Restaurants and Institutions

Chris Muller

The Real Brand Experience
January 25, 2008

In the last week or so, I've experienced two similar, but very different dining occasions. Together they made me realize how a restaurant's brand image is a very subtle and fragile thing.

There is a busy new Romano's Macaroni Grill in town [Orlando] and we decided to try the curbside take-out option. As we expected, after downloading the menu from the Web site, the ordering process was easy, the pickup service was friendly and convenient, and the food was still hot enough by the time we arrived home that we all simply poured the meals onto our plates and had a "family dinner" together at our kitchen table. The food was quite good, although it became a bit heavy as it cooled, and only one of the four of us finished all the pasta on our plates.

There is also a more established and critically acclaimed independent Italian restaurant, Stefano's, in a large strip mall about a half a mile closer, where we met another couple for dinner. We had never been there, but had heard good things and it also was what we expected. There was a good crowd for a Sunday night, but we were able to change booths (the seating was too cramped at the first one). We had an overly attentive server who was disappointed when we ordered three glasses of Pinot Grigio and not the "better value" whole bottle. The food was quite good, the plates were hot and only one of us finished all the food on our plates.

As I say, they were fairly similar menu items. But there were some meaningful differences in the brand experience we had at each restaurant.

The most obvious, of course, is that we ate the Romano's meal in our own kitchen. Our conversation was lively; we all shared a bit of each other's plates, but about half way through the meal, the food lost a bit of its appeal. Instead of talking about family and friends, the topic switched to of all things, the "mouthfeel" of our dinner. By the time we were finished, the general feeling was one of moderate disappointment. My guess is that we won't rush to repeat the experience anytime soon.

On the other hand, while the server forgot to mention the specials at all, Stefano himself appeared in a white T-shirt and apron, asked in his thick accent if we had been there before, told us his son was cooking, his daughter was waiting on a table across the room and that that day's chicken soup was the best he had ever made. I added a bowl to our order as the waitress walked by. As promised, it was good. The salads were marginal at best, but the entrées were hot and generous. We all shared a bite from each plate, and then over the next 40 minutes engaged in a wide-ranging conversation about politics, religion and family. Stefano visited with us briefly two additional times between delivering meatballs or grated cheese to tables around the room. By the time we were finished, we all felt as if we had a great meal together and talked about doing it again. We will definitely return.

When I got home, the question I asked myself was this: Which restaurant, Romano's or Stefano's, has more brand equity? Romano's has a beautiful décor package, great training programs and world-class market research. But in the end, none of that mattered: The Romano's brand identity was reduced to how well the food tasted on our plates in our kitchen.

On the other hand, Stefano's décor was nothing special, the staff was merely above amateur and he's the entire research-and-development team. Yet in the end, none of that mattered, because Stefano's was all about our experience.

My conclusion is that in the industry's rush to provide more convenience through on-line ordering, curbside take-out, and other brand extension; we might be forgetting what a restaurant "experience" means. --Chris Muller

Posted by Chris Muller on January 25, 2008 | Comments (0)