Becoming a love brand is the new goal of some brands... and restaurants! If you follow these tips to the letter, you could well turn your customers into ambassadors. We tell you everything in this short guide to becoming a love brand, both in the restaurant and on your online channels!
Why should an independent restaurant take inspiration from companies like Starbucks, Apple, Lego or Spotify? Because they've all perfected the Love Brand concept - and it's actually reproducible in convenience stores!
Becoming a "Love Brand" starts with a brand image built around a concept. This ultimately transforms loyal customers into ambassadors for your restaurant. The ingredients of a Love Brand are quite simple: a mix of proximity, consistency, lifestyle and ethical values. All elements that are right at home in the restaurant business! In fact, the main marker of a love brand is to create an emotional connection.
The benefits of this transformation are numerous! First of all, it helps to secure the long-term future and growth of your restaurant. A love brand exerts an extremely strong attraction on its customers. They are more likely to become ambassadors for your restaurant.
They'll follow you wherever you go, for years or even their whole lives. Your emotionally connected customers are influencers: they speak well of you, in real life and on social networks. They give you the best possible publicity!
Above all, lovers of a love brand find it hard to let go of their favorite brand. They'll follow the brand's innovations and changes of direction - as long as they're consistent with the initial promise! Finally, these ambassadors are more likely to be insensitive to price increases. In fact, the benefits they derive from their "love brand" outweigh any price advantage.
First of all, it's important to understand what a love brand is. The concept is also known as a lovemark. It was framed by Kevin Richards, an advertising executive from the Saatchi & Saatchi agency, in a 2004 book called "Lovemarks - The New Breath of Brands". The concept comes 100% from marketing and advertising, and has no connection with the restaurant business on the face of it. And yet...
The lovemark concept is based on the observation that some customers create an emotional, even passionate, relationship with certain brands. There are countless examples of this, but Apple is a case in point. Such is the cult of the Apple brand that its fans sleep outside stores to be the first to buy new models.
What makes a love brand, or lovemark? It's all about the image and concept that surrounds the product being sold. Here are the three components of a love brand according to K. Richards:
- Mystery
- Sensory experience
- Intimacy
Of course, each of these three components can be applied to catering as follows:
The notion of mystery means making your brand tell a story. It must create a powerful imagination, with a strong image and concepts that give the product an extra dimension. It invites customers into a "lifestyle" universe that goes beyond the product sold - or the meal consumed.
Indeed, this applies perfectly to restaurants, which need to build a coherent proposition. It starts with the selection of products, and includes ethics and a certain vision of catering. It continues with the experience in the dining room and its decoration. All this must form a coherent whole to create a captivating universe where the imagination is stimulated.
The creator of the love brand concept noticed that customers have a sensory relationship with the brand's objects. To take Apple as an example, the Californian brand has paid a great deal of attention to the unboxing experience, which is the set of sensations experienced when a box of a product is opened for the first time.
Applied to restaurants, this is probably the most intuitive component. Restaurants naturally appeal to diners' 5 senses. The experience of a dish is necessarily a sensory one, involving taste, smell, touch (textures), sound and sight! Perfecting the sensory experience, however, is a difficult task, and involves the plate as much as the room and its decoration. It's an essential step on the road to becoming a love brand and turning customers into ambassadors.
Customers establish an emotional relationship with love brands. It makes them feel empathy, passion - even devotion! For restaurants, developing intimacy means building loyalty. Repeating the experience in the dining room will help build this intimate relationship. This is one of the keys to keeping customers coming back, even turning them into your ambassadors. There are many mechanisms for achieving this, such as the intelligent loyalty programs Pongo has set up for its customers.
In addition to these measures, you need to add patience. Transforming your restaurant into a love brand can take time. To keep you on track, here are a few tips for a successful transition.
Favoring the indoor experience...
The basis for becoming a love brand is a restaurant with a well-defined personality, including ethical values. It's about creating a real "brand" that people identify with, that inspires. It's never too late for that, and rebranding can breathe new life into many a restaurant.
This inspiring attitude spreads through the dining experience, the service, the plate, the decor... It's therefore essential to get all your teams involved, from the dining room to the kitchen! The entire dining experience must be coherent, centered around a unifying concept that's clear and easy to understand. It's structured around a storytelling approach, which involves your culinary choices, product selection, the path that leads you to practice, etc... All this must take shape in a modern, simple and effective dining experience! Quality of taste will do the rest...
...and extend it online
Digital can extend this experience online, before and after the meal. Here too, it's important to be consistent with the restaurant's concept. Online content (text, images, etc.) must be clearly linked to the restaurant's philosophy. For example, some franchises will develop a blog, where they will highlight their vision, their CSR, and all the other key elements of a love brand.
Even if you don't have the time to publish content online, social networks are an ideal playground for cultivating your love brand. And it doesn't have to be time-consuming! The key is to post little and well, always with consistency. You can find agencies that can help you with this right here . As for the rest, your best customers will be talking about you on the Internet: after all, they're your restaurant's ambassadors!
Know your customers
Proximity is one of the keys to a love brand. There's no doubt about it: knowing your customers is essential. It's customer knowledge that enables you to tailor your offer, your message and so on. This will enable you to create a close, privileged relationship. You'll be able to involve them, even make them your ambassadors.
Recognizing restaurant ambassadors
Ambassadors can pre-exist the love brand state. In fact, many restaurants already have ambassadors! Knowing how to recognize them and take care of them is essential: they will repay you a hundredfold.
Ambassadors are those customers who fully embrace the restaurant's concept and values. To recognize them, many go by feel, but it's also possible to use a customer database. In fact, data is the key to discovering who your loyal customers are(we tell you all about it in this article).
Show your customers you care
To achieve this, building loyalty is essential to creating a love brand. This can be achieved through loyalty benefits, gifts and rewards! Forget stamped loyalty cards, opt for loyalty with digital tools that speak to the most active generations.
A new-generation loyalty program will enable you to pamper your customers and get them hooked on your restaurant. That's what Pongo offers its customers every day.
Old recipes no longer work with the new generation. They are increasingly demanding immersive experiences, lifestyles and emotional connections with their favorite brands! For restaurants too, the love brand is a generational concept: much simpler than it looks, it's within the reach of all businesses - especially local ones.
