Restaurant slogan: the power of a catchy phrase

A restaurant slogan is a very useful marketing tool for your business. The goal is that you can convey in a single sentence values or properties of your establishment to attract the attention of more customers and create an image that your customers (and potential customers) connect with.

For a slogan to work, it must highlight the differentiating characteristics that define the best of your business. In addition, it should be simple and summarize as much as possible what your restaurant has to offer: what makes your restaurant different, unique.

It may seem a complicated task, and, really, it is not easy to synthesize in a few words the essence of your business or any of its star services. It is easier if you know what are the key components of a good slogan, where to get ideas and some successful examples to inspire you.

What is a slogan?

A slogan is a short, uncomplicated phrase that is used as a promotional slogan for a business. It is usually simple and easy to memorize. The RAE adds that it is a brief and original formula.

They are frequently used in marketing for advertising and electoral campaigns. In the gastronomic field, they have the objective of highlighting a characteristic of the restaurant and transmit confidence and experience to potential diners.

These catch phrases to promote restaurants are no more than seven or eight words long. This is because they must be easy to remember, and it is clear that the more direct, the easier it is to create an impact that makes them easy to remember. There are exceptions, of course. There is no doubting the success of the famous slogan: “Some things money can’t buy, for everything else, Mastercard”.

In those few words, you should talk about your services (of benefits and not of content), the atmosphere of your premises, etc. Something to convince, surprise or connect with your customers.

Characteristics of a good restaurant slogan

Slogans created to be used in advertising campaigns must be able to capture people’s attention. For this, these phrases to promote food and catering and hospitality establishments:

• They have to be original. In this way, they will not be confused with slogans of other brands.
• Theycan make use of literary resources to be more interesting or catchy, such as rhymes, onomatopoeias, metaphors, alliterations, among others. There can also be a slight touch of humor, but be careful with this or with sarcasm because it could be counterproductive.
• If they have a verb, this can give strength and movement to your restaurant slogan.
• They should be concise and direct, so that the public feels comfortable and identifies with what they read and wants to come to your restaurant.
• They can allude to benefits that differentiate you from the competition.
• Theyshould be timeless and easy to remember (so that they can be quickly associated with your brand without any doubt).
• Appeal to emotions: the emotional factor is very important in the public’s decision making process.

These tips are important to avoid the worst mistakes that can occur when developing a new slogan for a restaurant. Among them:

1. A very long slogan (the longer, the more confusing and fuzzy)
2. A very cool slogan that has nothing to do with your business
3. A slogan that is reminiscent of another brand/restaurant
4. A slogan that is complicated to understand (unclear wordplay, sarcasm, humor)

Usefulness of a slogan in a restaurant

why do you need a slogan for your restaurant? Competition is so fierce nowadays, that any element that helps you to differentiate yourself will always be positive. A slogan can provide much more information than the name of your restaurant, besides, and most importantly, it can complement it by highlighting values or services that attract the attention of your potential customers.

That is why it is important that it has character. A slogan for a fast food restaurant will not be the same as a slogan for home cooking. The same goes for the type of cuisine: Spanish, Mexican, Italian, American? You have to print what differentiates you within your context and give it personality in those few words.

You can use this slogan for restaurants on your profiles in networks, on your website, on your review portals, on the clothing of your employees and screen-print it on your take-away packaging (cardboard cups with lids for coffee, food boxes for delivery, etc.). Being fresh and simple, everyone will recognize your company quickly when it accompanies ads in media or networks.

When to abandon a slogan?

Slogans can be used for many years. In fact, in the best case scenario it will blend in with your business identity and even if you stop using it over time, your customers will always remember it.

How to create a slogan that will attract customers to your restaurant?

The main objective of any slogan is to catch people’s attention and make them learn it. And as a result of this, your bookings and traffic will increase. There is a quite direct relationship between notoriety and success.

It doesn’t matter if the restaurant is a small start-up project, a fine dining restaurant or a chain, the creation of the slogan is the same for all types of gastronomic establishments.

To create the ideal slogan that will help your business generate more visits and make it popular in your city, follow these recommendations:

Concise, original and associated with your name

Slogans, the shorter and more concise, the easier to remember. Checking this is very easy: try to think of slogans you remember (from restaurants or any other sector). Surely most, if not all, are very short, catchy sentences that have stuck with you (like “I’m loving it” or “The secret is in the dough”). That’s why it’s recommended that this slogan be seven words or less.

It makes the difference with the competition

It is just as important to keep it short as it is to keep it original. You should create your slogan from scratch, based on the characteristics or services of your restaurant. You can even get restaurant slogan ideas from customer reviews or your own team’s opinions.

If you create a slogan similar to another business’ slogan, your potential customers might get confused and give credit to the one that came first. Plagiarism could also go viral and be negative publicity for your restaurant. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t study the competition: look at the formulas that work best for inspiration.

