21.1 Introduction
Your restaurant can have the best food in the country, but without proper branding, marketing, decor, and promotions, you will certainly struggle. There is a lot that goes into branding a restaurant, and once you settle on a brand, you must market that brand to your target customer, design a decor that reflects this brand, and promote the brand. This takes time and work, but if you are successful, your restaurant will succeed.
It will take a lot of work to get the restaurant out and into the minds of the masses. Once this occurs, there is still work to be done as you want to ensure that the people keep coming back for more. By learning more about restaurant brandings, marketing, promotions and decor, you will have a much better chance of not only bringing in customers, but also keeping them, and this will be the secret of your success. This module will take you through the branding, marketing, promotions and decor information that will help your restaurant thrive and grow in the months and years to come.
21.2 Branding Basics
What do you think of when you hear the words Tesco, Barclays, or Costa Coffee?
You certainly recognise the name, but you also likely think of a particular feeling, television advert, or experience you have had with the chain. It does not matter if you love or hate the particularbrand, what matters is that you know and recognise them, and this is due to branding. When done correctly, anyone can recognise a brand even if they cannot read, such as a child, or cannot speak the language. The general population knows who you are, what your food is like, and what type of emotional response the brand will illicit.
Creating a brand is not always easy, and most people must put a lot of time and effort into it. Branding is not always positive, either, and you could find that you are fighting against that, at times, too. Though there is a small possibility that you will have some success without a brand, it is a gamble to do so. Instead, use of the proper branding tools can bring you success. You do not need to invest millions of pounds into this; you simply need to go through a process to create your brand.
21.3 Find Your Brand's Purpose
As you begin to create a brand for a restaurant, you must find your brand's purpose.
Brainstorming is an excellent way to do this, and it is the first thing you should do. Take notes and write down the answers to the following questions:
What Does This Restaurant Represent?
Think of several phrases or words that speak to the theme of your restaurant or concept. Family- friendly? Hip and modern? Fine dining? Ethnic?
Why Do You Serve This Particular Menu?
Think about why you serve the particular food that you serve. Do you simply like the food you serve yourself? Do you serve seafood because your restaurant is on the coast? Does your chef have specific training in a certain style?
Why is Your Restaurant Important?
Think about the emotions associated with a restaurant. Is your focus on creating a place that has a family-feel? Do you want your customers to feel excitement at trying new or unusual food? Are you more focused on creating a place where friends can meet after work? Do you want your customers to feel emotions such as sophistication or elegance? What about warm and inviting?
What are Your Accolades?
Have you, your staff, or restaurant received any accolades, recognition, or positive customer feedback? Use this to your advantage when coming up with a brand. Is there a common theme in what your fans say about your restaurant? Use this information to create an attitude, slogan, or other design.
21.4 What Goes Into a Restaurant Brand?
There are several things that go into a restaurant brand, and by examining them, you can better design and build up your brand.
Your Restaurant's Name
The name of a restaurant is extremely important, and helps to create a first impression. Based on the things you want to achieve, it is important to think about the name, and how the name reflects the goal of the restaurant both now and in the future.
Your Restaurant's Logo
Not all restaurants have a logo, but if you want to grow, franchise, or add more locations in the future, a good logo should be considered a requirement. Once your logo is set, however, it is set, and there can be backlash if the logo changes.
Your Restaurant's Slogan
Like a logo, a slogan is not totally necessary, but it can be very helpful as a restaurant grows and develops. A good slogan will differentiate you from your competitors, and it can help to give a focus to your company and how you want your restaurant to be perceived.
The Colour Theme of a Restaurant
Colours are very important in a restaurant, and some colours, such as warm colours, can even stimulate the appetite. The design and colour of a restaurant can play an important role in how the restaurant is perceived. Knowing how you want your customers to feel when they step foot into your restaurant will help you settle on a colour scheme.
The Dress and Attire of Restaurant Employees
The way employees of a restaurant dress is also important, and it is part of your brand. If your employees are not discernible from your patrons, this could create a problem. Restaurant uniforms should also reflect the theme of your business. For instance, if your restaurant has a pub-like feel, wait staff in suits and ties may not be the best choice. Alternatively, if you have a fine dining restaurant, your wait staff should not be too casual.
The Customer Experience
What do you want your customers to experience? Do you have a particular thing you want them to feel? This also goes into restaurant branding, and once you know how you want them to feel, your staff will have guidelines about the image your restaurant will convey.
Restaurant branding is easy for some, because they have a clear concept, but in most cases, it will take some deep thought and focus, along with looking at goals and strategies, to focus on the restaurants brand.
21.5 Finding Your Voice in Restaurant Branding
Once you think about your restaurant's identity, you must find the voice of your brand and let the masses hear it.
Your staff, social media presence, website, and more will help you to create this voice:
Use Your Staff
There is no better voice for your restaurant than your staff. If they have an understanding of the brand and like the brand, they will have a better idea of what is driving it, and then will take ownership of delivering the message. Focus on consistency when using your staff as a voice, and reinforce how you wish for them to communicate.
Use Your Website
Often, a customer's first impression of your restaurant is through your website, and the feeling a person gets from viewing this site should be the same feeling they get when walking into the door of the restaurant. Though you will never make a lifelong customer solely from your website, you can certainly lose customers by having a bad website. Do not cut corners when building your website, and if necessary, hire a professional to design the website for you. Remember, most people will check your website for a menu or other information before a visit, so the more informative your website is, the better.
Use Social Media Account(s)
Social media is also a wonderful voice for your restaurant, and should be a careful consideration. It should also share the same voice as the other resources, and should reflect your restaurant as well as possible. For example, if you are a restaurant with a chef, you probably want to skip the emoticons and silly tweets, but if your restaurant is a fun-loving meeting place, these things are appropriate.
FACT
1 out of every 3 restaurant searches are mobile, but only 2 in 3 restaurants in the UK have a mobile friendly website!
Source: fographic
21.6 Write a Mission Statement for Your Restaurant
When you first open a restaurant, it will be busy.
People want to see a new place, they want to taste the food, and experience the staff. The challenge, however, is to keep the seats full in the months and years that follow. One way to do this is to create and stick with a mission statement. This statement will create a foundation for decision making, and will eventually translate into a consistent experience for all guests.
If you have never worked with any brand in the past, using a professional to work with you to write your mission statement is a good idea.
If you decide, however, to write a mission statement in-house, choose a team member who has strong leadership and organisational skills. This will help the rest of the team stay focused on the task.
When you begin to write the mission statement, you will probably find that the team has many suggestions, and you may even become overwhelmed when you have to narrow them down.
Try to find a common thread and remember that these statements are not meant to explain everything you want to say to customers. Instead, look for feelings and words that are popular among your team, and look at the big picture.
The goal is to have a mission statement that all staff members can use as a tool for reference when making any decision that may affect the restaurant. Less is more when writing a mission statement, and they should be concise, simple and easy to understand. Finally, if you do not know where to begin when writing a mission statement, look at examples from others. You can even take the lead from larger restaurant chains to see what they have chosen for their mission statement.
21.7 Marketing Your Restaurant
Marketing strategies are an important part of success, and without it, a restaurant will never thrive. Today, there are both online and offline ways to market a restaurant:
Search Engine Optimisation
One of the easiest ways to market your restaurant online is to use search engine optimisation. You can have the most beautiful website in the whole of England, for instance, but if the website is not correctly optimised, people will not be able to find it. To be optimised, the website must meet certain criteria including containing certain keywords, images, videos, and links.Search engine optimisation is not easy, but if done correctly, it can greatly increase traffic to your website, and from there, into your restaurant.
Social Media Marketing
A restaurant's presence on social media, such as Google+, Twitter, and Facebook is very important, and you should use them regularly to promote your restaurant. If you succeed with this, you will certainly improve your business and increase your profits. Make sure to post interesting content and images to your profile page at least once a week. New dishes, for instance, should be announced via social media along with photos or even a video clip.
