Packaging Favourite Restaurants

What can we learn from restaurant brands bringing their products to the retail space?

May 14, 2024

Good morning from the studio. I am absolutely loving this gorgeous sunny weather and I am really hoping it lasts and doesn’t get too hot too soon. I know it’s May but I think we still need a build up to mid-summer.

The warm weather is definitely encouraging me to get outside to work, which is one of the many benefits of freelancing from home, and whilst it’s not too warm I love to sketch and think out on the balcony, with a cup of tea.

I have been getting my grocery shopping delivered for years now, but I am still in the supermarkets most days and am regularly guilty of impulse buys. Last week, wandering the aisles of our local Sainsbury’s I was immediately attracted to Leon’s Aioli and it made me think, what is it about restaurant brands that makes them so irresistible in the supermarket? So today I have written for you all the reasons I think these brands are so successful in the retail space, and what we can learn from that. I’d love to know in the comments what brand from the high street you would love to see in the supermarkets.

Packaging Favourite Restaurants

Restaurant brands are thriving in the supermarkets. With many large restaurant businesses putting more effort into a retail offering after COVID forced their doors shut, the shelves seem to be filled with our high-street favourites. But in an already saturated retail space, how does a restaurant brand succeed in retail? and what makes them stand out? I will take you through who I think is doing it best to see what we can learn from them when looking to package a restaurant favourite.

Recreating the Restaurant Experience

When the restaurants were shut, people flocked to the supermarkets in search of a hit of their high street favourite. Whilst it may seem counter-intuitive to offer a similar product in a retail space, at a significantly lower price, it also offers the chance to reinforce emotional connection to the brand, to get the brand in front of a growing audience, and bring that brand into the home increasing brand awareness.

In order to be successful, a restaurant brand must recreate the restaurant experience - this is their unique selling point - something that the retail brands don’t have. Recreating the restaurant experience can be done in many different ways.

Recreating Ritual

Nando’s is all about flavour and picking up the sauce bottle, Hot, Medium, or Garlic & Herb along with your cutlery, napkin and extra plate is part of the ritual of going to the restaurant - a ritual that is distinctly Nando’s. Putting the sauce bottle on the table in the home, then, is a no-brainer, and with Nando’s evocative branded patterns and distinct colour palette, they evoke a real sense of the restaurant experience in the home.

Reinforce the Emotional Connection

Evoking a restaurant experience loaded with emotion isn’t something retail-only brands can do. With distinct brand assets that stretch, the brand can successfully evoke the association and all the memories that come with it. Nando’s sauce bottles evoke the patterning and textures prevalent in their restaurant decor and menus successfully reinforcing the emotional connection with their restaurant.

Similarly, Leon’s quirky brand assets jump out on shelf evoking the quality ingredients and distinct flavours that the restaurant is known for. The typographic designs have great shelf appeal, too, encouraging consumers to proudly display the products on dinner table when entertaining.

Taste Appeal

In bringing a restaurant brand into the retail space, utilising the existing brand assets alone may not be enough. A brand such as itsu, whose assets feature plenty of white space and clean typography, may have struggled on shelf against brands, which have a large amount of taste appeal had they not introduced supporting photography or illustration.

While the brand may convince existing consumers to purchase a supermarket version of their restaurant product, they may fail to convert those that do not yet know the brand and who don’t have the association of the restaurant experience. That said, itsu’s introduction of a drink has a large amount of taste appeal with the ingredient illustrations and use of colour, which is necessary in the canned drinks category, marking a significant shift in the design from the existing grocery range. In a new category, the link to the restaurant and the associations this brings is perhaps less important.

Think Outside the Box

Itsu spreading its wings into the drinks sector is a good way to grow brand awareness and reach new customers. Pizza Express is another brand that seems to be dominating the retail space, all whilst its restaurants on the high street are struggling. In providing products in different categories, there is something of the restaurant experience to be found around the supermarket enabling the brand to be found by a variety of consumers.

“Pizza Express products are in 4,500 shops, almost 10 times as many places as its 470 restaurants.” 1With its restaurants struggling2, it could be argued that the retailers are saving this brand from extinction. Following their retail success, Pizza Express have recently announced they plan a comeback to the high street.3

Perhaps, then, accessing the retail space is not only a benefit to the brand for growth and increased awareness, but offers a way of future-proofing the brand during times of austerity.

Thank you for reading,

from,