Once you have drawn up some proposals, make sure that no one else has that slogan. To do this, it may be enough to make a few queries on Internet search engines. If you want to register a slogan as a trademark, you must apply for it at the SPTO (Spanish Patent and Trademark Office) in the same way you registered your company name.

Target the slogan to your audience

Before you start generating ideas to create your slogan, you must keep in mind the type of public your establishment attracts. Whether you run a market, Mexican, sushi or gourmet restaurant, you should try to promote your strengths through these phrases to recommend a restaurant.

If you know this audience, you can use the right words to persuade and attract them to your restaurant. That is to say, if you address directly to the public you are interested in, the message will be more effective.

Convey a positive message

Positive messages in the slogan for restaurants are more easily remembered since they leave an excellent first impression of the business.

That’s why if you write a positive and cheerful message, people will have that kind of feeling when they enter your business and will keep a good disposition during the service. (No one introduces themselves by highlighting their negative characteristics, right?).

Process of creating a slogan

If you’ve decided to create your own restaurant slogan, the best option is to get your team together and make it a group task (kitchen, management, marketing).

In these cases it is very common to start with a brain storming session in which everyone participates by defining the restaurant in a few words, indicating adjectives that remind you of the restaurant or listing outstanding services or products. It is important to write down all the information that is being discussed, because that is where the main vocabulary for the slogan will come from.

Another way is to do it in writing: everyone should write down the words with which they relate the work done in each of the areas of the business. They should also write down values and impressions, even high-impact slogans to promote typical dishes on your menu. When all the lists are finished, underline the most repeated words and choose the ones you think best define your business.

Once the information has been compiled, write different sentences with the chosen words so that you have different options and submit them to a vote with the rest of the restaurant staff. Voting, in addition to giving you a broader vision, generates cohesion and a sense of belonging to the team.

The food slogan that is the catchiest or that your staff remembers within a week of voting will be the one to start promoting your business.

If a great phrase doesn’t come up the first time, don’t get discouraged. Take another seat with your employees to evaluate new options.

What slogan do you remember?

There are thousands of slogans around the world, but few have managed to generate the impact needed to last over time.

Some of the successful examples listed below will help you to determine their characteristics and extract what details they have in common (despite offering different products from yours).

Following the example of great companies that have managed to stand out with great slogans is useful to understand what kind of phrase you are looking for. It’s not an easy task, but they did it:

• La chispa de la vida (The spark of life), Coca-cola
• I‘m loving it, McDonald’s
• Think green, Heineken
• Because I’m worth it, L’Oréal
• A que no puedes comer una sola, Lay’s
• Come home for Christmas, El Almendro
• do you like to drive, BMW
• Grilled tastes better, Burger King
• It doesn’t leave you, Rexona.
• When you pop, there’s no stop, Pringles
• If you don’t use it, sell it, Wallapop
• To lick your fingers, KFC
• The most used brand by dentists, Oral-B
• Probably the best beer in the world, Carlsberg
• Good tastes good, Pescanova

Slogan: examples for restaurants

To give you a hand, we got creative and came up with a series of short, easy-to-remember slogans that might inspire you to start brainstorming. It’s important that your slogan is very personal, that it speaks to your business. However, it never hurts to have a few types of restaurant slogans on hand to draw inspiration from. To make this inspiration exercise more real, place the name of your restaurant in front of each example: Gokuraku Restaurant, from the Orient with love (for a Japanese food place). Others:

• Suck it: for the slogan for finger foods, such as a food truck, it’s a good idea to highlight a characteristic of these foods.
• Happy barbecues: for the slogan of a barbecue or Argentinean restaurant, think about the product, the barbecue or the sauces to make your slogan.
• Where you come to enjoy: for a homemade food slogan, keep in mind the emotion, the home, the tradition.
• Where time flies: for a fast food restaurant slogan, look for dynamism, fun, movement.
• Grills always ready or Tie the knot to our burgers: for the slogan of an American restaurant, talk about its products, its style or even use stereotypes.
• A menu you can’t refuse: for Italian restaurant slogans you can make a nice reference to the Mafia, as we have done in the example by paraphrasing a famous line from The Godfather.
• From sushi to heaven: for this Chinese food slogan we have used an iconic Spanish saying.
• Entre rollitos anda el juego: and how beautiful this slogan for a Chinese restaurant transforming the title of Zorrilla’s classic play.
• Not fresh, but very fresh: the slogan for a poke restaurant could perfectly be something like this, since it highlights the freshness of its raw and natural ingredients.

Creating a restaurant slogan takes time: brainstorming, outlining options…. The most important thing is to be clear about the type of cuisine you present, the qualities you want to highlight and what you want to be known for. With that solved and all the tips for choosing the ideal restaurant slogan we have given you in this article, we are sure you will succeed with the slogan you choose.