The FMGC market is recovering at a fast rate after the pandemic. Although there was a slump in the last two years due to restrictions in the dining facilities, they could retain their customers by building a compelling visual restaurant branding strategy that made the audience order the food home. Food delivery apps such as Zomato also helped the cause by delivering restaurant-style and plated meals to homes during the lockdown.
With the advent of social media, the most prominent genre of content consumed by people of all ages is either food or travel. This serves restaurants with the perfect opportunity to establish their branding persona on Instagram and Facebook.
Today, most millennials visit restaurants after checking out their page on social media. The food and ambience have to be either pocket-friendly or aesthetically appealing to be considered gramworthy. If the visual branding is strategic with quirky and drool-worthy food photography, then restaurants can evoke hunger in people virtually.
Let us look at some vital restaurant branding tips that will help you to stand out from the competition and have regular customers who connect with the food and vibe of your eatery.
Branding Tips That Will Help You As A Restauranteur :
- 1. Have a colour consistency
It is very important for your restaurant page to distinctive colour palette that is consistent throughout the Instagram posts. The colour palette needs to match the vibe, decor, and branding guidelines. This will visually make your restaurant stand out.
For instance, if you look at the Instagram handle of Grandmama’s Cafe, it has cleverly incorporated the colour of its decor into its posts that is minimal and eye-catching
- 2. Creating a persona and vibe for your restaurants
The restaurant decor and food must have a vibe or a persona that will connect with the right audience. When you are starting a restaurant keep the persona in your mind which will help you create the ideal interior decor that shows whom your restaurant is meant for. Is it a family restaurant or has the ambience ideal for romantic dinners? You can take these elements of your restaurant’s personality and build the branding on social media that will make the targeted customers visit your eatery. For instance, the restaurant Tera Vita has pink and elite decor that gives the vibe of a French or New York-style eatery. It uses pop-culture references from TV shows and movies based out in New York to attract young women who love to brunch and have quaint dinner with their friends just like the characters in those shows.
- 3. Evoke the senses visually
Food connects with all the senses in our body. We feast our eyes on good-styled food and cherish its taste and aroma. The sound of cutlery and the feeling of the texture of the dish have their own magic. Restauranteurs must understand the psychological element that plays when one is selecting a restaurant to spend their money and eat at. They have to evoke all the five senses of the customers through their branding.
Restaurant owners must hire a good food stylist and photographer to make the plating aesthetically appealing and include sound-driven videos of how elegantly the food is prepared in the kitchen. This is a good investment to establish your branding authentically.
- 4. Showcase your menu
The menu design should be coherent with the branding colours and persona of your restaurant. The menu is a window through which the customers will make the order, hence the dishes and recipes must be vividly described for the customers to visualize it and place the order.
The menu must highlight the special dishes and use motifs to indicate if the food item is vegan or gluten-free. This shows that the restaurant pays attention to the customers’ food choices and establishes a strong brand value.
- 5. Appealing Logo
The logo of the restaurant is the first impression that one gets of the restaurant. It should clearly define the story and personality of the restaurant. The logo on its own has an identity that establishes the restaurant.
