Restaurant branding the complete guide - 99designs

Restaurant branding:
the complete guide
Zeynep Lokmanoglu
Restaurants are all about the experience. From your marketing to
your menu to your main courses, your restaurant branding
communicates to people who you are and what to expect from
you. Getting this right is invaluable to the success of your
business.
In fact, according to a recent survey that we at 99designs by Vista
conducted, the majority of small business leaders in hospitality
(89%) attribute branding as a key contributor to their overall
success, with 83% saying it significantly impacts revenue growth,
87% reporting it helps attract new customers and 93% claiming it
helps build trust
1.
The taste of your food, the attitude of your staff, the style of your
decor and your branding all need to work together to create
something memorable.

Your restaurant’s branding is a BIG part of your customers’
experience. Illustration by Vladanland
This restaurant branding guide will help you form and strengthen
your own branding. We’ll cover what you’ll need to consider as you
develop your brand, what makes restaurant branding successful
and how branding can influence a restaurant’s reputation and its
relationship with customers.
So what are some of the important things to work on when building
your restaurant brand?
• Define your restaurant brand
• Mission & values
• Brand personality
• Your market
• Your customers
• Develop your brand identity
• Brand voice
• Typography
• Color palette
• Imagery.

• Design your brand elements
• Logo
• Website
• Social media
• Physical elements
Define your restaurant brand
—
Restaurant logo and business card design by wilndr

In order to build your identity, you need to clearly know who you
are as a brand. Start by asking yourself these three essential
questions:
• Who are you as a restaurant?
• What are you doing?
• Why are you doing it?
Think about what matters to you and how your restaurant operates
in your field. Explore the story of how you got started and where
you want to go. Your answers to these questions will help set the
foundation of your brand. Remember that your restaurant brand
represents who you are, and your strategy can only start once you
know the answers to these questions.
Mission and values
We've just sent you your first lesson.
If you don’t have one already, focus your brand by writing out a
mission statement and a list of core values. A mission statement is
a useful way of defining your restaurant’s goals and answering the
“why” of your work. Core values identify your central beliefs, which
act as a guide for your restaurant so everyone can work toward
that mission.
Having a mission statement will help not only in the initial phase of
brand-building your brand, but also throughout the growth of your
restaurant. By closely adhering to your mission, you’ll set yourself
apart from competitors, build trust with customers and create a
consistent brand in which all facets of your identity are rooted in
the same culture and values..

Take Chipotle, for example. Their mission statement is to provide
“food with integrity”. Their core values are: “farming with
responsibility” and “serving as an example to the entire food
industry.”
Your core values need to easily come across to clientele.
Advertising campaign by Chipotle.
Their “For Real” campaign expresses this mission and values by
highlighting the restaurant’s ingredients and consistency across
stores. Even with their website copy—“With every burrito we roll or
bowl we fill, we’re working to cultivate a better world.”—Chipotle
cultivates a consistent, mission-based restaurant brand..