One of our restaurant clients has a major differentiation, which all of their advertising swirls around: they don’t just warm up their subs—they grill everything they put on there. It’s an important difference, which we’ve helped them leverage very successfully. EXCEPT FOR CATERING, when they serve up cold cuts cold.
Some of the laughingest nights I can remember I have spent at big tables in the cozy spaces of various Buca di Beppos, a concept which has created an experience that actually stokes social interaction and light-heartedness. EXCEPT FOR CATERING, where they can try to export the fun but it’s just not the same.
How I interpret the enormous san serif all caps “WE CATER” on this rolling brand expression: “Please please please call us for catering PLEASE OH PLEASE.”
Over and over again, when one talks to restaurant management, one can sense they’re happy to talk about whatever but what they REALLY want to talk about is catering. Yet it’s not central to any of their brand concepts.
What a moneymaker. What a great business to be in. What a conundrum.
All the work has gone in to figuring out how operations can deliver the brand in the restaurant. Work has gone into the food, and possibly into figuring out the menu items that travel best and the best way to deliver them (Buca brings tablecloths—a nice touch).
But what about the brand promise? Can it go in the sack? Does it survive being transported in a styrofoam box?
In this age of food trucks, it seems possible.
But I can’t think of a brand that’s successfully managed to cater in a way that really exploits their brand promise. Can you? (If so, to the comment section with you.) Many are trying, like Einstein here in this Nation’s Restaurant News article. It may be that restaurants that specialize in carbs are set up best for the catering challenge— I’ve witnessed a successful Olive Garden catering moment with a bunch of non-judgemental soccer player families shoveling it in: not exactly the fake Tuscan family get-together they try to evoke, but close enough, maybe. One of my co-workers speaks fondly of the Fazoli’s that was catered at his son’s cross country events.
To be honest, I don’t think the in-store experience of Fazoli’s is all that crucial, in the way that Buca’s is. I would it eat it here or there—say, I would eat it anywhere.
That’s as opposed to Red Lobster, which explicitly says on their website:
Red Lobster does not offer catering services, but we’re always happy to help you plan a special event in our restaurant. Contact your local Red Lobster for more information.”
You can imagine why. Lobsterfest set up on the long tables in the church basement for the youth group meeting would not feature too many manicured lemon squeezes.
Whither catering? How does the marketing department deal with the overall move to put the branding in a van and schlep it to the Marriott meeting room for the soccer tournament kids?
My antennae are up, but so far I haven’t picked up any strong singles.
