The importance of having a great brand supersedes all else in the restaurant business. Money comes and goes, there are busy days and there are slow days, employees come and go as well, but your brand is unequivocally the most important aspect of the business. Think of your brand like a lighthouse.  Out there is the great big ocean of stormy waters. It is cold, raining, and misty in the great big sea. There are many ships with hungry fisherman and sailors that need to dock and have a bite to eat. Your restaurant’s brand is the lighthouse.

Time and time again it will attract people, just like that Greek Siren. Except here we mean to do no harm to the fisherman and sailors, we wish to give them what they need. A hearty and healthy meal. People have known to trust the Zankou Brand for over 54 years, over three generations, two continents, and millions of happy customers. This type of love and dedication customers and fans have is not easy to achieve and takes time, dedication, and hard work. You have to constantly thrill the customer, not just satisfy them. And in today’s extremely competitive marketplace of $5 chickens available at places like Costco that is becoming more and more difficult to do.

According to Wikipedia, a Brand is very different from just a logo. A brand is all-encompassing, whereas a logo is simply the small icon most business affix to all their merchandise or food items. A brand is a name, term, design or other feature that distinguishes one seller’s product from those of others.[1] Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising. Initially, livestock branding was adopted to differentiate one person’s cattle from another’s by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal’s skin with a hot branding iron.

A modern example of a brand is Coca-Cola which belongs to the Coca-Cola Company. In accounting, a brand defined as an intangible asset is often the most valuable asset on a corporation’s balance sheet. Brand owners manage their brands carefully to create shareholder value, and brand valuation is an important management technique that ascribes a money value to a brand, and allows marketing investment to be managed (e.g.: prioritized across a portfolio of brands) to maximize shareholder value. Although only acquired brands appear on a company’s balance sheet, the notion of putting a value on a brand forces marketing leaders to be focused on long term stewardship of the brand and managing for value.

The word “brand” is often used as a metonym referring to the company that is strongly identified with a brand. Marque or make are often used to denote a brand of motor vehicle, which may be distinguished from a car model. A concept brand is a brand that is associated with an abstract concept, like breast cancer awareness or environmentalism, rather than a specific product, service, or business. A commodity brand is a brand associated with a commodity. A logo often represents a specific brand, as do many trade names.

Source 1) Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand