The word branding comes up a lot when you start to look into marketing for pretty much anything, but especially for a small business such as a restaurant. Even a large business like a chain of restaurants. It's not so easy to understand what branding actually means sometimes: it's not just a logo, or a lovely colour choice in your dining room: branding is a complete concept, taking into account every single aspect of your restaurant business - or at least it should be. Sadly many businesses make terrible mistakes with the branding for their restaurant.
One crucial aspect of branding that many people lose sight of is that holistic nature. They make the mistake of thinking of branding as solely a design element. While the design of a logo or uniforms or the menu layout is important, the real key to successful branding is in applying it to every aspect of your business.
Branding is an Experience
As an example, you might have the greatest graphics in the whole world, but if your dining room ambience doesn't match in tone or style, your customers will wonder why they feel so confused. The goal of branding is to create an experience, to guide people mentally and emotionally to a state of mind that matches the evening (or lunch rush, or lazy breakfast) you’re offering. The design of your website and menu and the sign outside your location is step one, and gets people into the right frame of mind. But if they walk inside and it’s a tonal shift from what they were expecting, all your efforts will be wasted.
This means branding involves more than visuals. It includes the music playing, the mood lighting, even the attitudes of the wait staff. When you’re planning your branding with a designer, think about how it will translate to the real, three-dimensional world of your restaurant and take steps to ensure it’s represented accurately everywhere.
Staff Branding
Consider your branding when hiring your staff. Imagine the situation where an upmarket restaurant which prides itself on its extensive wine list and its organic farm-fresh ingredients, and the waiter who comes to take your drinks order is wearing torn jeans and an un-ironed T-short, speaking to customers in an annoyed and surly manner. The tonal whiplash is painful. Click here to find more about restaurant website design.
You have to brand your staff both visually – with the right choice of uniform and other appearance guidelines – and tonally, with training on how to present themselves and interact with customers so you achieve the sort of atmosphere in the dining room that you want. Regardless of whether the atmosphere is boisterous and loud, or dignified and quiet, the point is that it should be whatever it is you're trying to achieve, and what your branding has been designed to do.
Branding is not an easy thing to get right, and that's why most businesses hire professionals to assist with their branding requirements. But it is necessary, and when it’s done right – when it’s done holistically – it can be the most powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal.
Image courtesy blog.irtsociety.com
One crucial aspect of branding that many people lose sight of is that holistic nature. They make the mistake of thinking of branding as solely a design element. While the design of a logo or uniforms or the menu layout is important, the real key to successful branding is in applying it to every aspect of your business.
Branding is an Experience
As an example, you might have the greatest graphics in the whole world, but if your dining room ambience doesn't match in tone or style, your customers will wonder why they feel so confused. The goal of branding is to create an experience, to guide people mentally and emotionally to a state of mind that matches the evening (or lunch rush, or lazy breakfast) you’re offering. The design of your website and menu and the sign outside your location is step one, and gets people into the right frame of mind. But if they walk inside and it’s a tonal shift from what they were expecting, all your efforts will be wasted.
This means branding involves more than visuals. It includes the music playing, the mood lighting, even the attitudes of the wait staff. When you’re planning your branding with a designer, think about how it will translate to the real, three-dimensional world of your restaurant and take steps to ensure it’s represented accurately everywhere.
Staff Branding
Consider your branding when hiring your staff. Imagine the situation where an upmarket restaurant which prides itself on its extensive wine list and its organic farm-fresh ingredients, and the waiter who comes to take your drinks order is wearing torn jeans and an un-ironed T-short, speaking to customers in an annoyed and surly manner. The tonal whiplash is painful. Click here to find more about restaurant website design.
You have to brand your staff both visually – with the right choice of uniform and other appearance guidelines – and tonally, with training on how to present themselves and interact with customers so you achieve the sort of atmosphere in the dining room that you want. Regardless of whether the atmosphere is boisterous and loud, or dignified and quiet, the point is that it should be whatever it is you're trying to achieve, and what your branding has been designed to do.
Branding is not an easy thing to get right, and that's why most businesses hire professionals to assist with their branding requirements. But it is necessary, and when it’s done right – when it’s done holistically – it can be the most powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal.
Image courtesy blog.irtsociety.com