How To Rebrand Your Restaurant: 6 Signs It’s Time

Are you ready for a change in your restaurant?

Trick Question! Well, sort of.

All restaurants experience change. It is the one constant in the universe. The suggestion of “rebranding" to a restaurant owner can prompt a wide array of reactions. Contemplation. Enthusiasm. Shock. Reactions aside, how do you know if it’s time to roll out the rebrand carpet?

Why Should I Rebrand My Restaurant?

As any homeowner will tell you, no matter how fresh it looked when you got it, as time passes, everything ages. Sometimes, it just needs a fresh coat of paint and a few little tweaks to freshen things up again.

Perhaps you’ll need to replace some structural parts and dig a little deeper to bring it back to life.

If that’s not going to cut it, you might be better off cutting your losses and starting from scratch. 

Restaurants are no different.

The decision to rebrand your restaurant is never an easy one to make. There are often emotions involved around what you’ve created and how much time, effort, and money it has cost you. No brand is built overnight, so the last thing you might want to face is the idea of change.

In reality, however, change is inevitable. Markets and technology are always advancing, developing, and morphing into the next new thing. Embracing change is the only way to stay relevant and connected within the world of branding and business growth.

You don’t want to be left behind by your competition simply because you don’t want to try something new.

There are several indicators which often appear in a struggling restaurant business, indicating that it might be time to consider a rebranding project.

1. Your Prices Aren't Turning a Profit

There are instances where a brand identity can limit the restaurant’s ability to push the pricing envelope. You’re well known for a particular pricing structure, and it would be detrimental to change the model while operating your current brand.

For example – you’re a well-known, moderately priced steakhouse that’s popular with families and young couples on a budget. You’re facing rising food costs and shrinking profit margins. Perhaps a rebrand could help you keep customers and create more revenue. 

Through a successful restaurant rebranding, you can maintain your guests ' faith in their favorite establishment. Instead, they are tempted to try a new option and will accept that it comes with a new price tag.

So what can you do?

Before you go all out with a full-scale rebrand, take a look at the menu. Take some time to re-engineer what’s being served, to test if this will increase profits. 

Sign up for Toast's Menu Engineering Bootcamp to increase your restaurant's sales by 27% in 30 days or less.

1. You'e Not Attracting Top Talent

As Millennials and Gen Z continue to fill the workforce, consumer space, and restaurant tables, understanding their habits and preferences is important for employers and business owners. 

Both generational segments prioritize their values and ideals when choosing what brands they align themselves with. It’s worth noting that 68% of this demographic view brand loyalty as a factor in their personal identity. Younger consumers want to work for and buy from brands that align with their personal values.

If you don’t see these age groups lining up to join your restaurant team, you might be in need of a brand makeover. More ‘mature’ or outdated brands sometimes have a stigma with younger generations that is hard to shake. 

JAJA Tequila is one brand that tapped into Gen Z’s ‘vibe’ and successfully captured the attention (and dollars) of thousands of customers. With a small budget to spend on their brand launch, JAJA rolled out a series of billboards and ads speaking to their humble beginnings.

The results? More than 17 million impressions on their campaign and over a 125% increase in sales. Nothing to be sneezed at! This was a resounding success in terms of a brand announcing itself to the world. Brands such as Pepsi, Nike, Apple, and Calvin Klein have all carried out branding campaigns designed to target younger consumer groups in recent years. 

Calvin Klein’s relaunch of the famous 90’s black and white underwear ads were a remarkable hit, with their social media presence skyrocketing in the wake of the campaign. With 96% of Gen Z spending an hour or more on social media each day, it’s hard to ignore the potential this space offers for rebranding a restaurant. 

So what can you do?

Social media reigns supreme with the younger generations, so you'll need an ace restaurant social media strategy to win their likes and love. 

In the short term, set up some social media channels to put your restaurant on the digital map. Currently, the favorite search platforms of Gen Z are Instagram, TikTok, and Google (in that order).

All change does requires some open-mindedness – be ready to consider new ideas and let go of things that no longer add value to the cause. It’s a brave new world on the internet and you’ll want to embrace it.

1. You're Plagued By Bad PR

Despite it’s popularity, the well-known saying ‘all press is good press’ doesn’t hold much water.  Press, or public relations (PR) can often cause a ripple effect that leaves lasting impressions of the brand – both positive and negative.

If something unflattering or damaging becomes part of the public narrative about your brand, you need to take action quickly. Shift focus away from the incident, pivoting attention onto how you are addressing the issue and improving the brand. It’s imperative that you hold or rebuild the loyalty and confidence of your customers.

Honesty and transparency are your best strategies when navigating a rebrand from a negative public image.

So what can you do?

If your business falls victim to bad PR, you can greatly benefit from consulting with a Public Relations or Branding Agency. These professionals will have experience in dealing with these situations.

They can approach it with a clear strategy to help your brand recover and move forward. Together, you can form a solid action plan to transform your brand into what you want it to be, and put out any smoldering fires that might be holding it back.

While you could go at it alone, the powerhouse teams you'll find at many PR and Branding Agencies also have a long list of contacts in the media. These connections provide leverage to get your business some positive press. This asset is the result of a lifetime’s work, and it can often be the difference between a successful rebrand and a slow fade into closure.