You can also use social media to offer coupons, hold contests, or even post daily specials. Customers will feel as if you care about them, which is important for any business.
Create a YouTube Channel for the Restaurant
You may have heard that a picture is worth 1,000 words, so what can you expect from a video? Choosing to create a YouTube channel for your restaurant is an affordable and easy way to share short movies about your restaurant. Showing the Saturday night atmosphere, your head chef in action, or even a quick tour of the facilities are all good ideas for YouTube videos. Remember, YouTube videos also appear on Google, which means it will also help to enhance your website views, too.
Design a Mobile Application for Your Restaurant
You may have heard that guest behaviour is changing, and according to the latest research, about 75 percent of smartphone users use their device to look up information about a restaurant, and up to 50 percent of these users search whilst on the way to the restaurant. If you have an app, however, your guests can easily access your restaurant's information.
Run an Email Marketing Campaign
When it comes down to reliability, you cannot go wrong with using email to build up customer loyalty. A small business, such as a restaurant, should aim to spend about 15 percent of the marketing budget on email, and this is an excellent investment to make. If you choose to start an email campaign, make sure that you are building up a database by asking your customers for their contact information and check your email at least once a day. A reply should be sent within two days, but one day is best.
Printed Promotional Materials
The tried and true method for promotional materials is to use printed materials including brochures, business cards, and flyers. If you choose to use this type of promotion, make sure you work with a professional company that has a history of creating this type of material.
Newspaper, Television, and Magazine Advertising
Sending out regular press releases is also a great way to market your restaurant, and this is especially the case when you have or host an event, have a new product, or promotion.
Participate in Food Festivals and Events
There are many popular food events across the country, and if your restaurant has a chance to participate in them, you should. Not only is this a great way to market a restaurant, it gives you a chance to see what your competitors are doing and to expand your customer base. Make sure your restaurant stands out from the others, offer free samples of your food, and talk to people as they come to see your wares.
Loyalty Marketing
Customer loyalty has been touched upon throughout these modules, and you can take this loyalty to the next level by combining it with your marketing plan. For example, offer guests a free entree when they dine at the restaurant for the seventh time. This is a great way to say 'thank you' to your guests, and research shows that restaurant loyalty programs can boost business by about 35 percent. There are several different loyalty programs out there, so make sure to do some research to determine which is right for your restaurant.
Offer Daily Specials or Happy Hours
Having a daily special or happy hour is an excellent way to bring more people into the door at times when business may be slow. Offer discounts on certain foods and drinks during this time or offer two drinks for the price of one. You will be amazed by how popular these daily events can become and people who come in for happy hour and like it, are likely to return at other times, too.
Use Delivery Packaging for Marketing
If you offer delivery to your customers, make sure to ensure that the packaging is promotional. Modern packages should be used as a sales tool, and originality and quality is important. At a minimum, your packaging should have the name, logo, website, or telephone number available.
21.8 The Importance of Restaurant Decor
Restaurant decoration was covered in an earlier module. However it is important to reflect on it again in relation to the overall branding of a restaurant. People dine in restaurants in order to experience something unique, and are looking for something special that they cannot experience at home.
One way to do this is to provide a very unique atmosphere where people can feel comfortable and socialise with others. If people enjoy both the food and the atmosphere, they are much more likely to experience an emotional connection to the restaurant, which is a strong prerequisite to create loyal customers. There are several aspects of a restaurant that you should pay attention to, and all of them can help to create a boost in business and customer satisfaction.
Lighting
When thinking about the lighting in a restaurant, it is important that you match your design concept, and remember that light that is bright, dramatic, or flashy is usually a mistake as it can cause customers to feel over-stimulated. Soft and low lighting will help to create an atmosphere of comfort, and it will help the dining area to feel more intimate and private. If you have a restaurant that is cosy or have a fine dining restaurant, table lamps and candles work very well.
