Building Brand Awareness and Cultivating Brand Loyalty in the Modern F&B Landscape

In this age of social media, a restaurant is more than simply a place to eat. It is a brand that you are selling to your customers. A brand that – on top of having delicious food and excellent customer service – also provides your customers with an experience that they can share with their friends online. 
A strong and distinct brand identity can easily set a restaurant apart from its competitors. Your brand should have a unique combination of visual elements and messaging that resonates with your target audience, and should ideally be reflected in everything from your restaurant’s logo, to the colour palette you use, and even to the printing on your napkins.
Read on for five steps you should follow to build a world-class brand for your restaurant.

Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience & Create Your Value Proposition
The most important step before embarking on any rebranding is to identify your target audience and the value that you are bringing to the table – pun intended. Are you a cozy café where your customers can come to relax and enjoy a cup of coffee and some delectable pastries, or are you a make-your-own bowl joint that provides quick, healthy, and robust meals for your busy CBD customers?
The cozy café probably conjures images of a simple, wood-accented interior with natural sunlight, and the smell of roasted coffee beans in the air, while the MYOB joint likely has you picturing a long counter with multiple food preppers efficiently assembling bowls in under two minutes.
It is imperative that you are cognizant of your target audience and the value that you wish to provide to them, as it gives you a framework to follow and allows you to set expectations that you can meet.

Step 2: Create Your Branding Elements
While it is most effective to hire an experienced branding agency for this task, the cost of doing so can be prohibitively expensive for some, so here are the main elements to get your started:

• Logo Design: A well-designed logo is the cornerstone of a strong brand identity. It should be memorable, relevant, and visually-appealing.
• Colour Palette: Consistent use of a simple but cohesive colour palette can create a strong brand association in the minds of your customers. Choose 2-3 complementary colours that evoke the desired emotions from your customers, and align with your brand’s personality.
• Typography: The font you use should be stylish yet legible, and should be consistent with your brand’s overall aesthetic.
• Brand Voice: Develop a consistent brand voice that is used in all your communications, from your social media posts, down to the descriptions of your menu items.
• Brand Positioning: Are you a value-for-money restaurant? Are you an upscale restaurant with impeccable service? In an extremely saturated market, you need to carve out an identifiable niche for your brand. Whatever it is that your brand is providing to your customers, ensure that it is communicated and consistently delivered to your customers.
  Optional:
• Brand Story: If your restaurant has a unique element behind its inception, you can choose to craft a compelling brand story that connects with your customers on an emotional level.

• Mascot: If you think a cute (or cool) mascot would serve your brand well, feel free to incorporate it into your brand as well.

  
  Step 3: Design Your Menu with Food Photography
  In today’s visually-driven world, food photography is an extremely powerful tool for attracting potential customers. High-quality food photos will make your dishes significantly more enticing to your customers. Customers are far more inclined to choose what to eat from the food photos than the descriptions.
  The best thing about food photography is that it can be done by anyone with a modern smartphone and good eye for photography. There is no longer any reason why restaurants are missing food photos from their menu.
  It is also good to include short, gastronomically-appealing descriptions (up to 10 words) of what each dish contains. Additionally, it is becoming increasingly common for restaurants to clearly list common allergens and irritants (e.g. peanuts, lactose, shellfish) on their menu so that customers can easily make an informed choice. This also frees up your servers from repeating these common allergens every time a customer asks.

  
  Step 4: Enhance Discoverability with Social Media
  You have put all that hard working into branding your restaurant and crafting the perfect menu. Now it is time to let people know about it.
  Some sort of online presence is mandatory in this day and age. If your target audience is younger than their 40s, having an Instagram account is practically necessary. Depending on your target demographic and the country you are operating in, TikTok, Facebook or other local social networking apps could also prove beneficial to you. 
  Regardless of which platform(s) you are using, it is also important to at least have a basic understanding of hashtags. By using popular, pre-established hashtags, you can insert your brand into the list of brands that potential customers can discover through the hashtag. Creating a simple hashtag that is unique to your brand can also allow both you and your satisfied customers to easily share your brand’s experience to a larger audience.

  
  Step 5: Cultivate Customer Loyalty
  Of course, the quality of your food and service is important an important factor in determining if your customers come back or not. However, that is just the bare minimum.
  We find that one of the best ways to get customers coming back is to implement a loyalty program, specifically, a digital one. This removes the need for your customers to carry around physical stamp cards (which they will probably lose or damage). It is also a lot more environmentally-friendly!
  Encouraging your customers to leave feedback is also a great way to increase your customer loyalty, provided you actively work on the feedback you receive. Your customers will appreciate your sincerity and commitment to providing them with a better experience.
  Start Your (Re-)Branding Journey Early
  As you can see, cultivating a successful brand requires some forethought and planning. You also need to have meticulous strategies and frameworks in place to ensure that you and your staff can deliver consistent, high-value food and service to your customers. It is also worth taking a step back periodically to recalibrate and see where you can improve.
  If being a modern, forward-looking restaurant is part of your brand’s vision, you should definitely incorporate technology into your operations. Check out Waitr’s innovative mobile QR ordering and payments solution. And if you want to keep your customers coming back, we also have integrated loyalty and live feedback systems. Request a demo today!