene. For instance, if you specialize in jerk chicken and cocktails, then a Caribbean theme, full with vinyl’s of reggae music and fake palm trees might be just the perfect fit of aesthetic.
Think about your food, think of the style of the locals, and think about the inspiration you’ve seen from other managers. We all admit we borrow and take what works, learning it to use it in our own business. What matters more than whether or not it’s an original idea is whether or not it manages to stand out amongst the competition.
The Right Garnish
Décor can help you design your aesthetic, but there’s a bigger point to be made about the image of the brand itself. The menus, the napkins, the letters, it should all have a predetermined style. Use your décor as inspiration, but start from one place, in particular. Start by making your own DIY logos to experiment with the right iconography of your team. Find a snappy name to go along with it. Then make it consistent throughout the entire brand.
Something To Take Away
Not all your branding efforts have to be directed towards new customers you’re trying to win over, either. You can see just as much success targeting those who already like the brand. If, for instance, you choose to go the content marketing route with a blog. You can write tips on certain ingredients, pieces of kitchen equipment, or scales to keep them coming back again and again even if they’ve already stopped being a paying customer. Not only does it display your excellence, but it gives another added bit of value to your more loyal customers.
Stay Fresh
You might think that you’ve found the perfect look, logo, and name. However, at some point, those same elements that once worked so well are going to work against you. Your logo, your site, and your aesthetic might look dated compared to some of your newest competitors. Avoiding that is all about taking steps to refresh and renovate every now and then. Half-a-decade without changing your brand for instance, is far too long.
A good restaurant or good bakery might find its feet without the right branding, but the impact when you get it right is simply too huge to miss just because you were uncertain of where it would go. Business is all about taking risks. If you can’t take a risk with your brand, you’re certain to be doomed after years of obscurity all the same.