Whether you own or manage one restaurant, multiple restaurant locations, or an entire restaurant chain, one of your key concerns should be maintaining a consistent brand image. Your brand and reputation sets an expectation for customers even before they walk through your door. Establishing and maintaining your restaurant brand image helps you market to your intended audience and ensures that the customer experience is consistent from one visit to the next, and from one location to another.
Think about your restaurant(s) and see if you can accurately answer these questions:
- What type of restaurant do I have? (fine dining, fast casual, fast food, etc.)
- Who is my target customer? (busy executives on lunch break, couples out for a romantic evening, families with kids)
- What kind of food is my restaurant known for? (comfort food, steaks, Tex-Mex, sustainable vegan)
- How do I want guests to feel when they enter my restaurant? (spoiled, welcomed, energized)
- How do I want customers to describe my restaurant to others? (great value, friendly service, amazing dishes)
If you can answer these types of questions in a consistent manner, you’re on the right track. Once you know who you are catering to and how you want them to feel about their dining experience, you can develop a brand that embraces that. Need a few tips to get started? Here are some restaurant brand image elements to consider.
Restaurant Brand Image Checklist
- Décor – A fine dining establishment should show attention to detail in its décor. Guests will pay extra to feel special. Conversely, a fun family restaurant should have décor that encourages laughter and play.
- Website – Many restaurant owners do a great job with restaurant décor and signage on site, but neglect to incorporate their brand online. More and more guests are visiting websites before they dine to view menus, specials, and more. Let guests what to expect when they arrive, before they arrive.
- Advertising – Your advertising should complement your brand. Some fine dining establishments make the mistake of offering deep discounts or two-for-one specials, which sends a mixed message.
- Training – Your staff is your brand, and they need to know exactly what is expected of them to maintain your restaurant brand image. Energized servers who joke with guests are perfect for a family eatery, but are not appropriate for a fine dining establishment where servers should be attentive but mostly unobtrusive.
- Menu – Dining options need to fall in line with who you are and what your guests expect. If you tout yourself as a lively sports bar but have high-end (and high-priced) steaks on the menu, you’re likely to turn off your customers. The look of the menu should also incorporate your brand colors and any imagery you use on your website or other advertising materials.
Keeping a consistent restaurant brand image, especially if you manage multiple restaurants, is not an easy task. If you’re swamped with administrative tasks and always stuck in the back office, it can be difficult to keep an eye on staff and manage all the moving parts of maintaining your brand.
Consider implementing restaurant management software to take some tasks off your plate so you can focus your attention on what’s important. If you’d like more information on how this software can help free up your time, contact Decision Logic at info@decisionlogic.co.
