Written by: Sachin Parmar
Are you looking to take your business into a new frontier? Shake up your existing brand with this easy-to-follow guidance on modernising with clever design tricks. Sachin Parmar, Co-founder and Creative Director from Graphic Kitchen, London’s leading digital marketing and branding agency for hospitality, talks you through ways to refresh and enhance your brand.
Sometimes it’s easier to remain with your existing brand when it’s worked well for so many years – there’s comfort in the familiar. However, modernising through a rebrand could be the barrier stopping your business from progressing. Graphic Kitchen recently worked with The Regency Club, an upmarket family-owned bar and grill based in Edgware, London to revitalise their existing brand with surprising results.
The Regency Club had been serving its regular customer base a fusion menu of Indian spices and Kenyan cooking techniques since 1991. When Rahul inherited the restaurant from his father, he saw an opportunity to shake up the business, make it his own and increase its reach beyond the local community. Although the restaurant’s heritage remained important to Rahul, by modernising the brand he hoped to compete with the newer establishments that were appearing in the locality and stealing custom.
Here are some simple steps that Graphic Kitchen adopted when modernising The Regency Club’s brand, which can be easily replicated with your own establishment.
Complete a comprehensive brand overhaul
There’s no point just tweaking your website or updating your menu; if you’re looking to effectively improve your brand, you need to complete a comprehensive brand overhaul. This means reviewing all of your assets, including external and internal literature, your desktop and mobile websites and even the interior of your restaurant, office or shop. With Graphic Kitchen’s support, The Regency Club looked at all of their assets as a whole to ensure that every area was touched by the rebrand.
Be selective with colours
When carrying out a rebrand, one of the biggest decisions you will make is choosing which colours will represent your brand. It sounds straightforward, but colour plays a critical role in the story that is being told about your business. Colours are evocative and will dictate how your customers feel when they see your marketing, click on your website or visit your establishment. As well as selecting the right colours, you also need to make sure that the colours you opt for complement each other and work well together. Don’t choose every colour in the rainbow, be selective, bold and confident in your choice. For The Regency Club, Graphic Kitchen used a palette of rich, dark-toned greens, blues and greys, which gave the nod to the tradition of the restaurant, but also set the tone for a luxurious, chic and high-class eating experience.
Use professional photography
An essential step to modernising through a rebrand is to hire a professional photographer to take imagery to use in your marketing collateral and website. As part of Graphic Kitchen’s package of support, we provided a brand and lifestyle shoot to photograph The Regency Club’s team, restaurant and food. As well as the images all being of superior quality and matching in style, the photographer was able to stage the shots so that they also included The Regency Club’s chosen colour palette.
Consistency in your rebrand will help the aesthetic of your business resonate a contemporary and sophisticated feel.
Take your rebrand even further
Don’t settle for ordinary in your brand design, as it’s the unusual and quirky that will make your business stand out and remain in customers’ minds. The Regency Club took its rebrand one step further by asking Graphic Kitchen to design labels for their sauce and spice selection, so that even the condiments on guests’ tables embodied the brand. For the final touch, Graphic Kitchen used its in-house design team to create wall graphics that matched the style of the brand. To break the mould, be daring and memorable.
When The Regency Club reopened its doors with its fresh new look, it experienced a 20% increase in sales. A prime example of appreciating your current audience, understanding your prospective clients and using thoughtful design to take your business where you want it go.
If you’d like to find out more about Sachin and Graphic Kitchen, please visit:
https://www.graphickitchen.co.uk/. You can also follow Sachin on LinkedIn, where he frequently posts business advice and inspiring content.
About the author:
Sachin Parmar is Co-founder and Creative Director of digital marketing and branding agency, Graphic Kitchen. As hospitality specialists, Graphic Kitchen offer comprehensive, innovative solutions for branding, website, social strategy and menu design. Graphic Kitchen is powered by evokeu, a boutique digital marketing and branding agency that works with big and small brands across a variety of sectors. With decades of design experience, Sachin has a keen eye for detail and a drive to create consistently superior results. Alongside his expert team, Graphic Kitchen and evokeu help clients capture customer attention and create growth.