If your restaurant is more casual, has a zany theme or promotes an atmosphere of fun, brighter lights are more appropriate, just make sure it is not too bright. Also, make sure that your lighting is consistent. If the foyer is dimly lit, the dining area should be too, as it can be a shock to go from one lighting extreme to another.
Tabletop Decor
The tabletop is something that many customers will take note of, and may even study as they wait for service. So, when choosing your tabletop supplies, choose decorations and dinnerware that will go well with the rest of your decor as well as your food. Some of the things that you may add include vases, glassware, dinnerware, candelabras, and table linens.
Dinnerware is the more important of these, and it must be chosen carefully as it will affect food presentation. High end establishments should choose fine china with subtle or luxurious decorations, but ceramic dinnerware may be a better choice for casual restaurants. When choosing colour, you should mostly consider only off-white or white dinnerware, as you do not want to distract from the presentation of the food. However, if your restaurant has a playful concept, you may find that brighter colours work best, as they lend to the fun atmosphere.
Music in a Restaurant
Many restaurant managers choose to add a soft soundtrack in a restaurant, as they know that customers can feel uncomfortable in restaurants that are silent. This is even more common in restaurants that have small dining areas, as they may be afraid that conversations will be overheard.
In order to help a customer relax, you should try to pipe ambient music into the dining area, but it is imperative that it matches your restaurant's concept and overall feel.
How important is music in a restaurant? There have been several studies on music in restaurants, the results of these studies show that music with an upbeat tune, at about 120 beats per minute, help to promote a faster turnaround. Studies also show that playing classical music will increase spending at a restaurant, as patrons will feel more sophisticated and wealthy. Make sure that the music you play is enjoyable to customers, and also ensure that you have the rights to play the music you choose.
The Ceilings and Walls in a Restaurant
You also must take time to consider the colour and design of the ceilings and walls of a restaurant. Some paint colours, such as green, red, and brown, have been shown to stimulate the appetite. Alternatively, blue, purple, and black can slow the appetite. Leaving the walls white may feel too sterile or stark for most diners, but it can work if paired with the right design elements, such as window treatments, artwork, or panels.
Walls that have wood moulding in dark or rich colours, such as forest green or maroon, help to create an intimate or relaxed atmosphere, but brightening the wood up with a colour such as red will bring a festive and fun atmosphere.
Some choose metal or plastic for the restaurant, but when used alone, it can create a very sterile or cold environment, similar to white paint. However, if you use a good design with plastic or metal, you will create an avant-garde or contemporary look. The addition of art is also important when choosing the decor in a restaurant, or you can choose to feature restaurant merchandise, which may help to boost sales. Finally, if you have a restaurant that has high ceilings, you may want to hang fabrics or racks, which will help to create a more intimate space.
Flooring in a Restaurant
The flooring is also an important part of the decor, and each type of flooring may create a different atmosphere or look in the restaurant.
For example, a wooden floor may add a warm glow to the dining room, as they reflect light nicely. A stone or tile floor may also reflect light, and will add to the charm of a restaurant. Some restaurant managers may also choose carpeting in a restaurant. Though carpeting is the most difficult flooring type to maintain, it also muffles the sounds within the room, which helps to create an intimate atmosphere.
Restaurant Acoustics
The sounds of a restaurant can make or break your business, so you want to make sure the acoustics are perfect. In some cases, you may want the dining area to be louder, so pair columns with wooden or tile flooring. This helps to resonate the sounds in the dining room, and also adds energy to the room. To create a quiet or more private atmosphere, adding carpet or a lot of fabrics help to muffle the sounds of customers and staff.
Plants and Water in a Restaurant
If your restaurant has some natural lighting, you may want to add flowers or plants to the area. Greenery is calming to patrons, and can add a charming, yet exotic twist to the design of the dining room. Flowers, on the other hand, can add an appealing scent and colours. Plants also add good energy to the atmosphere of a dining room. However, if you choose to add plants to a dining area, you must take care of them; make sure they are properly watered and trimmed when necessary. You never want dead or unhealthy looking plants in the dining area, as it can ruin your patrons' appetites. Water can also be a soothing addition to a restaurant, so consider water features such as a waterfall or indoor pool. Furthermore, studies show that having water running will help to alleviate stress and relax your customers and staff.
