How Important Is Visual Brand Image in Attracting an Appropriate Customer Base - Research Paper Example

How important is visual brand image in attracting an appropriate base within the cafe or restaurant business? Table of Contents Introduction3 Literature Review 4 Efforts in Development of Visual Brand 4 Target Customers 5 Case Study: Visual Brand Success 7 Significance of Visual Brand Image 10 Relationship between Customers’ Age and Visual Brand Image 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction Visual image comprises corporate communication regarding the performance of the product, price, and social factors. It also provides information regarding the effort of the company in creating positive attitude towards the consumers or citizens in a country. Corporate image, advertising image, brand image and brand identity, are visual imagery (Aaker, 1991). The visual brand image subsists within the periphery of socio-legal setting because verbal statement, political promises or product claims can be held false, but pictures or visual representations cannot be easily considered true or false. Images assist in avoiding the misleading claims. This is the reason why most of the marketers prefer audio visual media to display their message to customers rather than just telling (Aaker, 1996). Nowadays, many brand battles can be seen in the visual domain. The designs depend on the aesthetic expertise and the visual understanding (Parameswaran, and Yaprak, 1987, p. 35-49). The advent of Web has mandated visualisation in every aspect of communication, operation, and corporate strategy (Keller, 1993, p. 1-22). After the inception of web designing, visual representation has penetrated deeply into strategic thinking branding and the promotional aspects. Presenting or creating brand image visually involves communication of the corporate message, product features, corporate identity, and economic performance (Khachaturian, and Morganosky, 1990, p. 21-30). The perception and recognition of any brand is influenced by the visual presentation. Effective visual brand image can be achieved through the consistent usage of visual elements, such as a specific logo, design, graphic element, or font (Piron, 2000). Colours are a significant part of the visual brand image. Colour mapping assists in providing a useful approach to ensure the right colour combination for differentiating the brand and protect it from the cluttered market. It has been noticed that customers are not only concerned about the quality and price of the product, but also about the country of origin of the brand (Cobb-Walgren, Ruble, and Donthu, 1995, p. 25-40). There are many customers who blindly ascertain the quality of the product based on the country of its origin. For example, German cars are of excellent design, pizza from Italy are the best, Electronic products from Japan are the most reliable, etc (Cordell, 1992, p. 259-269). This indicates that various brands from different countries have a brand image of their own, and it is one of the major determining factors of consumer choice (Fishbein, and Ajzen, 1975). This study aims at evaluating the significance of visual brand image in attracting the customers to a restaurant or cafe. Further, a comprehensive review of the literature would include an evaluation of the efforts of the restaurants or cafes in the development of visual image of the brands, their target customer groups, significance and relationship of visual brand image with the customers’ age. Literature Review Efforts in Development of Visual Brand It is a common saying that when a dish looks delicious, it also tastes delicious. This means that the menu offered in restaurant or cafes, or the place itself has to have a theme or ambience. Visual image of a brand acts as a pull factor in case of restaurants or cafes (Loader, 1992). Restaurants and cafes focus on look, such as the interior and the exterior, to grab the attention of the customers as well as offer them an excellent dining experience (M. Payne, and B. Payne, 1993). The furniture, walls, texture, colours, paintings, lightings, utensils, etc. are all a part of visual brand image in the restaurant and cafe segment. For example, McDonald’s, Cafe Coffee Day, Starbucks, etc all follows a specific theme in their shop to maintain uniformity around the world. This creates a visual brand image in the minds of the customers (Sheth, 1973). The golden arches represent McDonald’s, while a green coloured mermaid surrounded by two fins represents Starbucks. Restaurants and Cafes are also consulting interior designers for setting the theme according to the mood of the customers because the selection of the cuisine depends on the menu offered and the ambience (Robinson, Faris, and Wind, 1967). Visual image is also created through the way of presenting the dishes, the behaviour of the employees inside the cafe or restaurant and the whole experience of visiting a restaurant for having something. Even the menu card in a cafe or restaurant should appeal to the customers. For example, the menu book of Pizza Hut is immensely attractive and mostly contains pictorial representation of the menu, which makes the dish looks more attractive to the customers (Slater, and Cawley, 1992). Target Customers In order to identify the target customer groups for visual branding, it is necessary to estimate the target customers of the restaurants and cafes. It has been seen that customer’s visit to restaurants or cafes depend on income level, age, marital status, and lifestyle, available options of dinning and size of the household. For example, it has been surveyed that the young adults ranging middle to high income groups visit restaurants and cafes frequently (Kumar, and Steenkamp, 2007; Kumar, Shah, and Venkatesan, 2006). This indicates that the taste and preferences in terms of menu, ambience and service would be different than the aged customers. The generation Y prefers to have quick service or self-service restaurants and cafes, while middle-aged people prefer to have a cosy and nice ambience with tasty and good quality food where they can also accompany their family (Luijten, and Reijnders, 2009). The visual branding depends on the target customer groups of the restaurants or cafes. For example, McDonald’s offers a visual image which welcomes children and youngsters, and along with that they also attract the young adults and aged customers. So it basically presents itself to be a family restaurant. On the other hand, Starbucks represents an American