Good branding is all around us.
While we write much about the audience we serve, B2B professional services and advisory firms and nonprofits, we can learn much from the consumer branding all around us. Today we look at some food establishments. Remember, branding is not just a logo, a color scheme or graphics on your website. It’s a compilation of those things and more. Visual branding (logo, imagery, color scheme) is important but branding is also about messaging and how your audience feels about your business and the perception that prevails. If your company sends a message and makes a promise (we have the best crabcakes in Baltimore!) and delivers on that promise, your establishment is building brand trust.
Branding is about what your audience thinks and says, and while you can send the message about how you want your business to be seen and thought of, the ability of anyone to broadcast their opinions online has become a huge element of branding for cafés, restaurants and the like. Any customer with a smart phone is now a photographer and food reviewer in one. Anyone with a Yelp, Trip Advisor or Foursquare account has the ability to shape your businesses’ brand. This strange advent essentially gives your patrons the power to mold your story. If you’re not sending the right messages visually and conversationally, your patrons will take it upon themselves to brand you and it may not be the brand you envisioned.
Baltimore has hundreds of food establishments, but here are five that stand out for their unique branding:
Golden West Cafe
Located in Hampden, a neighborhood of Baltimore that is celebrated for its creativity and uniqueness, the Golden West Cafe seems to be in the right place. Offering American cuisine and New Mexican specialties, the Golden West Cafe brings the Southwest to Baltimore. In addition to great food, Golden West integrates their love for music through everything from their fresh playlist, their menu covers (actually record covers) to regularly hosting local bands.
In addition to having great messaging inside their establishment, the Golden West Cafe also has a well crafted website with imagery and messaging that reflects their brand. Golden West is also very active on social media.
The Golden West cafe has become a staple establishment and reflects the creativity and uniqueness of the Hampden community.
Papermoon Diner
Located just south of Hampden, in the Remington neighborhood of Baltimore, Papermoon Diner is described as “comfort food meets Baltimore with a twist.” The wildly eccentric establishment features vintage toys, action figures, Pez dispensers, crazy colored mannequins and baby doll body parts all over the walls, both inside and outside the building. Some might find it overwhelming, but for the steadfast patrons who’ve frequented Papermoon Diner since 1995, it’s a beloved piece of Baltimore.
Papermoon’s website uses their most appealing asset (besides their delicious food, of course), large images of the eccentricities of their business. The graphical part of Papermoon’s logo conveys, “See you at night,” because they’re open late.
Among the plethora of items attached to walls and melted together within Papermoon, you can find part of the eatery’s success. It’s a talking point—word of mouth marketing at its essence. Papermoon gives its patrons something to talk about and motivates them to tell others and bring them by for a bite to eat.
Papermoon’s foursquare page has 550+ photos, the hashtag #papermoondiner has 1,256 entries on Instagram.
These images and videos, taken by patrons sharing the sights of this creative establishment, are a valuable part of Papermoon’s branding.
Johnny Rad’s
Located near Fells Point, Johnny Rad’s is an amazingly delicious pizzeria and bar. The establishment gets its name from fictional character Johnny Rad, The charismatic host of the Blue Tile Lounge in Powell Peralta‘s Skateboarding movie ‘The Search For Animal Chin’.
Johnny Rad’s logo is a play on the late 70’s-early 80’s skate punk band, Black Flag’s logo.
Johnny Rad’s decor can be described as skate punk themed and includes skee ball machines, arcade games, skateboards on the walls and a constant loop videos featuring (frequently local) skaters on their screens. The musical selections are also heavily skate punk influenced.
Johnny Rad’s keeps their audience updated through their Facebook and Instagram.
Woodberry Kitchen
Artifact Coffee
Brand Consistency
With each of these unique businesses in Baltimore, the look and feel is exuded throughout the establishments themselves as well as through their websites and over all social media platforms. Real life aesthetics is one part of branding, but keeping brand visuals and messages consistent across all platforms and engaging in multiple social media channels are key to their great branding.
