4 Signs It’s Time to Rebrand Your Restaurant: Insights from a Food Marketing Agency
Change is natural (and good!). Check out this quick guide for how to know when it's time for a restaurant rebrand with insights from our food marketing agency.
Drive Growth with a Fresh Perspective
As a food marketing agency, we know a restaurant rebrand is more than a logo change or packaging redesign. It’s a strategic move that can redefine your market presence, ignite growth, and refresh public perception.
Customer expectations evolve, and food industry trends shift. To stay relevant, restaurants must assess these changes and adapt accordingly. While each restaurant’s situation is unique, all face similar challenges that may necessitate rebranding.
Read on for four signs indicating it's time you should consider a restaurant rebrand!
You’ll gain insight on how to:
- Evaluate your competitive landscape and determine if your restaurant’s brand stands out
- Identify outdated elements in your restaurant’s brand that need a refresh
- Understand when a substantial change in your menu or mission calls for a rebrand
- Reach a new target segment or expand your customer base with a rebrand
- Leverage the expertise of a food marketing agency to ensure a rebrand is successful
Is it time for a restaurant rebrand? Look for these four signs.
Sign 1: Your Competitive Landscape is Crowded
If your restaurant is surrounded by competition and you feel like you’re struggling to stand out, it’s time to differentiate yourself through a rebrand.
Identify & Study Your Competitors
Evaluating your restaurant’s competitive landscape is essential to better understand how your menu options, customer service, and overall dining experience compare. Visit your competitors’ locations and get a feel for their dining spaces. Browse their menus, learn about their delivery capabilities, and educate yourself on what discounts or marketing promotions they offer.
This research will help illuminate your competitors’ selling points and why potential customers may choose options besides your restaurant. Similarly, your research should help you identify your restaurant's unique qualities or advantages over your competition. After considering all of this, if you feel you’re still not effectively differentiating yourself, it’s time to reflect on the possibility of a restaurant rebrand.
See how in-depth competitor research fueled our visual identity and branding work for Boom's Pizza.
Sign 2: Your Restaurant Brand Lives in The Past
If your restaurant environment, menus, and overall experience are noticeably outdated, it may fail to resonate with modern customers.
Keep Pace with Customer Expectations
Time moves fast – and so do consumer demands. Customer expectations today are much different than what they were a decade ago or even five years ago. Restaurants must acknowledge this and assess if they’re keeping pace with customers’ evolving needs. To keep up, some must-haves are:
- A Website, Mobile App, and Online Ordering Ability
- Wi-Fi Availability
- Digital Payment
- Menu Variety (Gluten-Free, Vegetarian & Vegan Options)
Equally important is how your restaurant visually presents itself. If walking into your restaurant feels like exiting a time machine (and that’s not your intention), it could create a negative impression with customers seeking something fresh and exciting. Some restaurant elements to consider modernizing are:
- Logo & Color Scheme
- Exterior Signage
- Interior Design (dining space layout, furniture, wall décor)
- Menu Design
- Staff Uniforms
The Fruit Growers Marketing Association (FGMA) faced a similar modernization challenge. Although not a restaurant, the organization was known by two different names to two different audiences: FGMA to members (grocers and wholesalers) and Ohio Apples to in-store consumers. When leaders began to welcome members outside of Ohio, this highly reputable brand needed a refreshed identity.
See how our food marketing agency evolved FGMA's name, visual identity, and brand strategy.
Need help rebranding your food business?
Muse supports food brand marketing teams with an objective perspective and an insider's view of the food industry during a rebrand.
Sign 3: Your Menu or Mission is in Evolution
If you plan to make substantial changes to your menu – changes that could redefine your mission – a rebrand is the most effective way to publicly communicate the shift.
Align Your Menu and Mission
The decision to make significant changes to your menu can be a strategic move to align with a specific culinary style or to cater to specific customer preferences. Whether you aim to introduce a more focused cuisine, offer health-conscious options like vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dishes, or shift your focus towards specialty beverages/ alcoholic drinks, these adjustments can significantly enhance your restaurant’s appeal.
As you implement these menu changes, ensuring your restaurant's mission aligns with your new offerings is essential. If this new direction represents a shift in your mission or focus, a rebrand might be necessary to communicate these changes to the public. The alignment between your mission and menu will help maintain brand consistency and reinforce your new identity in customers' minds.
Spice Catering Co. entered a growth phase that required a strategy shift. They turned to Muse for a new brand strategy to separate their new down-to-earth restaurant (Spice Kitchen + Bar) from the fine dining catering business. Explore how we maintained a connection to the original Spice brand through this evolution.
Sign 4: You Want to Expand Your Customer Base or Target a New Audience Segment
If your restaurant seeks new ways to appeal to specific demographics, especially younger audiences, it may be time to consider a restaurant rebrand.
Reasons To Expand Your Restaurant’s Customer Base:
When you expand and diversify your restaurant’s customer base, you’re able to:
- Tap Into New Revenue Streams: Attract a broader audience to increase sales from various customer groups.
- Overcome Saturation: Reach new customers to mitigate the effects of a saturated local market.
- Stay Current: Target new segments to keep your restaurant relevant and contemporary, especially if your current audience is aging or trends are shifting.
- Navigate Market Fluctuations: Diversify your customer base to protect your business from market fluctuations and economic downturns that may impact one segment more than others.
These are worthwhile ambitions! However, they should be supported with refreshed messaging and an updated visual identity, color palette, interior design, and signage.
While the Cuyahoga County Board of Health isn't a restaurant, they faced similar branding challenges. Public health leaders were granted funds to launch a farm-to-school purchasing initiative; they turned to Muse for branding, naming, and marketing.
We named the initiative Feed Our Future. See how our visual identity, brand strategy, and brand launch helped the group encourage food service directors to buy more fresh, local foods for students' trays.
Ready to Rebrand Your Restaurant? A Food Marketing Agency Can Help.
A restaurant rebrand can be daunting – but you don’t have to do it alone. Leverage the expertise of a food marketing agency to determine an optimal rebrand strategy.
A food marketing agency has the expertise to assess your restaurant’s competitive landscape, understand industry trends, and identify untapped markets. With these insights, you gain the peace of mind that your restaurant rebrand aligns with business goals and positions you for success.
Beyond this, a food marketing agency can help your restaurant develop a communications plan, organize a phased roll-out that minimizes business disruption, and manage content marketing. These activities are all aimed at keeping your customers engaged and informed throughout the rebrand process!
Embrace the Future with a Fresh Brand Identity
Do you see signs that indicate the time is right for a restaurant rebrand? Go for it!
Be mindful that rebranding doesn’t have to be a dramatic overhaul. Simple yet effective tweaks to your restaurant’s branding can help you stay relevant and appealing.
We’re here to help! Our team’s deep food industry experience means we keep a pulse on customer demands and industry trends so your restaurant’s branding is consistent yet flexible. Contact us for a fresh perspective and strategic support.
Every Rebrand Starts with a Conversation.
About the Author
Megan Factor is a Content Manager at Muse and a passionate creator, both professionally and personally. She developed her content marketing skills working in a wide range of industries and pulls inspiration from her diverse experiences. Her keen eye for design, penchant for writing, and love of good storytelling work together to create meaningful content that provides value to clients.
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