Article

3 dont's when it comes to your restaurant design

Within the competitive and seemingly bottomless fast casual market, entrepreneurs are increasingly finding that the basic template design no longer yields the results that they expect.

&pizza

February 19, 2016

By Julius Talvik, EVP of Innovation, RepEquity

Fast casual restaurants may be trendy, but they aren’t new. Whether it’s the late ‘80s Mozambican-Portuguese inspired chicken of South Africa’s Nando’s or London’s ‘90s favorite Wagamama, fast casual restaurants have been satisfying the urban consumer for decades. The sudden explosion in popularity is more likely attributed to trailblazers’ attempts to freshen the perspective of food from indulgence and expense, to millennial values such as health and environmentalism.

Though fast casual has been around for decades, there seems to be little agreement on how to reliably clone success. Within this competitive and seemingly bottomless market, entrepreneurs are increasingly finding that the basic template no longer yields the results that they expect. Looking at this crowded landscape, here are the three things fast casual restaurants need to avoid in their store design:

1. Don’t ignore the experience

Fast casual is so popular in part because it responds to changing consumer attitudes on operational aspects, including sourcing, labeling, nutritional awareness, quality and range of options without sacrificing efficiency. But there’s also another revolution going on that has to do with customer experience involving technology and the shifting role of brick-and-mortar locations.

It’s important to note that brick-and-mortar locations are no longer primarily (if at all) used for shopping or consuming. Now, they are also used for entertainment and socialization, and should be thought of more as opportunities for creating a tactile/physical relationship with the consumer.  Because of that, the look and feel of a space deserve particular attention. Chopt doesn’t only offer its international motif in its cuisine; each element of the store evokes the feelings of wanderlust, from the menu boards depicting dishes as destination stops to the light shades decorated with vintage travel posters.

In-store technology also increasingly shapes your store’s transactional experience, and can mean the difference between a single purchase and a repeat customer. Online ordering and interactive menus are no longer new, so your customer’s tolerance for failure will be low - and understandably so. Sure, user experience and aesthetics will be key in catering to what your customer wants, but the bottom line here is to make sure that it works. Fast casual restaurants choosing to go with cut-and-paste vendors will find that they have limited success in delighting their customers.

2. Don’t assume cuisine or healthfulness can replace culture

Certainly, quality still matters, but the quality of your food will be determined by the customer in the context of your culture and the experience you craft around it. Especially in the sameness-dominated fast casual world, cultural authenticity goes a long way towards forming a meaningful bond with the all-important evangelist consumer.

Creating a culture is, of course, tricky. As a starting point, culture largely depends on what the consumer expects from a restaurant experience overall. For example, there’s the changed perception of value and where a brand fits in the lifestyle of the consumer—people don’t just want to just eat anymore, they want to feel like they’re part of something meaningful.

For example, Sweetgreen’s store design goes beyond focusing on health and quality to play up a culture based on an understanding of redefined gender roles and what’s currently appealing to women. Attractive and modern, the finishes and color palette were intentionally chosen to be more evocative of a downtown yoga studio than a cafeteria. In addition, Sweetgreen uses product packaging to continue the brand theme and tell a story; the Sweetpress line doesn’t just sell healthy juice, it sells its customers the opportunity to “purify” or “detox” in a busy, stressful world.

Store design further amplifies what is otherwise primarily an intangible brand experience and serves as an accessible way for the consumer to validate the brand as a physical experience. Needless to say, as a “last-mile” touchpoint, it’s important to align the brick and mortar experience with the emotional construct or risk alienating the walk-in consumer. Once you’ve found the sweet spot, make sure that your consistent—you’ve created a bond with your customer and they’ll expect you to maintain it.

3. Don’t focus on the template; find your differentiator

In the new fast casual environment, simply checking the boxes of sustainability, local ingredients, technology and design won’t be enough to differentiate you from your competitor. Think carefully about the community that you live in, and what its members are looking for in the values of your company, the sourcing of your ingredients or the experience you offer. It may be that your customers’ needs align with the fast casual template, but more likely it’s the nuances of your local environment that will lend uniqueness to your brand.

&pizza does this very well; each one of its 16 locations is unique, which is a choice made by designers, who know their target customers are all-too-aware of the “Starbucksification” of modern urban centers (and increasingly suburbs as well) at the expense of local small business. The designers tie in neighborhood icons through photography and music selection, and each uses a different graphic treatment to connect the stores to their specific locations. In doing so, &pizza manages to strike at the heart of neighborhood culture without alienating the Millennial or Generation Z consumer. Despite this, it has managed to maintain a “look and feel” that is unique to its brand, using consistent color choices, uniforms, menus and logos.

In sum, the proverbial fast casual template does still matter but doesn’t act as a guarantee of business success. Focus on developing a brick-and-mortar experience paired with top-notch transactional technology that delights, a store environment that entertains and a culture that your customers can buy into -- all within the context of the values and qualities that make your brand unique.