Successful restaurants are built on excellent food and fantastic guest experiences, but it takes a strong brand to attract and retain guests. When people think about branding, logos and slogans often come to mind, but it goes much further than that. A restaurant’s brand is steeped into the fiber of every action, whether it’s a commitment to outstanding guest service at all interaction points or the installation of next-gen broadband to facilitate the guest experience.
Write a Clear Mission Statement
A strong brand starts with a mission statement explaining why the company was created. It should focus on the overall goal of the business, whatever that might be. Doing so is vital for your branding because it will often be strongly linked to the company’s unique selling point – the reason customers should choose your company over a competitor.
It would also help to consider the types of food you serve, the ingredients you choose, and what you want your customers to experience. What’s more, keeping your staff at the forefront of everything you do is critical – perhaps your goal is to create a company which is well-known for its staff training and welfare. All of these will form an ethos that is unique to your company, and from there, you should have a clear over-arching mission statement that immediately gets the point of your company across.
NOTE: The event below, Arts Alive 25, was held on September 8, 2023.
Conduct Market Research
Your mission statement has given a focus to your brand and a personality that customers can understand even if they disagree. From here, it is essential to conduct market research to determine your ideal customer and where they are. Your company’s ideals and business ethos will align with certain people and demographics. It is essential to build a relationship with these groups. For instance, you might learn that your target market enjoys receiving discounts in some form – in which case, you can include offers and coupons in your marketing and even build value for money into your branding.
Market research should never be static, businesses move quickly, and markets change constantly. You should be regularly examining your target market – firstly, to see if it alters at all and if new types of customers are coming to you, and secondly, to ensure that your target market does not change its behavior, for instance, moving social media platforms. Keep an eye on industry trends and the average salary for a restaurant manager to better understand your target market’s spending power and preferences.
Strong Online Presence
Once you have a good understanding of your target market and a strong mission statement, you can work on building a solid online presence. You need the others first, as your brand will otherwise be too weak to stand out in a very competitive arena, and you could easily be focusing a lot of effort in the wrong place. Social media and other online spaces are very demographic orientated – Instagram for image-focused marketing, and Facebook to target an older generation, for example. TikTok is an excellent platform for restaurants.
You should create a robust website that is updated regularly to build up your search engine rankings and use this to link all of your online content. Put links to your website in your social media posts, and refer to unique offers through your social media channels on your website. Only being offline is not an option for businesses these days; you need to update your content and interact with your customers regularly. It’s a small consideration, but you should find fiber internet service near you – running a restaurant is stressful enough without worrying about an internet connection.
Consistency
Consistency is important to create a strong brand and boost its image. Create a strong logo and visual design across your branding to encourage customers to remember your business whenever they see it. Your branding should be visible across your digital and print content and physical premises. This also applies to your branding ethos and the tone of voice used in communications. Having a formal black-tie restaurant but an informal tone of voice in communication will break your branding consistency and lead to a weak brand.
