Part one of a four part series on things to think about in growing a restaurant brand or concept, presented from the perspective of an architectural firm with experience in brand imaging, site selection, and restaurant prototype design & development.
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Grow your restaurant brand or concept (part one)
1. Saturday, August 2nd
11:45 am—12:30 pm
Basics of what makes a successful restaurant brand/concept
Analyzing Regional Markets and Growth Patterns
How design reinforces the brand & improves customer
experience
Creating restaurant prototype standards and protecting
scalability
NEW ORLEANS MORIAL
CONVENTION CENTER
Date: Saturday, August 2, 2014
Time: 11:45 am —12:30 pm
Presented By:
Brent Bueche,
President
Scot Byrd, Vice
President
www.bbiusa.com
BBI Architects
Spaces that workT
FEATURED SPEAKER PRESENTATION:
“So…, You Want to Grow Your
Brand/Concept,
….then you need to know this!!!”
2.
3. Top Ten Most Valuable Brands
*source: Millward Brown BrandZ survey 2014
Perception
IS
Reality
5. Slogans
• “Just Do It!”
• “The World on Time”
• “The Happiest Place on Earth”
• “Finger Licking Good!”
• “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands”
• “You’re in Good Hands….”
• “King of Beers”
6. Consideration Set
The first possibilities that come to mind when you
think of who to buy from.
Cola Automobile Hotel
Coca-Cola Chevrolet Mariott
Pepsi Toyota Hyatt
Dr. Pepper Ford Holiday Inn
7. One Chance for a First Impression
“Jimmy John's plans fourth B.R. location in Lee
Drive retail center”
Published Jan 14, 2014
Baton Rouge Business Report
“Dair-O’s seeks permitting approval for new location
on Lewisville-Clemmons Road “
Published Jan 14, 2014
Winston-Salem Journal
8. What is a Brand?
It’s not just what YOU want it to be!
Xerox, Google, Coke, Post-It,
Kleenex, Band-Aid
FedEx, Tar-ge’t
Taco Bell – licking the shells!
A brand is what customers think and feel about
your business. The value of a brand is how many
of those thoughts support your business model. –
BBI Architects
Experiences, expectations, emotions, friends, cache, signs, building
shape, slogans, etc
9. Components of the Brand
You have to carefully think about all of these. They have to work
well together. You have to plan how to implement these
elements and monitor success.
10. Building a Restaurant Brand
• Who Are We?
– Who do we say we are?
– Who do our customers say we are?
• “Mike’s Brewpub is a casual, friendly neighborhood restaurant serving lunch,
dinner and an ever-changing selection of craft beers—including its own brews--to
discerning beer lovers.”
• “Mundo is an eclectic eatery spotlighting small plates of cuisines from around Latin
America. We serve fun, exotic food in an upbeat, energetic atmosphere that caters
to foodies.”
• “Al Italia is a romantic, upscale Italian restaurant that caters to special occasions
and celebrations. We serve classic Northern Italian dishes in a traditional setting.”
- Rieva Lesonsky, CEO GrowBiz Media
11. Building a Restaurant Brand
Who do our customers say we are?
Comment cards
Manager interviews (customers & staff)
Secret shoppers
Focus groups
Surveys
Customer relationship management software
Social media
Google alerts
Measure what sells
12. Building a Restaurant Brand
How do we tell our story?
– Advertising, signs in our store, promotions, events
(charitable, in-store, outside store), strategic
partnerships, social media, produce media
content, professional organizations
• Great Food
• Great Concept
• Great Location
Ingredients for a
Successful Restaurant
13. Building a Restaurant Brand
A Great Concept
Visually showing
what we have
been talking
about!
“The main thing, is to keep the
main thing, the main thing.”
- Stephen Covey
“Most restaurants fail because
the owner or founder did not
have a clear vision for the restaurant.” – John Walker, author of The Restaurant, from
Concept to Operation (6th edition).
18. Building a Restaurant Brand
Summary of Key Points
• The Concept
Unique Selling Proposition
• Take the time to carefully consider all the
factors impacting your brand/concept
• Stay with the Vision, Stay on Course!
Editor's Notes
Thanks for being here today. I want to thank the Louisiana Restaurant Association for inviting us. We are proud to be members of the LRA and to have the opportunity to share some thoughts with you we hope will be beneficial to your business.
My name is Scot Byrd. I am the Vice President of Business Development for BBI Architects. In the past I have been a finance guy, a salesman, a sales trainer, business coach, marketing manager and director of economic development for a parish here in Louisiana. I’ve worked for small companies. I worked for a Fortune 500 company for two decades. I have also founded a construction and property management company and have owned two different types of franchises.
