What happens when your brand image is confusing, and not congruent to what you are offering? People can become disengaged, disoriented and even disenchanted. Let’s take a local restaurant that opened in 2008, and is part of the best, and most expensive market in town. The arrival of this establishment was highly anticipated for this exclusive neighborhood, who had been waiting for just such a place to call their own.
Over a wonderful dinner at this restaurant with some very good foodie friends of mine recently, something very interesting began to happen. People started noticing things. Things that felt kind of “off,” such as the decor seemed dated and stuffy, odd for a restaurant only 4 years old. This is a very upscale, pricey restaurant with a great reputation, that serves amazing food. Someone mentioned a past experience or two at this restaurant where the food was less that superb, and everyone began looking at things with a more critical eye. The steak was too fatty, the desert was too dry and crumbly. I had a bite, and it was rather tasteless and dry.
The oddest thing about all of this is that this was very unusual behavior for these people. I have been privileged to dine out with them often, and they always see the positive in restaurants, food, etc., even it was a real stretch. So I wondered aloud if how the restaurant was presenting themselves was in alignment with their brand image. I’m guessing it was not. Their name had “Kitchen” in it, and since I had not been a guest before, I expected to find fabulously fresh food, wonderfully and thoughtfully prepared, in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere. No pretentiousness. Open, airy, fresh. Instead, from the moment we walked in, it felt overstuffed, with dark floral paintings hung too low and half obstructing the light from a window. Heavy velvet drapes, overdone. Fussy. Which again was a disconnect from the very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful wait staff.
There were so many mixed signals this place was sending off. The menu changes weekly, and this week the featured deserts were kind of tied in to Halloween, which is in a couple of days. There was a pumpkin tart, a ”Whatchamacallit” (similar to the candy bar by that name) and even a Trick or Treat bag made of a thin layer of dark chocolate with housemade tangerine and vanilla semifreddo inside. Yummy! Problem was, the theme was kind of half-baked, as many other deserts had nothing to do with the holiday. It would have been fun to see all the deserts reflect this, and what a great way for adults to give in to the guilty and calorie laden pleasures of remembered celebrations in their childhood.
The market and the “kitchen” are also celebrating “American Cheese Month” which was mentioned as an aside, and not celebrated in the dishes that contained said cheeses. How difficult would it have been in either case to fully commit to a theme and run with it? Or, to just drop the theme idea altogether?
The restaurant’s brand identity is unclear and so how they show up is confused. It would be so much more powerful to present a clear, congruent brand. I bet it would have even been more effortless for that pastry chef to create inspired names for her deserts, and the waiter to embrace the cheesy theme of the month. As it is, many details felt more like an afterthought.All that being said, I have to be honest about now and say that every bite of the food that I tasted (and we did some sharing, so I tasted many different items) was absolutely wonderful (except the bite of cake I mentioned earlier) and that the company I was with was even more wonderful.
Still, the thought of a clear brand image lingers. Take a look at your own brand. How does it reflect who you are what what you want to create? If it is “off,” what better time than now to change it to clearly reflect your unique brand identity?
