12-6 Blog: Opportunities to Spread the Power of An Organization’s Brand

I spent this past Saturday evening at a restaurant in Alpharetta, Georgia, close to my AlphaGraphics Center in Sandy Springs. As recommended public-health experts, we dined on the patio. We were the only ones to do so despite the pretty evening. We also wore our masks to the restaurant but removed them once seated. We noticed that mask-wearing among the members of the staff was inconsistent. You might think this is a column then about COVID-19 sins, but nope. It is about this restaurant’s wasted opportunities to spread its brand. My husband, most of our friends, and I are what you might call “foodies.” We enjoy cooking, and we certainly love eating at good restaurants. We are worried, therefore, about the impact rh pandemic is having on this industry and on our favorite eateries. The Alpharetta restaurant is new to us, but the food was good. So, we would like to return. But in a touch environment, making sure your current and future customers remember you and know you are open is crucial to survival. I wonder how distinctive and memorable it would be for the restaurant’s patrons to see the Staff wearing beautifully designed and branded face masks made from soft banner material like the ones we make at our Tri-Cities - Atlanta Airport Center. Or for the most regular customers or the ones that schedule a small celebration like a birthday to get those masks as promotions. The stickers with QR codes for the menus on the outdoor tables were plain. I told our friends we had printed QR stickers for a Sandy Springs restaurant with the establishment’s logo in the center. For the Alpharetta restaurant, I would have used their logo to frame the QR code. Either way, it was another wasted opportunity to promote the brand. The tent over some of the outdoor tables was a nice touch to protect diners from the weather, but it was beige. As pandemic may make outdoor sitting may become obligatory for restaurants, this is another way in which we can help. There are more ways, but you get the idea. Yes, these are challenging times, and restaurants are already straining to survive under difficult economic constraints often imposed by government authorities. Some of the visual communications above are less expensive (QR stickers), some are moderate (yard signs or banners telling people a restaurant is (re)open), some are more expensive (branded patio covers). Deciding what to do is not easy, but I love to work with Clients to figure out the best visual communications solutions for their goals and financial means.