Historically for restaurants, the philosophy of branding can often appear to be putting a logo everywhere: placing it on every napkin and sugar sachet, to the point where many restaurant brands have become so ubiquitous that they have lost their uniqueness.
Many international restaurants have since recognised this decline in personalised brand opportunities, and are now spending huge amounts of time and money to become more relevant to their local market, by creating communities — both physical and digital.
This creates complexities in a market, such as the UAE, where many international outlets are run as franchises, as many of the brand elements come supplied as fixed — and therefore more and more franchisees look to tweak the global brand to reflect their location.
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This naturally raises the relevant issue of how much tweaking is possible without changing the core concept that you bought into, and secondly, if it needs tweaking too much, was it right in the first place?
Home-grown brands tend to have a better understanding of local tastes, as well as benefitting from stronger community ties and cultural identities — and even in a city such as Dubai where franchises are king, we are certainly starting to see a tide of change, from single unit operations such as Tom & Serg and Roberto’s — to smaller networks such as Lime Tree Café and More Café, all the way through to the international growth of brands such as The Noodle House and Just Falafel.
In an era where experiences are the new possessions, we encourage all our F&B brands to understand this mind-set, taking advantage and learning from the bigger brands’ shortcomings.
As all businesses know, healthy competition can inspire excellence, and for home-grown brands this specifically means leveraging on personal knowledge of the community, and cutting through where the chains do not match the character of their local audiences.
Local eateries have the ability to make diners feel like members of an extended family by remembering important occasions, food preferences and other personal details — and these personal touch-points and connections should be leveraged upon wherever possible. Admittedly, many larger chains now buy into database management tools to allow them to facilitate this same service delivery, but rarely does the delivery match the intent.
When it comes to digital, international chains may appear to have the upper hand in online marketing due to both budget and extended teams, but independent restaurants can outmanoeuvre them with instantaneous and personalised content creation.
Websites can reflect the latest photos and promotions, and more importantly, by giving your business a voice and featuring individual staff members and customers, [a standalone] can make connections with the community in a way a big chain cannot.
In conclusion, brand definition is critical for independent outlets to ensure their market position. No one business can appeal to everybody, so a brand’s best approach would be to define the brand and consistently communicate it. It’s the businesses that don’t clearly stand for something that often get eaten up by competitors.
If you are not talking to your customers, someone else is. Many small businesses adopt this key marketing strategy of constantly communicating to and with their customers, as a stronghold over their bigger and more developed competitors.
In a marketplace as crowded as the restaurant scene, creating an experience is key. For many people, franchising is seen as a short-cut to branding success; after all, it allows you to purchase an established brand with a proven track record, which will likely come complete with a ready-made marketing strategy.
With a home-grown brand, your key will be to build a brand strong enough to take on all-comers. It’s true that the risks are great, but the rewards are greater still.
Originally from the UK, Craig Falconer is creative partner at North55, a UAE-based independent consultancy specialising in branding and interactive design. Included in the brands they collaborate with are The One & Only Hotel, Roberto’s, and more recently, Boca in DIFC.
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