Keeping established restaurant brands fresh, relevant and competitive often requires significant reinvention along the way.
In this hour-long webcast, moderated by rd+d Editor Dana Tanyeri, branding experts and chain executives who have led successful rebranding/reimaging initiatives will offer insights on timing, projecting ROI, process management and roll-out strategies.
Rebranding and Reimaging Restaurants: Strategies for Success
1. Rebranding & Reimaging: Strategies For Success
February 25, 2015
These slides are part of a free webcast from rd+d magazine.
You will find a link to the webcast on Slide 6.
2. Today’s Objectives
• Discuss rationale and starting points for significant
restaurant rebranding/reimaging initiatives
• Explore risk assessment and research
• Review process and potential pitfalls
• Discuss roll-out/roll-back strategies
• Answer your questions!
8. Defining the mission – key considerations
Timing
• Franchise agreements
• Customer defection
• Sliding sales
• New competitive threats
Scope/extent of work needed
• Rebranding and/or reimaging? Define.
• Enough to have a real impact on the guest experience
• Not too much to risk brand ID
10. Key Considerations – Current Position
“If the brand is coming from a position of strength then the
reimage is like the icing on the cake and you can dive right
in and reimage. If the brand is coming from a position of
many years of slide, then there’s a lot of operational work to
be done first.”
11. Buffalo Wings & Rings – Pre-Rebrand/Reimage
Writing on the wall
• Economic slowdown
• Outdated look
• Undifferentiated
• Inconsistent
• Competitors raised
the bar
13. • Discussions about what the brand IS and what it
SHOULD or COULD be
– More contemporary
– More family- and female-friendly w/o alienating
traditional male, sports-loving guests
• Hired branding and marketing firm Interbrand Design
Forum
• Strategic consumer positioning, focus groups, research
Buffalo Wings & Rings
14. Buffalo Wings & Rings
Objectives
• Create a more engaging, differentiated concept that
would bring the brand to life
• Offer consistent execution
• Be scalable for nationwide growth
15. Popeyes – Pre-Rebrand/Reimage
• New management team
• Dated look/feel
• Franchise agreements
– refreshes
due/overdue
• Average unit volumes
suffering
17. Popeyes – Sales Before Signs
• Brought in branding identity expertise — Pentagram
• Brand update
– Name change – Popeyes™ Louisiana Kitchen
– Menu innovation
– Marketing/advertising/packaging
• Conducted extensive consumer research
• THEN approached Tesser with clear vision of the new
brand identity
18. • Defining the target
– How much change is needed to have an impact?
• Being open to being analyzed
– Positioning
– Strengths/weaknesses
– Willingness to change
• Determining how to involve/utilize research
• Setting realistic timelines
• Determining who the team is on the client side
– The right people
– Not too many
Key Questions/Challenges
20. Budget/ROI Considerations/Learnings
Buffalo Rings & Wings
– Two costs: project and build – plan carefully for both
– Costs can quickly get out of hand
– Take no shortcuts – it’s a big investment, work with a
reputable company
– Keep focus on creating best value for the consumer
– Keep affordability for franchisees top-of-mind – new
prototype 10% or less in cost increases
22. Rollout/Rollback Strategies & Challenges
• Design side – Value engineering for roll-back through to
older stores
• Supply chain issues – being able to supply franchisees
who want to complete the reimage
• Create story of success at corporate level first and then
let the system buy in
26. Future rd+d Webcasts
April 29, 2015
Finding & Vetting Local Vendors
Comments/suggestions: Contact Dana Tanyeri, dana@zoombagroup.com
A link to the CEU quiz will be sent when the webcast archive goes live.
27. Thanks for Listening!
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