Carmellas Restaurant Branding
Location: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Reach: Regional
Targets: Families, foodies, area business professionals
Abstract //
A chef we've worked with called us one afternoon and started a fire. He had been contracted to revamp a dying local restaurant and turn it around to be a profitable brand. He appealed to the owner that if he didn't enlist Vigor to brand this restaurant, competing restaurateurs would to ill effect. We had an audience in minutes.
Key Challenges //
- Ridiculously quick development and turnaround—four (4) days
- Develop a solid, permanent brand identity for the restaurant
- Design menu presentations, produce temporary and permanent menus
- Design and install indoor/outdoor signage
Do it with Vigor //
We had basically no time to do any sort of research, but had a very good understanding of the market in this locale, it being our home base, and a Vigor principal having built, owned and sold a restaurant here. We latched on to the offering and looked for ways to differentiate it in the saturated downtown market. Italian—if we had nickel for every Italian cuisine venue in this city or the world... Hey, the Italians know food. No wonder there's so many of them.
So we dug deeper to find discernible points of differentiation in Italian-inspired cuisine. We actually turned to the owner inside whom we uncovered a passion for Italian food. So much in fact, that this new restaurant was about turning a profit, yes. But profitability on the logical side was shadowed by the unbridaled passion the owner had for the food, the culture and the ambiance associated with Italian restaurants. Bingo.
We quickly embraced this passion and tethered it to the historic passion Italians are known for. We then came full-circle to permeate this passion throughout the restaurant's brand, from the food outward through service until it finally hits guests. Passion was the common denominator we needed to tie the brand together quickly.
We quickly drafted copy that spoke about Italian's passion for love and for food—and for their love of food. We knew the chef's work as being spectacular, so we knew the menu would be additive in supporting the brand, not something that we'd have to fight to make work. The chef's final menu selections provided further insight in honing the identity down specifically to pull from the traditional kitchens of the Motherland.
Visual identity used this as a springboard to capture this essence—something made by hand, with love. We also worked in the traditional landscape of Tuscany as a nod to the heart of Italian cooking.
Vigor Services //
- Brand identity design and strategy
- Menu design
- Exterior and Interior signage design
Results //
Carmella's has attracted the lost business back to the location since assuming control. The fresh, inviting brand and food interplay, each playing a role in telling a story that's compelling to potential guests. Business is up.
