Crisis of Choice
I spent the last week in midtown Manhattan on a project, and one of the things I've enjoyed is experiencing new restaurant concepts. One of the most unique was a place called 4 Food. It lured me in with a wonderfully focused brand message, "De-junking fast food." But once I went in it was nothing but confusion. So many options, so many things to do and think about. And everyone else that came in around us was asking the same questions and spent probably and average of 5 minutes trying to decide what to get.
Once we actually ordered and got our food, we were very pleased. The food was very tasteful and healthy at the same time, a great combination as our society is focusing more on health. But as good as it was, the difficulty ordering made it harder for me to go back again.
If you are launching a new brand, it's important to keep things simple for the ones trying it out for the first time.
2 Comments
"100% agree with this. I remember going into Which Wich, a sandwich shop, for the first time.and was bombarded with a plethora of options. It was so complicated that for the first two weeks after they opened they had an employee stand by the menu to help explain how to order food. Though options are great, companies can do better job presenting them. For instance Yeah Burger presents multiple options but arranges their menu in way to allow the customer to pick each option one at a time. The ability to focus on each part of the burger is crucial to the way they sell there product!"
- Eric Beatty
"I couldn't agree with you more. It's step number one when I start working with restaurants. The ordering process needs to be easy, simple and quick. Table turn around is important even if the restaurant doesn't have tables. Customers want to make decisions easily without hassle. Great post."
- Joseph - Vigor Restaurant Branding