How understanding culture is important for Branding and Positioning
Opening a restaurant in the city of Bangalore, India, is not very hard. After all, it is the start-up capital of India. But sustaining one is quite hard. The streets are filled with cafés, bars, pubs and restaurants ranging in wide varieties. What would make a Fast, Family Friendly and Healthy Food Joint / Restaurant stick and sustain? Positioning the restaurant in a heavy bustle could definitely give them all the eyeballs but competition is extremely high and the probability of success, quite low. We needed a different approach and story to build this into a successful restaurant.
Working on the positioning of this restaurant opened up my ability and interest in understanding what customers want and need, how brands are built and positioned.
“Positioning is finding the right parking space inside the consumer’s mind and going for it before someone else takes it.” — Laura Busche
Story of The Trail
Indian National Highways consisted mostly of small Dhabas and food joints. Lack of hygiene, variety in food and a comfortable ambience was among major concerns for the people driving through. This was also the period (2013 onwards) of the booming of Café Coffee Day, KFC and McDonalds and other fast-food joints. The older demographic was left behind.
Travelling for pilgrimages is among a very common family activity in Indian society. The visit to the temples generally lasted anywhere from 2 hours to much longer depending on families. That specific group of people required Indian restaurants that was able to give fast, but Indian wholesome meals, to have an uninterrupted prayer time. This was the gap that Trail was going to fill.
Brand Positioning and Difference:
Road travel lacked quality restaurants. Long waiting periods, unhealthy & unhygienic food options or extremely high prices for substandard quality of food were among the most common issues that people faced.
Ideally, Pilgrimages and Temple visits last close to 2–3 hours. Children tend to get restless if they are hungry and people aged 50+ (grandparents) are patients of various illnesses that required timely food. This allows us space for 2 meals — one before the visit and one after. Being the only restaurant around the temple also works in our favour since the TG can come in twice, thereby, growing the sales in the restaurant. The position of the restaurant around religious areas also allows for a larger group of audience to be present.
The aim of Trail is to transform the way guests are served at pilgrimage spaces and while travelling. Food is cooked in advanced German Combi-oven with steam cooking for unmatched taste, quality and consistency. The food is low fat, cooked in soyabean oil. The trail serves RO water and makes its own ice — A perfect solution to a cautious, yet desperate audience group.
Brand Positioning is not just about finding the right story to share with your customers. It is also about finding the right time and right place to share it.
My Learning:
Brand Positioning is not just about finding the right story to share with your customers. It is also about finding the right time and right place to share it. They may not necessarily know or say what they want. But understanding nuances in behaviour is an important factor in building brands. For instance, if the restaurant was to also serve non-vegetarian food, the current placement simply would not have functioned. This is due to a deeply rooted behaviour that stops the audience from consuming meat before entering the place of worship. After all, it is not just thorough market analysis, competition analysis, unique selling proposition and strong brand value that makes a good brand. It is the ability of a brand to strike intangible chords in the perspective and beliefs of its target audience.
The project was done in employment with a design agency in the year 2016. My scope included the naming, positioning, development of brand identity and interior designing of the restaurant. The current scenario may be different and this research solely depended on information during the project year 2015–2016.
