Is hospitality having a great, big reset?
A fresh look at branding, marketing and impact is ripe for the renaissance
The plight of restaurateurs and publicans finally hit mainstream headlines hard last week. It made for sober reading and viewing. The hospitality business is not for the faint-hearted at the best of times, but over the last few years things have gone from worse to worst. It has turned passionate food and drink lovers, pillars of enterprise and bastions of the community into crisis managers, firefighting from one blow to another with seemingly no end in sight. Is this a big reset, however? A one-off opportunity to do things differently and better in the future?
Pic: Food writer Melissa Thompson and me at the newly-opened excellent Korean BBQ Chung Dam in London’s Greek Street. You should go.
I’m often asked if I would open a restaurant someday, and the answer is a resounding no. I simply don’t have the stomach for it. Most people don’t. I have immense respect for anyone brave enough to venture into the industry and am grateful to be fed.
The average diner has no clue about how the restaurant model works. We clock only the external manifestations of this – poor service, high prices, unsatisfactory food and drink. Against the backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis with inflation eating away at eating out power, many of us are more sensitive to where we eat, the experience we have and the pinch our pockets feel after. We respond by limiting how much we eat out, by leaving cranky feedback and by sharing the pain with our mates.
The cumulative impact of this can be devastating, as the difficult read by Mandy Yin of Sambal Shiok proves. Titled “This is the reality of running a small restaurant in Britain right now. It’s a miracle we survive”, it outlines the specific struggles of smaller independents and the havoc compounded by negative reviews. (I should clarify that I have no beef against major restaurant groups or chains. Many were small independents once and provide important routes to employment and diner choice).
Mandy Yin is still going. Grace Regan of Spice Box, however, decided enough was enough some four and a half years of running her plant-based curry house later. She ceased to operate recently, making it on to BBC News taking about how food and utility prices rose, customer numbers fell, and carrying on became unfeasible. And Grace is a fierce entrepreneur who started seven years ago with food trucks in street markets. She built a brand-led food business including retail products and books.
As with businesses across many sectors now, it is a case of survival of the fittest. In the hospitality industry, it is more nuanced than that. Resh Sonchhatla, co-founder of Chapati Club in West London talks about insurmountable external factors that led to the heartbreaking closure of their popular restaurant. Says Sonchhatla: “The future of the business took a turn which was married mainly to massive external factors. You can only control the controllables”.
Sambal Shiok, Spice Box and Chapati Club are neighbourhood restaurants that rely predominantly on local custom. Location and backing matter. Regan said: “The likes of Frankie and Benny's and Angus Steak House may pull through (PE backing, revenue from tourists etc) but local favourites targeted at a different customer base may die (i.e. P Franco and Bright's recent closure). A lot of it will come down to location too – I know that places in affluent areas in London are still thriving and they can afford to keep hiking prices in line with inflation without their customers batting an eyelid. However, there is only so much the young professionals in other areas can take.”
As if on cue to reinforce the point Regan was making, a new 13 seater sushi restaurant has opened in Park Lane offering 18 courses at £420. No doubt, the reservation lines will be busy ringing.
For those in tourist hotspots, hybrid working and the looming threat of a lack of tourism deals a double blow. Sameer Taneja of Benares, which recently won back its Michelin Star, said he was hoping for a summer revival, but he’s now less confident as tourists are expected to abandon costly UK for Europe. Taneja said: “We are missing both tourists and corporates. Hoping to be back in business late summer.”
Hospitality businesses and their entrepreneurs are responding to sensitivity to price, quality and standards. So much of this was previously obscured by diner choice, low wages, lower prices and affordability. The eternal optimist in me wonders if this is a reset that is bound to improve standards across the sector. More innovation, better ability to respond to external shocks and a higher value offer for the punters?
Says Regan: “Like all periods of adversity, I am sure that something good will emerge from the storm our industry is in. As you say, it may well act as a 'reset' and sort the wheat from the chaff.” Sonchhatla agrees that there is something of a “renaissance” under way. She’s noticed more sense of camaraderie, community and support among chefs, owners and founders and is hosting two pop ups at Sam’s Larder in London’s Chiswick, one of which is very nearly sold out.
There are three fresh areas of focus immediately obvious to me that are ripe for this renaissance – branding, marketing and purpose. Many hospitality entrepreneurs glaze over at brand speak when experts start talking about brand building, playbooks and storytelling. Yet, these are essential for stand out and bringing people through the door to eat, enjoy and then tell their mates.
Ed Francis, hospitality brand consultant, said: “Brand literacy in hospitality is low, even amongst established companies. While it can be seen as the ‘fluffy’ stuff, it is the glue that holds companies together. It makes or breaks reputation, determines the way people feel about them and directly impacts the ability to hire and retain talent, becoming the yardstick for partnerships, supplier relationships, and even the way accounts teams function. And yet, for many the dial hasn’t moved beyond visual identity [i.e. logo, colours, fonts etc].”
Marketing can be equally unsophisticated. Over two decades in the world of strategic communications later, my skin crawls at the most basic of crimes committed in hospitality marketing that would be a sackable offence in the corporate world. I see social media accounts with static content that went out of date a decade ago ago, essential information like website url, location and social links missing online, or active, ongoing marketing that keep you visible in front of your target audience irrespective of algorithms. As Ed says: “Some Instagram posts of food and a monthly newsletter will no longer cut it.”
Finally, there is the people and planet piece. Many restaurants consider their impact on their people, society and communities already and do it well. Saying that, there are many that still run roughshod over their people, the food and cultures of other communities and are yet to grasp their impact on the environment let alone do something about it.
Restaurateur Iqbal Wahhab, founder of Roast and Cinnamon Club, believes there is commercial value in the hospitality industry paying closer attention to this. He said: “There’s stacks of evidence that meaningful brands – those who believe it is part of their DNA to be socially inclusive and sustainable - enjoy buoyant trade. Dishoom matches every meal it sells with a free one for a hungry child, Fallow made sustainability sexy, Darjeeling Express is the champion of gender and ethnic diversity – and they’re always full.”
Interestingly, all three have strong brands and marketing in place. Fallow’s Instagram is something of a class act, Dishoom’s Twitter is worth a follow and Asma Khan is my go to personal brand case study of choice.
Wahhab continues: “There are still a number of restaurants with zero sense of their ability to make the world a better place but have queues out the door. Restaurateurs that are struggling will probably follow suit. It probably doesn’t matter if they do so cynically to win more business rather than because they believe it’s right – as long as impacts are made.”
Taking control of brand, marketing and becoming more purpose and impact led might feel like an additional stretch for entrepreneurs already extending well beyond their comfort zone. Saying that, there may yet be a way for hospitality to survive and thrive with a fresh approach to many aspects of their business. While the hospitality industry has its own unique set of challenges, the old business adage that businesses which invest in themselves during a downturn come out the strongest the other side still applies. This time, the investment need not involve financial outlay but more a 360 degree perspective.
So many excellent points made here that are equally applicable to other industries too.