Branding is not just about promoting your restaurant, but also about strategic planning on how people will perceive your brand. You have to play with people’s psychology to make your restaurant visible to them.
Think of the last restaurant you visited willingly, and you’ll see that each detail was created for you to lure you into that place. The aroma, the colours, the logo, the menu, everything is created in a way that makes you want to visit the restaurant.
If you are also a restaurant owner, looking forward to using psychology for your restaurant’s branding, then read on. This article will help you understand how to carefully use colours, fonts, and other elements to create a feel that makes people want to visit your restaurant.
Colour Psychology Behind Restaurant Branding
Knowing the meaning of each colour is crucial before you choose one for your brand. And when it comes to restaurant branding, every colour plays a crucial role in stimulating or suppressing the appetite of your customers.
When branding for your restaurant, you must choose colours carefully, depending on what sort of service you offer or what your restaurant’s type is. Here are a few categories of colours that can either stimulate or suppress appetite:
Strong Stimulants
If you own a restaurant where you want people to order more and enjoy your food to the fullest, then you must use colours like:
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
For example, you might have seen various restaurants, such as KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s, use red and yellow colours to encourage visitors to order more and enjoy their meals to the fullest.
All these colours play a crucial role in increasing the appetite for your food. Red colour increases hunger, orange helps in increasing mental activity, and reminds one of healthy food. At the same time, the yellow colour makes you feel happy and energetic. So make sure you decide the colours of your interior accordingly.
Mild Stimulants
Green and Turquoise are considered mild stimulants, as these colours evoke the emotions and feelings of a healthy diet, abundance. These colours can mildly stimulate appetite, making you feel hungry and more inclined to eat.
You might have witnessed that when you visit a restaurant, just to eat something you love, but the vibe there makes you order more food; that’s how restaurant owners play with psychology.
Green is also a colour that is associated with environment conscious and healthy eating. When you use green colour for your restaurant, you might be giving your customers the impression that you offer healthy food and follow environmentally friendly practices. Various brands, such as Starbucks, Subway, and others, use green in their branding to evoke emotions of healthy eating.
Suppressants
Various colours are used by restaurants, but they are also appetite suppressants. You might be wondering why these are used; if they are appetite suppressants, well, there are tactics to use these colours. Here’s a list of these colours:
- Gray
- Black
- Brown
- Purple
- Blue
All these colours look good when used with interiors, but can suppress hunger too. These are often used in fine-dining restaurants, bars, and aesthetic cafes, and are carefully balanced to complement the restaurant’s aroma, lighting and more.
Font Psychology Behind Restaurant Branding
Fonts also play a crucial role in branding. Now you might be wondering where fonts are used? Well, these are used in menus and logos. So you must choose fonts that not only make an impact but are also easily readable. Studies show that font styles are associated with higher quality and value. If you use vague fonts, your menu and restaurant might not look very professional.
Font style can influence customers’ perceptions of food quality. For example, when restaurants use a serif font, it indicates higher quality. These are often considered traditional and elegant. At the same time, sans-serif fonts are more modern and informal. You must take care of the font, font size, and colour to play with the psychology of people.
Smell or Aroma Psychology Behind Restaurant Branding
Did you know that the sense of smell plays a crucial role in bringing back memories and old sentiments, and in fostering imagination? So the aroma of your restaurant also plays a crucial role in luring people to your restaurant. You might have noticed that coffee shops often have that coffee’s aromatic smell that makes people feel calm. It creates the perfect vibe for enjoying coffee and pairing it with a dessert.
Once, Starbucks discontinued their sandwiches for 6 months because the smell of cheese cooking and burning overpowered the aroma of coffee. So you must carefully understand what aroma can make your restaurant, cafe, or eatery smell appealing.
Strong Aromatic Stimulants To Use
- Chamomile
- Vanilla
- Baked Bread
- Lavender Floral
Mild Aromatic Stimulants To Use
- Talcum Powder
- Citrus
- Apple Cucumber
- Peppermint
Ambience Psychology Behind Restaurant Branding
The ambience of a restaurant plays a crucial role in attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. If your restaurant’s ambience is good with subtle lighting, aesthetic colours and elements, people will remember your restaurant and will visit frequently.
When branding your restaurant, you must pay crucial attention to the lighting, colours, and more.
- You can use bright lighting if you want more visitors and want to be a family-friendly restaurant.
- Use warm, colourful lighting in fine-dining restaurants.
- Go for aesthetic lighting for cafes and restaurants targeting young adults and teenagers.
Consider the following factors when deciding on the ambience:
- Target audience
- Concept
- Theme
- Physical space
- Cultural influence
In a Nutshell!
Branding our restaurant must be done carefully and strategically. You must know that branding plays a crucial role in how people perceive your brand. So you must take care of colours, lighting, font and other factors that can present your restaurant as a brand. If you don’t pay enough attention to your branding, then you can’t expect people to visit your restaurant and think of it better than your competitors.
So what are you waiting for? Get in touch with a restaurant marketing agency now, which can help you with your restaurant’s branding and turn it into a brand that people remember.