5 Powerful Ways to Improve Your Café’s Image
- 2 Aug 2021
5 Powerful Ways to Improve Your Café’s Image
Cafés have been around since the mid-1500s, and their rich, storied, and colourful history is undoubtedly reflected in their kerb appeal, interior décor, menus, and overall appearance. Nowadays, cafés are a dime a dozen, and competition is increasingly cut-throat, especially in the high streets. You'll need to figure out how to make your café stand out in a sea of competition.
That means your café's image is something you should take seriously, just as vital as your menu, staff, and service quality. Yes, your grannie might have told you that you shouldn't "judge a book by its cover." But when it comes to running a successful café, first impressions are paramount.
Think your café’s image doesn’t matter? Think again. According to an empirical study published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, guests don’t mind paying more for their meals as long as they like the ambience of the establishment.
However you look at it, customers will inevitably judge your restaurant or café by its look and presentation. Thankfully, there's something you can do to spruce up the image of your café. Read on to learn five key ways to do so using café barriers, chalkboard signs, menu cases, sign holders, and menu light boxes.
1: Create Charming Outdoor Dining Areas Using Café Barriers
If you’re looking to section off some outside areas for outdoor dining, you can’t go wrong with café barriers. They can work wonders for your café’s image —especially now that outdoor eating is encouraged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should throw together whatever you can find. You must ensure to use café barriers that are well-made, robust, and elegant-looking. Their colour scheme should marry well with the theme of your café, as well.
At Red17, we pride ourselves on offering a diverse range of beautiful café barriers to suit all your outdoor dining and advertisement needs. Each of our expertly engineered café barriers comes complete with a wide banner, along with cross rails, posts, and bases in a match black finish. They're super easy, reasonably tool-free, and intuitive to set up and use.
If you plan to add some eye-catching graphics to spice up the appeal of your outdoor dining areas, look no further. When ordering, you can incorporate your custom design print into the banner so that you can personalise every nook of your outdoor dining space.
The graphic bar is designed for standard loop graphics installation, too. Plus, the spring clips help keep the banner tightly and securely in place, so you can put up aesthetically pleasing graphics for all to see.
If that isn’t convincing enough, the bases and posts of our café barriers are powder coated to help stand up well to frequent use, strong winds, and other harsh elements. Moreso, using café barriers can do a lot more than perk up your restaurant’s image:
- Encourages social distancing when used both indoors & outdoors.
- Create an al-fresco dining spot without the need for a garden.
- Cordoning off the front section of your restaurant for outdoor eating areas will also provide your guests with a little more discretion. You’d be surprised at how these barriers make your café a hot destination for business executive lunches, dates, and other events that call for a bit of privacy.
- Filters out street noise, creating a more peaceful & enjoyable dining experience.
- Provides ample opportunities for advertising and branding.
- Creates the right atmosphere and ambience for your café.
- Barriers keep your guests warm and toasty when it’s cold or windy outside.
- They can double up as sections for keeping your café queues neat and orderly.
At Red17, your choice of café barriers comes down to either the Economy or Deluxe. The economy option is practical, simple, and has no fancy frills. On the other hand, the deluxe barriers are more refined and chic. It’s up to you to pick the barrier design that suits your café.
2: Utilize Chalkboard Signs for Adaptable Signage and Outdoor Advertising
Chalkboard signs are the real champions of the world of adaptable signage. Thanks to their old-school appeal, these versatile pavement signs are a superb way to attract passers-by and keep your guests updated.
If used correctly, they can be a handy way to convince people passing by to choose your café over the competition. It rings particularly true in most high streets where many cafés and restaurants constantly compete for the same customer's attention.
Our chalkboard signs are roomy enough to accommodate your best-selling and most popular menu options. However, if the space isn't sufficient for your entire menu, consider using it to make significant announcements, advertise upcoming events, and post your daily specials.
Consider chalkboard signs as your blank slate — a canvas you can use in a variety of ways to improve your café's image and showcase its unique personality. For instance, you can use artful text and drawings to announce your house specialities (the items that genuinely set your café apart from the rest).
Don’t stop there. You can also display meaningful quotes, puns, jokes, and other witty comments to grab the attention of prospective customers. Be that as it may, it’s always best to keep whatever you write on a chalkboard sign to ten or fewer words.
3: Leverage Menu Cases and Menu Light Boxes for External Menu Display
The truth is, outdoor menus have enormous power in the café industry. Displaying an external menu that catches the eye can drum up a lot of business for your restaurant or café. It’s therefore inarguably one of the most powerful ways you can persuade passers-by to opt for your café over those around you.
The most crucial thing to know about outdoor menus is that they’ve already taken the world of restaurants by storm. So, you will end up losing a tonne of business to your competitors if you don’t jump on the external menu display bandwagon right away. For that reason, as a café owner, you should leverage the power of light menu boxes, which can work for your restaurant 24/7.
It’s not uncommon for cafes to post outdoor menus next to their door. However, it’s best to install them in wall-mounted or freestanding menu cases. As such, you can protect your menu from vandalism and weather conditions like strong winds and rain.