21.9 Commercial Kitchen Decor
The front of the house at a restaurant is all about making the experience good for the customer, but the back of the house decor is all about making the experience functional for the staff.
There are certainly codes that must be met in a commercial kitchen, and you must make sure that those are taken care of first. Once those codes are addressed, you can further set up the kitchen and back of the house to make things move as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
It is easiest to think of the restaurant's kitchen design as a puzzle, and all of the pieces must fit together in a safe, efficient way. However, you also want to make sure that the kitchen looks clean and tidy, especially if there is an open kitchen in your restaurant. The design of the kitchen will rely heavily on the space that is available, so keep that in mind.
The Receiving Area
All of the food and beverages that come into your restaurant will come through a receiving area. When thinking about the design and decor of this area, it is important to think about the type of food that is coming in. For example, does most of your product go directly into a cold or dry storage area immediately, or is there a need for refrigeration at the receiving dock? You want to make sure that you think about this step first, and then design the rest of the process from there.
Storage Options
Every restaurant should have a cold and dry storage area, but how much of this space a restaurant needs will depend on several factors. For instance, you should consider the space you are working in and how much food you serve to your guests.
Cold storage areas are those where items that must be kept cold are stored until they are ready to use. Freezers and commercial refrigerators are examples of this, but there are many types of both appliances such as walk-ins, roll-ins, glass-doors, and under counter models.
Dry storage is usually much more organised than cold storage areas, but usually because there is a lot more that must be stored in these areas. Health codes will also come into place in many cases, and you will have to make sure that you are using proper staking and inventory techniques.
Preparation Areas
How and where the preparation areas are set up will depend on how the kitchen flows. You will have to ask yourself and your staff how far or near do you want the preparation area to the fryers, ovens, ranges, or other appliances. Do you want a preparation area with refrigeration? Do you want to have your small appliances, such as food processors, easily accessible? There are several different types of preparation areas including those that are stationary and those with cold storage attached.
Production in the Kitchen
Part of the process of decor in the kitchen is the production factor. You want to think about steamers, ovens, ranges, ice machines, and much more. The space available may or may not limit you, and it is important to consider how the flow of this space will affect the efficiency.
Service Areas of the Kitchen
The service area of the kitchen holds all of the dishes, flatware, serving trays, drinkware, pitchers, etc. The servers will prepare for serving customers in this area, and there should be a hot-holding area where food can sit to stay warm before the server takes the order to the customer. The size of the area will depend on how much food is served and how many servers are using it.
Dishes and Cleaning Areas
The area for dishwashing is one of the most important of a commercial kitchen, and without it, the kitchen will fail to function correctly. You also must have a three-compartment sink for rinsing, washing, and sanitising if you are not using a dishwasher. There are many different types and sizes of dishwashers. If you have a smaller space, you may want to install an under counter dishwasher, but a larger space can use a door type or conveyor dishwasher. After the dishes are washed, they will need to be stored, so most people design the kitchen with this in mind, too. There should also be dish washing racks and sani-buckets in this area, as well as a cleaning supply closet, which should be locked if it contains chemicals.
Waste Areas
The last area to focus on in a commercial kitchen is the waste area. You must think about where you want your waste to go, and if you require separate areas for rubbish or recyclables. There may be requirements put into place by the waste collection company that works with your area, and you want to make sure that you have areas where waste materials, such as bin liners, are stored.
Module Summary
The branding, marketing and promotion of a restaurant will get potential customers into the door, but your decor and food will keep them there. These aspects should all work together seamlessly, and your restaurant will be much more difficult to manage if they do not. By taking into account all of the different aspects of branding, marketing and promotions, as well as decor, will make or break your business, and though you can do much of it on your own, you also should not be worried about reaching out to professionals, especially when it comes to marketing and promotion. As a restaurant manager, you will want to do all you can to ensure success.
.svg)
