Member Article

The Benefits of a Transferable Brand

In the modern marketplace companies across all sectors are struggling to stand out above the crowd. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the North East?s leisure industry, where thousands of bars and restaurants compete for every customer pound.

We spoke to Simon Wright, Group Operations Manager at the newly expanded Fratello?s chain of Italian restaurants, to find out why a strong brand is vital in securing success and making the business viable long term.

Simon said: ?With market saturation in the North East leisure sector remaining high and customer expenditure relatively low, restaurants and bars across the region are seeking new and imaginative ways to attract new and repeat business.

?From customer loyalty cards and discount schemes, to networking on social media and giving away freebies, every tactic possible is being employed to help get people through the door ? but it?s equally important to go back to basics.

?One of the best ways to establish a strong clientele is to ensure you are offering a worthwhile, value-for-money product and to market it in a way which is clear and accessible to as many people as possible. That is why, despite the on-going recession, Fratello?s recently expanded from one restaurant to three, growing its potential customer pool to thousands more people across the North East.

?Rather than develop an entirely new concept and launch venues with their own identity and style, Fratello?s owners, the Cairn Group, have instead utilised the formula that has worked so well in the brand?s flagship site at the Holiday Inn Newcastle-Jesmond hotel and replicated that in new sister sites at the DoubleTree by Hilton Newcastle International Airport Hotel and the Holiday Inn Darlington A1 Scotch Corner in County Durham.

?While each of the sites has slightly different design features, they all follow the same chic and informal style and offer identical menus of classic and contemporary Italian cuisine.

?This ensures that the Jesmond site?s reputation for high levels of service and the production of good quality food, made using locally sourced and seasonal produce, can be transferred to the new branches, offering customers a sense of familiarity and added reassurance that their hard-earned money won?t be wasted.

?The use of a transferable brand also ensures there is further scope for the Fratello?s chain to expand in the future and removes many of the potential pitfalls associated with starting a new venture from scratch.

?It can be tempting when you?re trying to reach new audiences to diversify the business and branch out into different sectors, but it can also be just as profitable to stick to what you know and instead try to reach a new customer base. Why change something that already works if you there?s a chance you can simply replicate that success somewhere else??

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Cairn Hotel Group .