feel, which is more professional or quite and cosy (McInnis, and Nakamoto, 1990; Martenson, 2007). The target customers for visual branding depend on the culture of the country too. As in the Asian countries people prefer to hang out and dine with families, so Pizza Hut launched itself as a family restaurant with large round tables and a bell at the door so that children can have fun and a large family can sit together and enjoy the dining experience. All these elements add to the visual brand image of a company (Mazursky, and Jacoby, 1986). The specifically themed restaurants try to target a group of customers, such as Hard Rock Cafe in USA targets the music lovers of hard rock, while Planet Hollywood is a movie themed restaurant targeted at movie buffs and similarly ESPN zone is for the sport lovers (Park, Milberg, and Lawson, 1991). However, in general the restaurants and cafes are launched and their visual branding is done keeping in mind the masses because the core products of cafes or restaurants are food and drinks, so the preference of the customers to consume a particular dish or beverage motivates them towards that particular restaurant or cafe (Park, McCarthy, and Milberg, 1993). The question of differentiation arises because the market is cluttered with restaurants and cafes. In order to create a value spot in the minds of the customers, and to increase the brand equity and receive worldwide recognition it is important to focus on visual branding (Pedhazur, and Schmelkin, 1991). For visual branding the restaurant has to either select the customer group or chose the theme based on which the restaurant is going to be designed; so the strategy has to be either pull or push (Reinartz, and Kumar, 2002; Richardson, Jain, and Dick, 1996). In push strategy, the restaurant or cafe is designed on the basis of a theme and it tries to attract customers and push the visual image of the brand to the customers. In case of pull strategy target groups are selected and in order to pull them towards the restaurant, ambience is created, menus are served and services are provided (Pettijohn, Mellott, and Pettijohn, 1992). Case Study: Visual Brand Success In this section, a few case stories of the above discussed restaurants and cafes would be included in order to support the theories and approaches with practical examples. The first case story would be depicting the journey of Starbucks in building its visual brand image. Starbucks’ logo is better recognised among the customers than the name itself. Starbucks has become a synonym for coffee just because of its visual branding strategies. In the 40 years history of the company, it has changed its logo for 4 times. Since 1987 the logo of Starbucks has been changed to green colour, which still continues. A consistency has been noticed in the look, colour and feel of the business cards, store exterior, packaging, gift cards, website design, and coffee glasses and even in the dress code of the employees (Scott-Morton, and Zettelmeyer, 2004). The colour combination of each of these elements is same which gives a feel of uniformity and consistent quality of the product irrespective of store or country. This is what visual branding does for Starbucks. The next case story of visual brand success is of McDonald’s. Whenever people think of those golden arches, they remember the tasty burgers of McDonald’s; this is the brand image which the company has created through its visual branding (Semeijn, Rieb, and Ambrosini, 2004). McDonald’s uses a mascot and a well-designed logo with a catchy tag line attached, which creates brand awareness in the customer’s minds. However, the logo and the mascots are not the only reasons why through which they create their visual image (Shwu-Ing, and Jui-Ho, 2010). It’s the colour scheme, decor, and uniforms of the staffs too which add to visual branding. The golden and red theme of McDonald’s can be also seen in the interior of the restaurant. Apart from this it offers its menu through flyers with prices to the customers for increasing the brand awareness. The menu on its website contains image of each type of burgers along with a list containing the fat and calorie contain, which would provide the customers who are health conscious with an idea regarding the ingredients. The pictographically represented menu grabs the attention of the customers and draws them towards McDonald’s (Steenkamp, Koll, and Geyskens, 2004). The third case story is of Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is better known as KFC. KFC had the intention of presenting themselves as an appealing and welcoming food joint for customers, so they opted for attractive wooden furniture than the metal railings in order to present a soft and relaxed environment for the customers. In order to garb more attention from the customers, the bright red colour was used in its logo and for the whole shop. The logo of KFC contains the picture of its owner, Sanders. Even if KFC is not written below, the face of Sanders symbolises that it is something related to KFC. The interior and the website is also red in colour and sometimes even the history of KFC is seen on the wall, which the customers find amusing when they read (Steenkamp, J.B.E.M., Van Heerde, H. and Geyskens, I., 2010). The visual image of KFC as a brand has been created in such a manner, that when customers think of fried chicken wings, they think of KFC (Sudhir, and Talukdar, 2004). Dunkin Donuts is the next visual brand success in the cafe segment. It is as popular as Starbucks around the world for its coffee, donuts, and its ice-cream brand Baskin Robbins. Dunkin Donuts follows a differentiation strategy in designing its visual branding framework. This means that in the western countries the food is served in self-served cases, while in the Asian countries bigger areas for dinning is provided because people visit the cafes generally with their families (Czinkota, and Ronkainen, 2007; Gilbert, 2003). The donuts are also custom made to suit the taste of the customers in different countries, such as in Asian countries they introduced Mochi Rings, which is made from rice flour, which offers a chewier texture than the normal donuts (Kotler, 2009). The advertisements and hoardings are designed according to the preference of the customers, so that customers overseas do not treat it as a foreign brand; rather adopt it as one of them (Keegan, 2002). They even introduced interactive and colourful mobile apps for the regular customers to book seats and order online. The