Becoming a winning brand

In the restaurant industry, it can sometimes seem like a very fine line separates the winners from the losers. Restaurant businesses with strong management can, and do, fail. But look a bit more closely and several themes often carry through the winning brands – and there are many brands across restaurant categories that are thriving right now, all while serving consumers who demand a lot from their restaurant experience. A recent episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” delved into some of the themes of thriving brands. At their foundations, they offer great food, strong customer service, and a price point that the guest views as a good value for their visit. In addition to caring about the experience they offer guests, they focus on delivering a good quality of life for staff (to include pay, flexibility, and tech that makes their jobs easier). Importantly, they don’t focus on who their customer isn’t – they invest in enhancing the experience of the people who are already coming to their restaurant. This may seem like a simple premise, yet many brands do the opposite by focusing more attention on fixing what they do poorly than on fine-tuning what they already do well. Obviously certain problems demand focus, but those efforts will reap greater benefits if they support your goal of serving core guests better as opposed to trying to reach new people. Finally, thriving brands have some built-in financial flexibility to weather unexpected down periods. This was an issue for Red Lobster, whose sale-leaseback deal a decade ago gave it far less room to maneuver when times got tough across the economy.