How do you differentiate your restaurant from your competitors? How do you keep your customers? A restaurant’s customer pool is limited, that pool is also drying up with every job loss, the COVID-19 pandemic is only drying it up faster.
It’s no longer the restaurant who advertises everywhere or offers more deals that will get and keep the customers. The constant bombardment of messages has made people develop conscious ways to ignore these messages.
To break through all the noise, you should be building a real relationship with them through your business, i.e. your brand.
What is Branding?
There are many ways to define branding. Essentially branding tells people who you are, what you do and who your target audience is.
Branding is not just about a logo, it is about creating an emotional connection behind that logo. It is about creating current positive experiences and long-lasting “wow”s to delight and move your market into comfort and loyalty.
Why is Branding Important?
In an industry laden with competition and marketing noise, your number one asset is your brand. Think about the food you serve, now ask yourself who else offers that? Can it be copied? You could lower your prices, but is that sustainable for you and for how long?
What you do might not be unique, but you are! The difference between you and your competitor is your brand!
Why Should You Commit to Your Brand?
Branding works in any market, big or small, and everyone benefits from it. Your restaurant, not your product, creates the value. To put it simply – Your competitors are always going to match your product or service, what they can’t match is your brand.
The Benefits
The benefits of branding are often unseen, but that doesn’t mean they go unnoticed. A brand works, it either works for you or against you, but it’s always working.
Benefits You Can Expect from Branding:
- Branding is about emotion; emotion that turns prospects into buyers.
- You are building a real relationship with your customers and a high level of trust.
- People stick around longer with brands they trust and are more likely to become customers for life.
- The more well known you are, the more successful you will be.
- Good relationships will negate one bad moment.
- Brands can make people pay more for one thing than another similar thing.
It’s not too late to start working on your brand – a memorable brand is not easily forgotten and usually stands the test of time.
