Get Exposure and Brand Awareness

Gaining exposure and brand awareness for your restaurant is the very lifeblood of growing your business into a successful operation.

Of course, you need to have friendly staff and excellent food, but what good is that if no one knows that you exist?

Too many places, however, focus on their brand identity without having the quality of product to match. The way to succeed it to have a great product, with a strong brand identity and then really shout about it!

Build A Brand

So, how do you build a brand? Surely that is what everyone else is trying to do, so how can you make sure that you stand out? Building a brand has become more sophisticated in recent years and brand consultants are big business. But really, this is what good businesses have been doing for years – they just didn’t call it that.

If you think of the major global brands, such as McDonalds and Coca Cola (the latter recently being voted more recognisable than the image of Jesus, rather controversially), you realise just how often you see their marketing campaigns. You would think that there is no one left in the world that hadn’t heard of them. That’s the point – they make sure you never forget about them by reinforcing their message. That is what you need to do with your restaurant.

In order to do this, you need to own your brand identity – have a good name that will not date too quickly, be able to tell people what you do quickly and succinctly. If your restaurant is all about perfectly cooked steaks and chunky chips, come up with a great way to advertise it.

Once you have defined your brand – including the name, style, logo and ethos – you don’t have to keep doing it, that’s why it’s worth spending the time at the beginning to perfectly describe your business.

Use Local Media

Using the local media to your advantage is a great way to bring your brand to your potential audience. Local media is always keen to know about new stories – having your restaurant featured in a local newspaper or on the radio is excellent marketing for your business – and it’s free!

If you take some time before you launch your restaurant to understand the benefits of gaining exposure and building a brand identity, you will soon get into the swing of how to make potential PR and advertising opportunities work for you.

That is not to say that you want to be one of those cheesy types that will do anything to get their face on the telly – you need to be a little more discerning if you want a quality brand image – but still, if you have a good product, you can be sure people will be pleased to hear about it.

Advertising is a popular, traditional way to build your brand identity, but unless you have a good advertising budget, you may prefer to think of the free ways to build your brand.