RESTAURANT OWNER: Is BRANDING Important?

Unless your business is the only one of its kind on earth, branding is crucial.  As competition increases, the need to establish your brand increases right along with it. 

BRANDING PROMOTES RECOGNITION

When you think about your brand, you really want to think about your entire customer experience…everything from your logo, your website, your social media experiences, the way you answer the phone, to the way your guests experience your restaurant.

YOUR BRAND HELPS SET YOU APART FROM YOUR COMPETITION

In today’s market, it is critical to stand apart from the crowd. You are no longer competing solely by your recipes or ambiance.  As guests become more educated on restaurant experience standards and expectations, they demand more. Restaurant Impossible, Bar Rescue and the plethora of cooking programs available on-demand have changed the consumer climate. There is no going back to the old ways in the old days, your brand reputation must be so entrenched in the minds of guests that no newly-built venue will shake your current customer base nor prevent you from adding to it.

A STRONG BRAND GENERATES REFERRALS 

People love to tell others about the brands they like. People wear brands, eat brands, listen to brands, and they’re constantly telling others about the brands they love. On the flip side, you can’t tell someone about a brand you can’t remember.

YOUR BRAND HELPS YOU EMOTIONALLY CONNECT WITH YOUR GUESTS 

A good brand connects with people at an emotional level, they feel good, perhaps proud, when they visit.

Dining can be an emotional experience for your guests and having a strong brand helps people feel good at an emotional level when they engage with your staff.

PREDICTING DAILY SALES REQUIRES A CRYSTAL BALL

"Last year we did $10,300 on the 3rd Thursday in September, this year we did $2,850. What happened? Did we do something wrong this year? Was there a fluke incident that caused the larger sales last year?"  

Unless you take remarkably detailed notes about what was happening at your venue as well as other local venues, schools, businesses, and government, review detailed hour-by-hour sales as well as which staff members were working in both front of house and back of house... predicting this year's daily or even weekly sales could be little more than a hope and a dream.  This is where branding comes home.  A strong brand will work to add enough consistency to your dining room that purchasing perishables and scheduling staff becomes more manageable.

BRANDING GENERATES REACTION

Psychologically speaking, our brains are very good at connecting imagery with experience.  As a young driver, I foolishly took a turn on a snowy day too fast and lost control, driving my father's Jeep CJ5 into an oak tree.  For years thereafter I would become physically ill at the sound of early Beatles songs, which is what was playing when I hit the tree. Also, although it was no fault of theirs, I came to hate the Jeep brand. On the other hand, an amazing first experience at a local restaurant has kept me coming back even though that experience was never repeated to the same degree.  It was just a magical combination of service, food, my companions, the music, and the mood that burned the image of the restaurant's logo in my mind, forever associating it with a great experience.

BRANDING IS JUST AS IMPORTANT FOR LET'S DO ENTERTAINMENT

Whichever game show you are hosting, the yellow "Let's Do" box with an arrow sets us apart.  We have worked hard to make that branding image represent high standards.  Sure, it's just fun and games, right?  Well, yes, and no.  When our goal is to bring people through your doors 50 or more times each year, year after year, it's not just fun and games, it's business consistency you can plan on.  As our competition increases with a shocking disparity of quality, style, and purpose, it is important that you utilize and promote our brand as a superior product as you would any other brand you carry.  (Does the sign say "Beer" or does it name a brand?  Does our site say you can play "trivia" at "a restaurant" or do we name our product and your venue?)