Restaurant branding is a major part of establishing a successful restaurant and cloud kitchens. It represents and conveys the restaurant’s identity, mission, and values. Building the restaurant’s unique identity in the customers’ minds and boosting brand recall is what branding is all about. A good brand connects with the guests on an emotional level, thereby retaining them. Furthermore, it instills confidence in customers that the brand they are investing in is worth it.
When it comes to cloud kitchen businesses, branding holds special importance as they are hidden from the customers. The absence of a storefront and the proper dining ambiance make it harder to establish cloud kitchens as brands.
This article will present the strategies that cloud kitchen owners can use to do their branding right.
Top Ways For Cloud Kitchen Owners To Do Restaurant Branding Right
The restaurant brand is reflected in even the most minor details of the day-to-day operations. Innovating those details and making them more presentable to the customers is all in the owner’s hands. Name, logo, demographics, tagline, etc. are the major elements that help to do restaurant branding right. Let us look at them one by one.
1. Name And Logo
A distinct name and logo are like the face of your brand. A brand name should be unique, relevant, and memorable to create a good brand recall. It should represent what your business is all about and explain what type of food you serve. For instance, if a customer is craving for biryani and comes across the brand name “Behrouz Biryani”, they will know that this is what they were looking for, as the name describes the brand’s offerings.
A logo is a must for any business as it speaks for the brand and helps the customers recognize it. It can be a calligraphic or an expressive text or even a symbol. The cloud kitchen brand logo should sum up everything that the business is about and effectively communicate its value proposition to the guests. While creating an attractive logo can be a daunting task, having a well-designed logo in place can assist in expanding the pool of loyal customers. If you’re low on budget, the task of logo designing can be outsourced to design platforms that provide you with numerous options to choose from, according to your business attributes.
2. Mission Statement And Tagline
A mission statement defines your business and what you aim to achieve. It consists of the Unique Selling Point (USP) of your cloud kitchen and differentiates it from other brands. All operations like food, packaging, etc., revolve around the mission statement and can be used to build a powerful connection with customers, stakeholders, and the staff.
The tagline should be well-thought-out and should be in sync with the name, logo, and mission statement of the cloud kitchen. A catchy and brief tagline that solidifies the mission and value of your business creates a unique brand identity in the minds of your customers. It represents what your brand caters to, and you own all the copyrights over it.
3. Demographics
Demographics decide who your target audience will be. It answers some of the following questions:
- What are the age range and gender of your target audience?
- Does your target audience consist of families, couples, working professionals, or students?
- What is the income level of your target audience?
For instance, McDonald’s aims at serving the audience of age 8-45 years of both genders, primarily low-income bachelors or working professionals. The customer pool determines its branding strategy to a large extent.
For cloud kitchens, a good brand should answer all the aforementioned questions. A thorough analysis of the demographics should be done as it helps to build up the marketing strategies for the brand. One can identify what customers need and build the marketing strategies and the menu around them.
4. Food
The food you serve plays an important role in restaurant branding. Being consistent with food quality and portion sizes indicates the authenticity of your cloud kitchen. Top-notch food service can influence your customers to order from your cloud kitchen repeatedly. The ingredients you use, the names of your dishes, food presentation, and every other little detail should go with the brand that you are trying to develop.
Maintaining brand engagement is as important as creating it, which is why the food quality must be constant or even get better over the course of time. Furthermore, the cloud kitchen should produce the same taste and experience across every outlet.
5. Packaging
Cloud kitchens operate virtually, restaurant branding becomes a little harder for them. Packaging is the only physical way for them to interact with their customers. Packaging maintains the food quality and markets the brand. Attractive packaging communicates the brand value before the food does. This is a sign of good restaurant branding. Thus, it is a very relevant component through which a good brand can be established.
Packaging should contain the name, logo, and tagline of your cloud kitchen brand. It should be attractive, neat and clean, to convey your brand’s value and food quality. Proper containers, disposables, and napkins elevate the packaging. The material, design, quality are all essential factors for conveying a positive brand experience.
6. Website And Social Media Presence
Online presence is crucial for cloud kitchen businesses as it is the only means for them to communicate with the customers. Restaurant branding via social media channels is one of the easiest ways for cloud kitchens to brand themselves. It has to be ensured that your brand is firmly establishing itself via these channels. According to a report by Upserve, 90 percent of the customers research a restaurant online before dining in, and about 57 percent visit the restaurant website directly. Thus, a ghost kitchen needs to have a search engine optimized social media presence.
Integrating with third-party food applications can help expand the cloud kitchen’s brand visibility. However, just integrating with these applications is not enough. One needs to leverage various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., to advertise the brand. Posting alluring pictures of the brand’s food on these platforms can increase sales and revenues.
A website gives credibility to your brand and provides all the information about it to your customers. It should be built around the logo, mission statement, tagline, and the concept of your cloud kitchen brand. It is essential to feature the logo on the website noticeably and ensure the visual look, color, and font styles complement each other. The website can showcase the best dishes and other relevant information. The aim is to create a good and trustworthy brand.
It takes months or maybe even years to build a successful brand on the market today. Letting people know about your brand and creating a personality for your business that speaks for itself can be as strategic as it gets. Put time and thought into the mentioned elements of your cloud kitchen and establish your brand well. Learn more about restaurant branding here!
