August 18, 2015 |

Restaurant Branding: Get Your Kitchen Cooking

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Follow this advice to make sure your restaurant brand attracts your target audience and stands out in your marketplace.


Planning your restaurant branding project:


Whether you are launching a new restaurant brand or are seeking to freshen up your current look, engaging an agency that understands branding services is an important first step in getting you where you need to go to attract your target audience and ensure that your restaurant looks as great as your meals taste. Your brand materials should reflect your restaurant’s theme, core values, and culinary style. Identifying your target audiences during the planning phase of your branding exercise is the first step to establish how to construct a logo and overarching style that will resonate with your customers.


Restaurant Branding: More than just your logo


Your restaurant brand includes a lot more than just your logo. Though you may engage an agency that deals mostly with logo design and creative, make sure that they have your whole package in mind before they start working. Your restaurant brand includes color palette, interior design elements, marketing materials, and collateral that may be included for marketing and brand amplification purposes. If your agency isn’t asking to see the whole package, they should be.


Restaurant branding style guides:


Consistency with presentation of your brand elements is key. Make sure your agency creates a style guide for your restaurant that includes all aspects of your marketing outreach. The essentials include (but are not limited to):


  • Signage
  • Menus and standees (if desired)
  • Advertising materials (both on- and off-line)
  • Uniforms and merchandise
  • Wrappers, packaging, and carry-out branding
  • Collateral materials


Amplify your restaurant brand:



Your agency may also make recommendations for marketing and social tone as well (which is great!) as these elements will help you define your brand across all outreach and customer touch points and help solidify your brand as a big player in your marketplace. Keep your target patron persona in mind when creating your outreach plan and tee yourself up for success with a Marketing and Communications spreadsheet that will keep you on schedule and on message. Invest your outreach efforts in those online arenas where your target audience congregates for optimal results.


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Long time running…

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