1. Your Sales are Falling

If restaurant sales are falling or are on a steady decline, there could be more to the problem than you first notice. Recently, 7/11 – a behemoth in the world of convenience stores – carried out a rebrand with their headlining ‘Anything Flows’ campaign, launching on their annual Slurpee™ Day. After 57 years, they decided it was time to freshen things up, executing a makeover that included everything from packaging to flavour names and a swathe of merchandise. 

The results? A cool 5 billion impressions, 16 million hashtag views, and a 92% increase in Slurpee™ cup redemptions from the previous year. Notably, the brand managed to shift its product consideration up to 63% among younger consumers, a significant achievement in a crowded frozen beverage market.

Not only has 7/11 updated its physical design, but it has also successfully reintroduced itself to its customers with a memorable and appealing brand image. 

Take a look at your market and see if you have any competitors. They may have snuck onto the scene without much fanfare, but over time, they’ve begun luring your guests away. It happens even to the best brands – other restaurants will try to copy your success model, or new trends and fads will come onto the market and overtake you.

So what can you do? 

Thoroughly examine your restaurant and the competition. Ask these tough questions and try to answer them with as much honesty as you can.

• What is our purpose, and why?

• Why do our guests come here?

• Is my concept still relevant?

• Am I keeping up with the area’s current market trends?

• Has our guest profile changed?

• Is our marketing message congruent across all channels?

• Does our brand tell the best story possible?

You'll have to do some soul-searching to nail down the answers to some of these questions. It’s not something to be taken lightly. If you want better results for your restaurant, you will need the courage to respond to the answers. The truth may be confronting, but it can be the first step towards a new journey for your restaurant.

1. You’re on a Growth Plan

Perhaps it’s not a lack of sales or success – you might have found yourself on the other side of the coin. The business may have outgrown its original brand identity, which can be a great thing! Complications may arise, however, if your brand wasn’t initially set up with a vision for this level of growth.

Let’s say you are a cosy little poke restaurant set up in a corner store. The first location opened, and you were flooded with customers. Before long, three more locations have opened across the state. Now, there are offers popping up to take the business interstate.

However, your website and branding all run under the name ‘PokeCafeArizona’. This won’t make sense outside of Arizona, and it presents an excellent opportunity to rebrand.

This is a fairly common phenomenon. You started out with a little thing, and from it, big things grew. You’ve gone from a local gem to a well-known restaurant franchise, ready to take on the world. Ensure that you can rebrand the business to continue its growth and success.

So what can you do?

1. Have a marketing plan in place before you launch your new, improved website and social media platforms. Your guests and your team will need time to adjust. 

2. Secure a domain name that will serve your brand now and in the future. JoesPastaHouseBoston.com is great...but JoesPastaHouse doesn’t need to change every time it leaves the city.

3. Find a brand name that is available for use on all social channels. If people have to remember four different names, they’re probably not going to bother following you anywhere. For example, Shake Shack – @shakeshack on Instagram and @shakeshack on Twitter/X.

Having the momentum to grow into new locations is a testament to your brand’s success. Don’t let this success fizzle out because you didn’t take an opportunity to adapt to a new and lucrative market. 

1. You Need to Update Your Look

Markets and customer preferences change, so the most resilient brands change with them. There will always be new competitors, emerging trends, and reinventions of the classics. 

You may need to reconsider your brand image, to inspire new loyalty and attract more guests. A rebrand can achieve both these things, as proven by many well-known companies in recent years. 

By updating their logos, these brands have proven their commitment to staying relevant to each new generation of customers.

Dunkin’ (previously Dunkin’ Donuts) relaunched their brand in 2018, with a simplification of their name and logo: 

The Golden Arches we know and love today didn’t always exist. McDonald’s has seen many rebrands and updates to its logo since the very first restaurant opened in 1940: 

The ‘modern’ version of Taco Bell is actually a product of it’s history – their rebrands show the restaurant’s understanding of adjusting to meet their target market.

So what can you do?

Graphic designers and website developers are widely available for hire. There are many different agencies, freelancers, and organisations that exist to help businesses rebrand.

There are several marketplace-oriented websites like Fiverr, 99 Designs, and Upwork (which actually underwent a rebranding of their own from Elance-oDesk) to explore. You can find reasonably priced and qualified professionals available for hire to help you carry out your rebranding vision. 

You can find a huge range of guides, how-tos, and examples of other brands that have carried out similar projects. Research far and wide to make sure you understand the scope of your individual rebrand. Your business’s new look will need to make a strong statement to its existing and potential customers to catch their attention. 

In a highly competitive market with constant sources of media and marketing, attention is an invaluable commodity. You need to make sure your brand grabs hold of the guests and keeps them tuned in. Consistency is key to achieving this - branding, marketing, service, and of course – food.

Warning

Now you’re all fired up to go out and start your rebrand (or simply work out whether you need one), don’t fall into the trap of “brand boredom.” 

This occurs when there’s a business is constantly changed and updated because the leadership team has become bored. They aren’t thinking about the real factors - price, demand, market trends, or the other factors which might be impacting their performance.

They simply rehash, chop and change, and constantly switch things up to the point that guests are confused about what the brand is. This is no way to win or hold loyalty from consumers. People don’t like to be confused.

Just like humans, while change can be a good thing, so too can consistency and familiarity. Brands need to have the capacity to adapt as well as know when to hold their position. 

If you decide it’s time for a rebrand, consider the fundamental qualities that first brought your guests to the table. Try to incorporate these into your new messaging and design. With a successful rebrand, you will continue to attract customers and operate a thriving business.

Download our restaurant branding guide below to get started in the right direction.