Retail food service

Spice up your restaurant’s way of communicating

The challenge

Building and sharing scrumptious brand narrative in food retail

Our solutions

You need the right ingredients to make customers’ mouths water and to allow your restaurant to truly stand out .

From concept to space design, from launch events to the management of the restaurant’s on- and offline presence – we work with you in establishing the restaurant’s brand identity and let it thrive at every touchpoint, enticing customers – not only with delicious scents.

BRANDING: design an identity like no other

Contributing to the creation of a new restaurant concept is a challenge which always excites us greatly. With CIRFOOD, for instance, we established the identity for its commercial catering concepts.

It all started at Expo 2015 in Milan, when CIRFOOD (Italian Restaurant Company), one of Italy’s largest collective and commercial catering and corporate welfare companies, launched its commercial formats – which still represent an important model for its customers today.

After conducting format positioning analyses, we developed original brand narratives for each one of them in parallel – allowing them to stand out from the competition, whilst adhering to CIRFOOD’s key concepts of sincerity, authenticity, and accessibility.

RITA: Smart Italian Catering

RITA is the brand that has always represented CIRFOOD’s self-service restaurants, offering gastronomic delicacies for a quality lunch break.

We have redefined its brand identity through a strong and recognisable iconography, which has a smart feel to it and brings happiness to the dinner table.

TRACCE:discovering new flavours

An evolved traditional buffet where seasonality, authenticity, and traceability take the stage.

We designed the naming, logo, and brand identity: the concept of “freshly harvested” clearly emerges at every touchpoint.

In collaboration with CIRFOOD’s team of designers, we then developed the entire communication structure of the venue: here, the brand narrative comes to life in the restaurant’s layout, signs, and aesthetic.

AROMATICA: an easy gourmet kitchen

Aromatica represents an innovative idea in CIRFOOD’s range of offers: a restaurant which can treat customers to an ever-changing experience of flavours, thanks to a kitchen which, each month, hosts a different chef selected from Italy’s finest cooks.

Naming, strategy, communication material, and video storytelling all play a part in forming an identity which is innovative and enticing – just like the restaurant’s menus.

LAUNCH: the people become the stars of the event

What better way to open a restaurant than by making influencers and customers the true stars of a cooking show?

When we organised the launch event for the Ristò Savignano GustoGiusto restaurant format, designed in collaboration with the Pollenzo University of Gastronomic Sciences, we invited journalists and influencers to participate – making them co-authors of the event.

With the help of a master baker, we explored the various steps of the bread and focaccia making processes – the attendees even got to make dough!

Results

WE ALL GOT OUR HANDS DIRTY!

The influencers’ experiences were made into posts and articles – and managed to reach more than 40,000 people.

40,000 people.

MAINTENANCE: managing digital presence creatively

After the branding and launch phases, it is essential to manage the digital presence of catering businesses and formats properly.

One of the issues, especially when dealing with a number of points of sale, is managing to dedicate the right amount of time and attention to both the brand and the individual restaurants, providing the necessary information for each venue.

Such difficulties are easily overcome thanks to the creative application of knowledge of the tools offered by social media.

FACEBOOK STRATEGY

For the catering concepts adopted by Crudo and Giustospirito, we have developed a local strategy on Facebook which allows us to optimise the management of the brand page and the pages of the individual restaurants.

INSTAGRAM STRATEGY

On Instagram, however, we opted for Highlighted Stories – each story depicts one of the restaurants through the experience of users.

Even during lockdown we managed to keep Giustospirito’s mood ironic and rebellious: the goal was to make customers feel close without losing that lightheartedness which characterises the brand.