The second half of today’s presentation will be delivered by our firm’s president, Brent Bueche. Brent has over 25 years experience in design, much of it in the restaurant industry and in retail. Brent founded BBI Architects in 2002 with an emphasis on restaurant design, prototype design, brand imaging, and construction management. Brent’s creativity has created new concepts and designs that have improved the image and operational efficiency of his clients, resulting in substantially increasing profitability.
Our presentation today is called, “So…, you want to grow your brand/concept….then you need to know this!!! This is presented from the viewpoint of an architectural firm that has been involved in the brand imaging process, site selection process, and building design process for several restaurant chains. This an hour and half presentation that Brent and I have condensed to 45 minutes, so hang in there. We’ll move along pretty quickly!
We’re going to talk about 4 things.
Basics of a successful restaurant brand/Concept
Analyzing regional markets and growth patterns
Understanding how design reinforces the brand & improves the customer experience
Restaurant Prototype Standards and Scalability
I am going to open today’s discussion on brands, brand imaging, and the value of a brand. Two phrases I want you to think about. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Perception is reality in the minds of your customers.
While I have been talking, you may have noticed some brand logos being displayed. These are the top ten brands in the world. Just their very names are their most valuable asset! Because people trust them and the public’s confidence creates tremendous value.
How many people saw the Jimmy Kimmell segment last week where he takes a $20 Casio watch, puts an apple logo on it, and asks people what they think of the new iTime Watch? They loved it! They loved that it was always in airplane mode. They couldn’t believe it had both a stopwatch and a countdown! It had the date, time, and could tell what time it was in any country! It was lightweight, too!
They all would like to own one. $100? No problem! That, my friends, is the value of a strong brand!
The purpose of branding is simple. When a customer is ready to make a buying decision, you are part of what marketers call the “consideration set” of potential providers the customer will buy from. Naturally, you want to be the first place that comes to mind on that consideration list!
In the old days, people thought of the brand as their name, their symbol (the brand), and what they wanted that to convey to the world. They controlled the image of their brand thru advertising and the customer experience in their establishments. Later, all the rage was about positioning. Where you ranked on the consideration list we talked about. The question everyone was asking was, “What is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?”
Slogans are a few words that effectively conveys what you’d like customers to remember about your brand. Not everybody has a slogan, but why not? It forces you to think about your brand to sum it up like that!
There’s a gameshow that is modeled on the whole idea of the consideration set…..The Family Feud! Most of us have heard the host of the show say to the audience, “Survey Says….”! That’s what the consideration set is. What is the first company the majority of people in a geographic market think of when you mention a type of product, and then what is the second company, and so on. Most marketers will tell you the greatest value is being in the top three.
Here are two impressions of new locations opening up that happed to have been published on the exact same day this year. The first is from the Baton Rouge Business Report for a Jimmy John’s in Baton Rouge. The second one is from a chain represented by BBI Architects in North Carolina. Which one would you rather be?
So, what is a brand?
In this age of social media and multi-channels of information distribution, we know now that your brand is shaped not just by what you say about it, but also shaped by what others say about it, so monitoring this becomes another important component of determining your brand.
When a brand becomes a verb for its product category, it is by far the dominate market leader. Some examples of that are Google, Xerox, Coke, Post-it, Kleenex. Another good sign is when customers adopt your brand and give it a complimentary name of their own – like FedEx and Tar-ge’t. And it’s this point that is why the game has changed. Customers and even employees collectively now have the power to reshape your brand image.
You have to be aware of what is being said about your brand by others. We will talk in a bit about strategies to do that. But it is important to know that it is necessary.
A brand is what customers think and feel about your business. The value of a brand is how many of those thoughts support your business model. – BBI Architects
The components of your brand can be thought of as the tools you use to interact with the five senses of the customer and how they will mold the image they have of your restaurant in their hearts and minds. These all have to be integrated. It’s hard enough to effectively convey your message with all the noise that is out there. Make sure everything about your business supports the brand and they are all integrated together. Any good architect can design a workable building, but marrying it to a concept that supports a brand is both art and science. This involves getting to know the client and a lot of listening. Brent will speak more about that later.
At BBI, our slogan is Spaces that Work. To us, that means more than just an efficient kitchen design that reduces waste and improves throughput. It’s about a space that reinforces every one of these components of your brand. The signage, the parking, the entryway, the restrooms, the exit…..every single touch point has to convey the image your are trying to project to support your brand. It also has to support your promotional plans. Where is signage located to promote specials? To promote events? Menus? How do we keep customers occupied while waiting? It’s all part of the design!
Now, let’s relate what we have been saying about brands specifically to restaurants.
