Is your restaurant’s branding not working out? Is your customer base dwindling? If so, you might be suffering from failing brand identity. You need to revamp your brand identity to stay atop your game. In this blog, you’ll learn everything about rebranding your restaurant.
Rebranding is risky, especially for a seasonal and volatile business like a restaurant. You might lose the market recognition you’ve worked hard to gain over multiple years. On the other hand, having the wrong brand might hinder you from reaching your true potential. The only solution to this conundrum is to rebrand your restaurant, but that’s no walk in the park. You need the right tips and tricks to transition seamlessly. Here’s exactly what you need to do to make it happen.
Announce it publicly
Rebranding is all about changing consumer perception. Essentially, you want to replace how consumers thought about you earlier with a new brand image. If you don’t announce your rebranding efforts, your existing customers might think the old restaurant they loved has suddenly popped out of existence.
There are many ways you can publicly announce rebranding. The first most simple way is to create stunning restaurant flyers with your new logo or name. Place these posters in high-traffic areas near your restaurant.
Secondly, you should rebrand your social media pages and put up a poster explicitly announcing your rebranding (bonus points if you add a reason and make it relatable to your customers). Third, if you have a list of subscribers, consider sending out an email newsletter announcing your rebranding. These are existing customers, who need to know (first and foremost) about your rebranding.
Create a guiding philosophy for rebranding
Once you’ve informed your existing and potential customers about your rebranding efforts, it’s time to follow through with them. For that, you need to have a baseline to compare the rebranded version of your restaurant with the old version — from the customer base to the restaurant menu. Consider where you want your company to be after the rebranding, and then define objectives to that end. Think about the parts of the restaurant that require the greatest time and attention.
Consider your restaurant’s mission and beliefs before making any modifications. Knowing your restaurant’s present position and the resources you require for future development will be beneficial. To make the most of your rebranding efforts and lessen the chance that you may lose clients, gather information from as many resources as you possibly can.
After that, you can carry out your rebranding, like revamping the design of your menu and the vibe of your restaurant. You don’t need to hire a graphic designer to craft new menus. Just use an online graphic design tool like PosterMyWall, which has dozens of menu templates, to craft the perfect menu that aligns with your new brand identity.
Assess your competition
It is usually essential to keep an eye on the competition when rebranding your restaurant. What kind of market positioning are they using? Do they correctly link their brand with their target audience?
So how would your brand distinguish itself from the competition? Understanding how you compare against the other restaurants in your neighborhood can help you figure out what has to change for you to outperform them. Focus on these areas after conducting a SWOT analysis of your restaurant.
Strengths: Identify the regions in which your establishment excels. Take actions to reinforce the aspects your company thrives in to further improve those areas.
Weaknesses: Examine every aspect of your business to identify areas where your restaurant falls short. These are the weak areas you must work on. For instance, multiple complaints about your quality of food not being consistent is a weakness you must readily work to improve.
Opportunities: Look for opportunities to grow your business via physical expansion or mergers. You could also introduce a 15-minute home delivery option to your customers if you don’t already. Make sure you tailor your business model to the inclinations of your potential customer’s preferences and tastes.
Threats: Other restaurants near your area, especially those that serve food of the same cuisine as you, are direct competitors. You must devise a strategy to outperform them in every possible way. Doing this can be tough, though. Focus on excellent customer service, good food, and lower prices — that’s a general formula to beat your competitors.
Rebranding is a team effort
The first thing to remember is that rebranding is always a team effort, not a solo job. You must keep all your staff and personnel in the loop of the changes being made to the restaurant. This is important so that everyone in your team is on the same page. Besides, involving your staff during rebranding can help you gain valuable perspective from your staff — maybe your server gives you a brilliant idea you had not considered before.
Furthermore, it’s your staff that’s more in touch with customers, so they are more likely to inform you correctly about the preferences and tastes of existing customers. It’s always a good idea to devise your rebranding strategy, keeping your staff in the loop.
Don’t forget about social media
Once you have started rolling out your rebranding strategy, it’s essential to do that online as well. Revamp your website according to your new brand identity and make relevant adjustments to your social media channels. Make sure you accompany these changes with a post on social media or an article on your website blog announcing this rebranding.
If you’re active on Instagram, you could post brief snippets and stories to show some behind-the-scenes work inside your restaurant as a result of rebranding. This will take you a step further from just announcing it to engaging with the audience, showing them a glimpse of what’s to come.
Concluding thoughts
Rebranding your restaurant is a scary process, and there’s always that looming risk that it could fail to produce the results you envisaged. Most restaurant owners don’t have the evidence to back up their rebranding efforts, which is precisely why their efforts don’t bear any fruit. Therefore, you must have the right strategy in place that you know will produce the results.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to rebranding a restaurant because every restaurant is different with a unique target audience and USP. Hence, you must experiment with several strategies and track the results they produce, so you can pick out those that work best for you.