orange and pink theme of Dunkin Donuts is very eye-catching and welcoming (Kumar, and Sharma, 1998). Significance of Visual Brand Image Branding is not possible without visual languages, which not only assists in communicating the core or real meaning of the brand and its unique proposition, but also offers its customers with the clues related to the other brands in the market. What differentiates a market leader from the other related available brands in the market is its visual image (Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel, 2011). The brand image of a blue box with a white ribbon is the visual language that indicates Tiffany. This visual is iconic because it represents sophistication, femininity, premium design etc. Similarly, the logo of Subway or Domino’s also acts as a visual image for the customers. A cautiously designed marketing strategy for a restaurant or cafe definitely includes visual image, as it has become crucial for the marketing success. Customers can connect to visuals differently than they can do with speeches or words (Lao, 2001). A simple image has the capability of delivering excess amount of information in a short space or a limited span of time. Restaurants like Dominos or Pizza hut heavily rely on the visual presentation of their products (Little, and Marandi, 2003; Mohr, Sengupta, and Slater, 2010). The website of Starbucks contains images of almost every item served in their restaurant. Subway displays vivid and colourful images of the topping and sandwiches it offers in order to reveal the freshness and quality of its products through visual imagery (OECD, 2012). This is done to give the customers a first-hand feel of the dishes they offer at the restaurants. Themed restaurants create an ambience which gives the feel of the era or theme that the restaurant or cafe is based on (Okonkwo, 2007). It has been seen that the UK has the largest chains in the restaurant sector, but it is behind USA, when it comes to customer acceptance. This is because the restaurant chains of the USA draw attention of the customers around the world through their visual appeal and brand image. If the top ten restaurants or cafe chains around the world are considered, then majority would be from the USA (Pahl, and Richter, 2009; Richter, 2012). Another increasingly accepted approach that marketers in restaurant and cafe industry are promoting is the usage of green or eco-friendly marketing strategies. For example, Starbucks adopted the approach and utilised recyclable paper cups for serving coffee, which is eco-friendly as well as attractive (Stone, and Desmond, 2007). The ambience of Starbucks is mostly green which offers a soothing warm ambience to the customers visiting its cafes. Dunkin Donuts adopted green technology through implementing on-site solar power facility through 80 pounds of earthworms in Florida. It has received LEED certification for this absolute eco-friendly initiative. These initiatives or strategies also add to the visual brand image of a restaurant or cafe. People who regularly visit become loyal for such initiatives (Gilligan, Richard and Wilson, 2012). It has been also seen that in building visual brand image, culture ( ) plays an important role. A Chinese restaurant is decorated with Chinese lanterns, images of red Chinese dragons to give the customers a feel of the Chinese culture along with the food. Serving the same Chinese menu in a different ambience which is displaying cartoon characters from Walt Disney would not give the customers the same feel. This is the effect of visual branding (Ritchie, and Crouch, 2003). If the restaurant or cafe is serving specific menu related to a country or place it is obvious that interior and the ambience should also reflect the place, its culture and environment. Relationship between Customers’ Age and Visual Brand Image The visual brand image is developed in order to attract customers and grab their attention. The customer’s reaction of visual branding of every company differs on the basis of their own perception, which develops or differs with the age group. It can be said that age is one of the key components which is critical for the brand image of a company. A hard rock cafe is generally not visited by aged customers because it does not match their taste and preference. The company launching such cafe is also not targeting the aged customers, so the ambience created within the restaurant are solely for hard rock music lover, generally belonging to young or young adult group (Wilson, 2005). On the other hand the restaurants are generally not segregated on the basis of age because food depends on the taste and preference of the customers. Though majority of the fast food such as burger or French fries are consumed by children, teenagers or young people, even the middle-aged and aged group prefer these. In Asian countries where generally all the family members go out together for dining, a restaurant where a wide range of items are there on the menu is preferred, so that every member can get any of their favourite dishes. Cafes like Starbucks set an ambience to offer cosy, relaxing and warm atmosphere where professionals, aged, as well as young people can sit and talk over a cup of coffee and other items. Dunkin Donuts presents a brighter and playful image with its pink and orange interior, which reveals that it is inclined towards more young customers and this is the reason why the image is playful rather than serious and classy. Conclusion It is generally said “seeing is believing”, so which people see with their own eyes they believe. This study was also conducted with the objective of evaluating the significance of visual brand image among the customers. The restaurant and cafe segment has become cluttered with the increasing number of dining places and fast food joints. The multinational restaurant and cafe chains are facing stiff competition from the domestic brands in different countries, so the only differentiating element that is generating revenue for the market leaders are its visual brand image. It is important to create a striking difference in the crowd, which is done by the globally well-known brands, such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC, or Dunkin Donuts. Visual branding is done by the restaurants and cafes on the basis of their target customers and the age group they want to focus on. References Aaker, D.A., 1991. Managing Brand Equity. New York, NY: Macmillan. Aaker, D.A., 1996. 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