Restaurant Consulting NYC | Can You Hear Me Now? Ensuring your Brand Message is Heard | 4Q Consulting, LLC

Can You Hear Me Now?

Ensuring your Brand Message is Heard

Often when we review a new client’s existing marketing and branding, we find an unclear and confused message.  In order for any marketing to be successful, it must find continuity and fluidity across all platforms; the message must be Clear, Concise, Consistent and Communicable.  If customers can easily understand who you are, it clears one obstacle in improving your top line sales. Remember, a customer’s experience with your restaurant starts long before they walk in the door. 

Here are four basics to consider in ensuring customers hear your brand message: 

Know who you are.  The reality of your restaurant has to meet the expectations you are putting out in your marketing.  As we discussed in Restaurants Know Thyself, you can't be all things to all people.  Know who you are, embrace it, and include it in all of your marketing. If you run a Mediterranean restaurant in name, design and decor, you should not have an Irish Pub menu.  Remember, marketing your brand is not just about paid advertising, it also includes items such as menus, signage, uniforms, and scripted server approaches at the table.

Be Consistent. 4Q preaches consistency a lot, in all aspects of restaurant operations. You’d be surprised how many times we see inconsistencies in basic information – such as hours of operation and menus – in different places where a restaurant promotes itself.  Are the hours of operation on your door the same as on the printed take out menu?  Are they the same on your website, Facebook Page, Google listing, online ordering portals, etc.? Additionally, does all of your media reflect a consistent message and communicate who you are (see above)?  If customers don’t get consistent information and messaging about your restaurant, they will become confused, get frustrated and turn elsewhere to restaurants that care to get it right. 

Get your message online and keep it in line. Restaurants don’t always embrace their digital strategy in this day and age of 24/7 connectedness.  Before the Internet, restaurant marketing was static: it consisted mainly of newspaper, magazine, radio, TV and the yellow pages ads.   Today, marketing a brand message has become dynamic.  There is so much noise out there in the digital/social media world with paid ads, social media pages, customer reviews, etc. that  vie for customers’ attention. You have to actively manage your image with a consistent message by:  producing and posting relevant content that draws new customers and keeps existing customers engaged; responding properly to complaints in a public setting; answering questions; and utilizing “Calls-to-Action”.   Keeping a clear, focused message in all your online interactions, can help you stand out in all this digital noise.

Teach the message.  Employees are your walking, living, breathing billboards inside and outside of your restaurant; but are they putting out “The Message”?   You must inject a clear, concise, and consistent message into your employees, and hold them accountable to communicating it.  If your message is that you are a farm-to-table restaurant, your employees must be able to explain that to any and all customers and potential customers. Additionally, as we discussed in Employees are Your First Customers, “In social situations, often the first question asked is ‘What do you do?’ or ‘Where do you work?’”  Each time your employee answers that question, is an opportunity to communicate your message.

Small or large, independent or chain, no restaurant can ignore how their marketing message is heard. Certain advertising campaigns still resonate in our culture, and are long remembered because they are clear, concise, consistent and communicable – you can still sing that 30 year old jingle.  All of the pieces noted in this blog must work together in concert:  like a choir everyone must be singing the same song, in the same key, or the audience will leave!

Don’t know where to begin?  Do you know how to put policies and procedures in place to be as successful as possible?  www.4qconsult.com can develop customized operational guidelines to meet your needs. 

All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2015-2016. 

Noelle E. Ifshin, 
President, 4Q Consulting, LLC 
noelle@4qconsult.com  
www.4qconsult.com 
244 5th Avenue, Suite 1430, NY, NY 10001  
(212) 340-1137

Restaurant Consulting NYC | Restaurants: Know Thyself | 4Q Consulting, LLC

Restaurants: Know Thyself

We have all heard the expression: “Jack of all trades, master of none” as it applies to individual people.  The same expression can be applied to your restaurant.  Your guests should not have to guess what you are trying to master or what your brand represents.  Restaurants need to decide, well in advance of product delivery, what they stand for, what their product is and what their message will be to the public. This becomes their brand’s value proposition.

Knowing what your value proposition is early on, and making that the base on which you build, is a key to presenting a unified message of who you are. It is essential not to dilute that value proposition trying to be everything to everyone: You would not offer barbeque, no matter how good, at a fine seafood restaurant; this is why well-known restaurateurs may own several restaurants, each representing a different concept or value proposition that they wanted to create.  A cohesive, singular message, as we talked about in Consistency is King, allows your guests to understand your restaurant.  If your brand message is confusing, your guests will be confused, might not return and move on to another restaurant.

Here are four brand values to help guide restaurants in finding out what their message and value proposition is:

Product Innovation – A restaurant that values being a leader in product innovation tends to be on the culinary cutting edge.  Your restaurant is continually seeking to push the envelope and the boundaries of food, beverage and service.  Whether it is exploring molecular gastronomy, sous vide cooking, rare hybrid ingredients or a new delivery system, you and your management team are never satisfied with the status quo. 

This value proposition attracts the type of customers who want to take this wild ride with you. This type of customer looks forward to your ever-changing menus and new ingredients, and likes to learn about new foods.  They come to expect this constant flux, and are disappointed if this level of innovation and product exploration stops.

Operational Excellence – When you think of large, fast casual chains and franchises like Chipotle and McDonald’s, you envision a restaurant that is a well-oiled machine.  Being consistent at what you do, from product quality and service to cleanliness, is the core value of this type of establishment. In restaurants where operational excellence is the main value, change is deliberate, well thought out and measured.  

Customers who value operational excellence expect a certain level of product and service every time, whether it is a taco at a taco stand or foie gras in a fining dining restaurant. These types of customers do not like surprises; in this type of restaurant, customers know what they’re going to get. 

Customer Intimacy – Customer intimacy is often found in smaller neighborhood restaurants, “joints”, diners, or coffee shops, where the staff comes to know the customers well.  In valuing customer intimacy, the restaurant can cater to customer needs and desires in a way that makes them feel special. A server who remembers your usual order and is able to anticipate your dining needs, creates an intimacy that attracts a loyal following in customers who value this – not all customers do.

These customers anticipate food at fair prices, knowing that it may not be the best (it still needs to be good!). The draw to this type of restaurant is that it is full of familiar faces, and has accommodating service. These customers seek a comfortable experience where “everybody knows your name”.

The Sweet Spot – It is a rarefied place when all of the above branding values intersect, creating “The Sweet Spot”. These are restaurants that have harnessed their creativity, worked out the kinks in their operation and fostered an atmosphere that is inviting.  It is important that you as an owner/operator understand your own strengths and weaknesses in relation to being able to hit this mark, as poorly implementing a core value can negatively impact the one(s) you are able to do well. Many successful restaurants achieve only one or two of these brand values - this is what they become known for and what their guests love about them.  

Product innovation, operational excellence, customer intimacy, and even “The Sweet Spot”, can be achieved at any level, from fine dining to fast food.   

When you have determined your value proposition, it should become the central tenet of your restaurant and be the basis on which you build your company culture. When everything you do is focused on your value proposition, your branding message will be clearly communicated to your customers. If your guests have to work to understand what your value proposition is, they will choose to go to another restaurant that has already figured it out.

Don’t know where to begin?  Ask yourself, do you have the proper branding values in place to help you be as profitable as possible?  4Q Consulting can develop customized branding and marketing plans, and operational guidelines to meet your needs.  Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com

All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2014-2015.