A brand is a promise. The best restaurant branding I have seen is when the promise of the organization is inspiring, believable and reflected at every touchpoint. The customers, employees, suppliers, investors, media, all of the stakeholders – they all see and feel the promise in a way that is authentic and visceral.

People buy brands that reflect how they see themselves in the world. Sure, millions of people buy from the Chipotle brand just because it’s a good burrito or they saw a funny billboard or they were just close by when they got hungry. But the reason the Chipotle brand is so successful is because it is not just a business but a “cause”. Their tagline “Food with Integrity” is more than a catchy restaurant slogan, it is a core belief of the company. It’s a promise that is a non-negotiable. The promise has been reflected at every touch point. The employees, the suppliers, the media, the customers – they have all bought in to the ideal of sustainability and being part of something bigger and more important than “we have the best burrito”. And the result? Chipotle is the best performing restaurant stock of 2010.

In developing new restaurant brands or facilitating improvement of established restaurant brands, we start by helping the company define its “reason for being”. We facilitate defining and articulating more authentic and inspiring brand compoents including the Brand Promise, Brand Positioning Strategy, Brand Personality and Brand Story. These elements all get wrapped up in the Brand Constitution. From there, the rollout plans are devised for how to get those brand elements inextricably connected and weaved in to the fabric of the company so it is reflected at every stakeholder touchpoint.

A lot of marketers and restaurant consultants start at a tactical level and talk through things like new logos, creative campaigns, how to jump in to digital media…they are all about how to say it not “why”. That’s the difference between great restaurant marketing and uninspired “me-too” approaches that just don’t work. The process is a lot more akin to psychology than it is to the marketing profession most of us think of when the topic “restaurant branding” comes up.

The Ask Why video is a powerful message and great insight in to the right way to approach restaurant branding and leadership.

There is not a restaurant in America that prides itself on having poor service, atmosphere or food; at least not a successful one. From McDonald’s to famed Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago – they all have good food, good service, good atmosphere and offer a good time. These points go without saying when they are true.

When a restaurant claims these attributes in their slogan it immediately confirms that the restaurant making the claim has so little creative juice and competitive differentiation that they are the restaurant equivalent of a generic paper brown bag. Such a slogan can only be the product of utterly inept brainstorming, marketing acumen and laziness. It immediately confirms market irrelevance.

I’ve traveled the world and have seen some version of this tagline repeated hundreds of times. Typically the restaurants are run-down road-side pubs, a burger joint run by someone that doesn’t really like people so instead of working for someone else they opened a restaurant, or a ubiquitous greasy spoon. Occasionally though, you see a restaurant that has had serious money put behind it and, as if looking after every detail except what makes the restaurant different, the owner thinks of a brainstorm idea of what to put under the name: “I’ve got it! What we sell is good food, good times and good services – let’s use that as our slogan”. Good grief.

Yes, I am a bit exasperated and it is showing. I just cringe when I think of someone putting their investment at risk in such a way.

If you or anyone you know has some variation of “good food, good times, good service” as a slogan, please seek immediate professional help. If you worked with a marketing professional that gave an approving nod to such a slogan, you owe it to yourself and them to put a great deal of distance between you both.

There are 1,000,000 restaurants in the United States all claiming they have good food, good service and good atmosphere. This is just the ticket in to the game though, not a point of differentiation. It’s like a tomato saying it’s better because it grew on a vine. Tell prospective customers something else. Tell them what makes you different.