Our menu cases are kitted out with slim-profile, anodised aluminium frames. They not only look sleek and unobtrusive but can also stand up amazingly well to the elements. The illumination feature is bright, energy-efficient, and long-lasting (delivering up to 50,000 hours of life). Best of all, they need little to no maintenance at all!
What you can do with our menu light boxes to enhance your café’s image is pretty much endless. Even if the display’s space isn’t enough for your entire menu, you can choose to post only house or daily specials. Don’t forget to shine some spotlight on what makes your café truly striking and different from the pack.
Using your outdoor menu display to promote your vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options can also go a very long way. After all, guests with food allergies and other dietary restrictions are likely to read menus before choosing which restaurant or café to patronise. Knowing that you offer these considerate menu options before they walk through the door can make a massive difference for your footfall.
If you want to further increase footfall, make sure your external menus are easy to spot. First of all, the menu graphics must be legible and large enough to be read from afar. If your menu options can be seen from across the street, hungry passers-by are likely to make a beeline for your café to get a taste of your delicious meals.
Lucky for you, our illuminated cases are roomy enough to house menus up to 585mm x 899mm x 32mm (4 x A4) in size. Your external menu must also pop out from its background, so pick letterings and graphics that won't disappear on the backdrop of your café. Your menu displays must be equipped with LED lights for effortless reading at night and ensure optimal visibility, which is where our menu lightboxes also come in very handy!
4: Use Menu and Sign Holders
Customers become restless and excited fast after taking their seats at your café. That’s why most restaurants put out some bread, breadsticks, water, or other treats on the table. It’s something that cafe guests appreciate immensely. Your guests also want to check out your food selection and discuss their meal choices right away.
Because of this, your menu should be one of the first things your guests should come across when they get to your café. It also provides you with a last-minute opportunity to impress your customers. After all, your menu is the lifeline of your café.
This is where our menu & sign holders come into play.
Designed to house your menu card, menu holders are ideal for the tabletop menu display. These holders provide a protective transparent housing for your menus, presenting them professionally and stylishly. They can also hold standalone menus that guests can remove, peruse through, and place back.
Our menu and sign holders offer a variety of benefits that can empower your café and ultimately improve its overall image. First off, they come with a transparent plinth that ensures maximum visibility. Their wipe-clean, extra smooth styrene bases and PET sleeves make cleaning and maintenance virtually hassle-free.
Our menu holders are also easy to use and set up. Simply push the menu sleeve into the base, and it'll fit snugly. They're available in single-sided and double-sided options, with a choice of three stock sizes. No matter your choice, you can count on these beauties to get more eyeballs and serve as elegant centrepieces for your tables.
Our line-up also includes external leaflet sign-holders. With “take one please” imprinted on the top section, these outdoor sign holders are perfect for advertising and promoting your café with leaflets, flyers, brochures, and hand-out menus.
5: Use Poster Frames to Display Stunning Food Pictures and Menus
Using poster frames can be one of the best tactics to improve your café's image and boost sales. Aside from their generic advantages, these gems are pretty practical. This is especially true when it comes to displaying your menus and showcasing your café's best creations.
Of course, there are plenty of ways you can use poster frames inside and outside your business premise:
- Display menus –
This is perhaps the most prominent hit when promoting your dishes and ramping up your café's image. Be sure to focus on your house specialities and daily specials. - Recognise your devoted customers –
We all know the power the “employee of the week” poster can have on your staff motivation. The same thing goes for improving customer loyalty. Simply snap beautiful moments of your customers and display them for all to see using the poster frame. - Display upcoming events and offers –
Do you have an upcoming deal or event? Use the poster to let your customers know. It'll help the conversation get started, allowing word of mouth to work its magic. - Scrumptious food pictures display –
It's well-known that images of delicious food can wake up one's taste buds. By doing so, you'll not only create the right ambience for your restaurant but may also help promote your dishes-of-the-day and other special meals.
The good news is that our poster frames here at Red17 come in all sizes, colours, and designs. With a snap-close/open design, they are straightforward to install and swap the posters. Your choice includes 16 eye-catching stock colours, including gold, red, green, yellow, moss green, red-brown, bronze, and red. If you'd rather stick to the classics, you've got white, cream, grey, silver, and brown poster frames to choose from.
Everything you need to set up these display frames is included in the package. This way, you can easily attach them to wooden framing, posts, dry walls, and traditional walls. The anti-glare cover means that they work in a wide range of lighting environments. Besides, the frames feature powder-coated aluminium construction, providing added durability and versatility for both indoor and outdoor use.
If you enjoyed this article, you may also like…
- Lifting Lockdown – How Signage Can Help
- Maintain Social Distancing with Cafe Barriers
- The Ultimate Guide to Marketing your Cafe
- 4 Display Tools Your Organisation Needs after Lockdown
- Why Small Businesses Love Budget Pavement Signs
- 19 Ideas for Marketing Your Restaurant
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