The secret role of restaurant brands

Ten-Dollar Tauranga

Tauranga has had the name ‘ten-dollar Tauranga’ attached to it for years. The catchy nickname comes from a time you could go out for dinner and spend no more than a modest 10 dollar note.

So when I saw the headline - ‘How Bay of Plenty could become one of New Zealand’s best food destinations’ it caught my eye.

From ten-dollar Tauranga to one of NZ’s best food destinations could be seen as quite a jump for the locals.

Over the last 10 years there has been a huge influx of younger, highly skilled, business savvy people hungry to create something special. And that specialty seems to be creeping into the restaurants of Tauranga.

Creating the country’s best food destination isn’t all about the food, the restaurant branding plays a huge part, it’s the atmosphere and the holistic approach to going out for dinner that is getting turned up a notch in Tauranga. So a seemingly strange question we could ask is:

Can a brand make food taste better? I’ll give you a clue - yes.

If you’re thinking no, it’s worth quickly breaking down what I mean by brand. A brand encompasses different aspects of a product depending on the business.

What is restaurant branding?

In the context of a restaurant, the brand includes things like:

• Design Identity
• Language
• Website
• Front window
• Interior design
• Lighting
• Furniture
• Music
• Atmosphere

These are all the things customers will experience before taking one bite - and you know what they say, first impressions last.

That’s a fair amount of touchpoints to impress a customer before they even look at the menu.

So does the food even have to be good? Of course, but the more you give your customers to remember about their night out, the more they will on-sell that night out to their friends.

The location even plays a big part in how you create the restaurant brand, a restaurant in Mount Maungnaui tends to have a much more relaxed atmosphere than a restaurant in Tauranga. There’s a reason for that - audience, mindset and occasion.

For example, Rice Rice baby is a popular local Vietnamese restaurant in Mount Maunganui with a brand that is a hit with the locals of the area. How do we know it’s the brand? There’s a handful of Vietnamese restaurants with similar tasting food in the area, all with minimal brands and all not nearly as popular.

There’s a common perception that the brand doesn’t matter because it’s all about the food.

We need to remember that the brand is a presentation of the food, restaurants that believe this and execute it have a more loyal following. It’s not a coincidence.

A good way to test it is to ask the question, does my brand represent the style of food we serve?

My top 6 Tauranga Restaurants  

Below are 6 of my favourite Tauranga restaurants. I’ve put these in here not only for their food or their brand but for a mix of the two. So in no particular order, here we go.

Rice Rice Baby

A super colourful brand with an engaging social media presence and yum as food.

The island

The island has an awesome brand perfectly tailored for the community of Papamoa, having its brewery and boozy Sunday sessions only ads to the brand that they have built.

Sugo

Sugo is a delicious Italian inspired restaurant, it has a super clean atmosphere that is emulated by its branding.

Lantern

A fairly recent addition to Papamoa, Lantern is a South-East Asian inspired restaurant. With a nice relaxed vibe, it’s right at home 5 min from the beach.

Master Kong

A super fun interior fit-out with delicious food and 10/10 cocktails. It’s a local favourite.

Fife Lane

Widely talked about as the nicest restaurant in Mt Maunganui, Fife has a certain sophistication that isn’t that common in Tauranga. The brand is slick, the interior is stylish and the food is second to none. A clear crowd favourite for all the right reasons.

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