So, building the brand begins with knowing who you are and what story you are trying to tell. You have to say that same message with everything you do. Who, what, when, where, and why. Who do we say we are? Who are our customers? What do we serve? When do we serve them? Why are we in the restaurant business? Are we getting feedback from our customers? Who do they say we are?
Everyone involved in your restaurant should be able to clearly understand this identity statement. Every single word of it is important and conveys an idea of how you do business with your customers.
Earlier, we said a system for monitoring what your customers think about your business is essential so that you can make adjustments to take advantage of what is not working and capitalize on your strengths and good ideas. This seems obvious, but it’s amazing how many restaurant owners don’t have a strong strategy for doing this. Listed here are all some good ways to monitor what your customers think about your brand. The last one, measure what sells, is to get you to think about the feedback customers are giving you by what they spend their money on.
If you leave here today with just one good idea, make sure you are doing this! If you would like a copy of this presentation, send me an email. I’ll pass out business cards at the end of this presentation.
We’re not going to spend time today talking about advertising, but it is an important part of building the brand.
We all know there are three primary ingredients in a successful restaurant. A great concept, great food, and a great location. Some people may be thinking right now that I forgot about the people. Not at all. The type of people you hire, how you train them, and the culture you create to keep them motivated are part of the concept.
I feel confident that all of you in our audience today have not just good food, but great food! And you can’t overemphasize that particular ingredient for success, because everyone knows a restaurant that is doing very well that is in a bad location, but has great food. Concept and Location are topics we can be helpful on. I’ll talk about location when we get to the market analysis part of today’s presentation, so let’s start with a great concept!
I am going to talk about the concept. The concept is the heart of the brand, around which everything else revolves. This is what I was talking about earlier when I said that everything had to work together to reinforce the brand. The vision of what you stand for must be clear and all the various aspects of the business should reflect that image. Will your restaurant have cloth napkins or paper napkins? Will your napkins be embossed? Embossed with what, exactly?
Lots of people can understand how quality and price go together. But as you can see, you can relate any one of these to another. And when you do, both should support the concept. If you think about it, you can see how changing any one of these changes some of the others. If I get an expensive location, I will have a hard time having an inexpensive price, for example. Location impacts what is on the menu. Location impacts who your customers are….and who your employees are! Not all concepts work in all locations or even in some regions.
Doing this is a lot of work. Balancing these out against each other takes a lot of time and thought. In addition to the restaurants who fail, there are those who are dramatically underachieving because they don’t want to do all of this. They feel strongly about their concept and the quality of their food and they just assume the customers are going to feel the same way! Their answer to all of this is, “I don’t want to do all of that! I just want to sell great food and have fun! The customers will find me!” Maybe. The extent of some location decisions is a building became vacant in an area the owner had a good feeling about. Make the odds be ever in your favor and improve your overall profitability by taking the time to do these things before you get started. Because after you get started, you are going to be spending a LOT of time at the restaurant! Am I right?!!!
On this slide, I have put emphasis on a couple of quotes I like. Stephen Covey is the author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. The quote I like from him is, “The main thing, is to keep the main thing, the main thing”. And John Walker is the author of “The Restaurant, from Concept to Operation”, which is now in it’s 6th edition. His quote is simply “Most restaurants fail because the owner or founder did not have a clear vision for the restaurant”. That’s a pretty strong statement, because I know a lot of people who say that most restaurants fail for a whole lot of other reasons. It’s a really important point to think about!
Here are a few slides on a transportation themed restaurant chain in Georgia designed by BBI Architects. You’ll notice a color scheme of a soft blue, soft white, and vibrant red. Their moto is they go the extra mile for the customer. Their concept is centered around a nostalgia for the “good ol’ days”, friendliness, and being very polite. Their menu is all traditional diner fare, as well. It is simply a slight modernization of the 1950’s era diner, with the quaint all American culture that goes with it. The clothes, the menu design, the facility, the service, the food…. all designed to recreate that experience.
It’s time to sum up and review the building the brand portion, now. I want to summarize with three key points. You have to have a very well thought out concept and a USP. You have to be better and you have to be different in some key way. Take the time to make sure all of the aspects of your business support each other in support of the concept. Stay true to the concept. Have a clearly defined vision and make sure you and all your employees can articulate it. Don’t send conflicting messages. Stay with it. It takes a while to penetrate the public consciousness and define your niche.
Thank you Scot
So Scot just presented some very valuable information on taking a CONCPET and building a BRAND then locating that BRAND in the appropriate MARKETPLACE.
For the next part of the presentation I am going to discuss how to take the CONCEPT create an environment that represents that Concept.