Define your bar, restaurant or cafe brand with these 5 steps
When working with clients to develop their bar, restaurant or cafe concept, I’ll always start by taking time to clearly understand or help define their brand.
Many people think of branding as a name, a logo, some colours and maybe a tagline, but it’s so much more than this! It’s a personality, an ethos, a tone of voice and essentially, is actually what customers think and say about a business.
By having a very clear idea of what your hospitality brand is all about, you can weave this into everything you do, the experience you create, and all the ways you communicate with your customers - so what you think and what they think is perfectly aligned!
5 key things to consider when you start to define your brand are:
1. Your Core Values
Think about 3-5 CORE VALUES that define your way of working and the values that will underpin your bar or restaurant ethos.
These values should be lived and must therefore be things that are most important to you and your team, reflect your purpose and would guide all of your business decisions.
Some examples of core values are teamwork, community, quality, and fun.
A good method to pin these down is to create a long list of values and spend time mulling them over and discussing them with your business team.
Think carefully about which ones stand out and seem most meaningful in the context of your hospitality brand. Whittle the list down gradually until you have the 3-5 most significant and consider how these will drive your decision making.
They should be qualities that then determine your hiring strategy, the suppliers you work with, the service your team provides, the products you sell and the atmosphere you create. As well as the way you communicate about and market your venue.
2. Your Mission Statement
This should be a succinct but meaningful paragraph that sets out the PURPOSE of your hospitality venue; what you will do for your customers, your staff and your community and how you will do it.
You can look at this by firstly brainstorming your WHY’S; why are you starting this venture/project, why do you want your venue to exist, what do you want to do for your customers and staff and what things would you like them to be saying about you.
Second, brainstorm your HOW’s; how will you achieve all the things on the WHY page.
When you have the two pages side by side refer back to you core values, look at where these things all align, start connecting the words and sentences , pick out the ones that speak to you the most and use these to craft your statement.
3. Your Vision Statement
Again this should be a succinct statement, but one that sets out where you aim to go with you bar or restaurant.
It focuses on the FUTURE and should inspire you to strive towards a goal and think about how your brand will grow and develop as you move towards this goal.
Ideally this should build on your mission statement and consider what achieving your mission will mean. Think about how you will know you have achieved it, what will be some key indicators in the way you are viewed by your customers and the local community who engages with your business.
4. Your Target Customer (and how you serve them)
Know your target customers inside out, not just their statistics (age, gender, location etc) but think about what they want and desire, and what their pain points are and how you can help solve them with your business.
Talk with your potential customers, think about how and where you can engage with them and find out what they’d like to see in the local area.
A great way to find out more about your target customers is through social media. Look at who is visiting other venues in the area or tagging themselves in at these places, look at what else these people are posting about, where else they are going and what they’re doing. Likewise look at the the accounts of venues in other towns or cities that are similar to your new concept or inspire you, and see what their customers are up to.
Even better, set up the social media accounts for your venue as far in advance as possible and generate some interest and intrigue about something new coming to the area. Interact with the people that follow you and ask them what they would love to see coming to your site. This would be so valuable to inform you on how you can serve them through your bar or restaurant concept and make your potential customers and community feel part of the journey.
5. Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Define what is unique about your bar or restaurant compared to your competitors. This could be your food, environment, the events and rituals you host, the service you provide or a combination of all of these elements.
You want to complement and add to what is already available in the local area, giving potential guests an extra choice which fulfills a certain need or desire.
Learn as much as you can about the local competition so you can set yourself apart. I’d recommend dining at at least the top 5 competitor venues and thinking about every aspect of the experience you have, this will give you a solid foundation on which to consider your USP’s.
By making this intentional and defining exactly what these things are, you can tell your customers why you are unique, and what they can get from your venue that they cant get anywhere else and leverage this in your marketing.
Putting in some work to define these 5 elements of your brand, and writing them down, will not only help to inform every decision you make about your business it will be a highly useful tool to help you explain your concept to everyone else you engage in your project.
Your brand identity, interior design and marketing strategy should reflect your core values and help you to achieve your mission and your vision, effectively communicating to your target customers exactly what you are about!