Branding is critical to a restaurant company, but how much is too much? How does a brand create clear branding guidelines and incorporate a strong culture? Does leveraging data help optimize branding efforts?
Branding was the topic of a webinar titled “Unlocking Memorable Restaurant Experiences by Enhancing Brand Consistency” sponsored by Raydiant and hosted by Fastcasual.com.
Teaching viewers the role that technology plays in ensuring brand consistency and offering best practices for branding were Bobby Marhamat, CEO of Raydiant, and Tori Dundas, director of strategic partnerships for Par/Brink. The webinar was moderated by Mandy Wolf Detwiler, managing editor of Networld Media Group.
“At the core (of branding) is data,” Marhamat said. “It’s making sure that being able to create that real brand experience starts with (knowing) who’s your customer, what are you trying to reach, what is the actual experience that you’re trying to create for that customer based on knowing who that demographic is. … At the core I’d say your point-of-sale (system) is super important (and) making sure that’s a cloud-based point of sale and knowing data at the core is super important.”
Signage and message are important, as is what you’re trying to portray at different times of the day, he said. “Technology is really the enabler to create that true customer experience and you do that by making sure all of the facets of what you connect in the store environment is at its core what you’re trying to do to reach that customer that you identify.”
Dundas said brand consistency is important because what makes a brand is how a customer feels about it at every touchpoint.
“They’re touching your brand in multiple ways,” she added, “both online and offline and interacting through online ordering apps, when they drive past your store the way that it looks, when they see someone else carrying a bag with your brand on it, when they’re in the store and how they feel about it.”
The ambience, food and technology combined affects how a customer will react to and then engage in a brand.
“The consistency is important,” Dundas said, “because each of these touchpoints come together to make that overall brand experience and how the customer feels about it. (Branding) has to be consistent not just across these different channels but also across the different locations if you are a multiple-location brand.”
To learn more about branding, click here to watch the free webinar.
