Today’s difference is that the market is much more saturated than some years ago. Apart from having more restaurants per square kilometre, people are more travelled, have access to more cooking shows and online videos about food, and now better understand the differences in cuisines by region or speciality, rather than just country-to-country knowledge.
Sushi was once exotic to the London market; today, you can find a Japanese restaurant or version of Japanese cuisine on every street corner. Within Soho, London, I have counted more than 30 Japanese outlets in such a small area. In addition, several Korean, Chinese and Pan-Asian restaurants in this same precinct also serve Japanese food. While most of these restaurants have found a way to survive, others are treading on thin ice.
So the question is, how does one compete?
Currently, my business partner and I are in the process of opening a Japanese restaurant in Beak Street, London. That’s right, Soho, London, despite knowing there are so many Japanese restaurants in the area.
With the knowledge that the competition is fierce in the area, the question is how to turn this concept into a profitable business venture. Before commencing, we first studied the market in detail. Not just the offerings in Soho or London but also New York, Tokyo and other global markets. I can’t stress how vital market analysis and understanding trends and customer needs are.
We understood that the market was saturated with Japanese restaurants. Therefore we created a plan to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Our vision was to offer the best quality food and product and ensure we have the best Japanese chef in town. I have always stressed in my blogs the importance of nutrition and how the menu should define the concept. So, without revealing who our chef is at this stage, but all will be announced by September 2016, we appointed one of the best Sushi chefs in London, if not the world. It didn’t stop there; we also set Avroko (www.avroko.com) as our designer is a New York-based design company that has created some very sexy, cool and successful concepts worldwide. In addition, we are appointing a London-based PR company that will promote our Chef to the crowd we are targeting.
So, the plan to build and develop a 60-seat restaurant with a 20-seat bar and a private dining room for 16 is underway. The uniqueness exists within our concept, and therefore, we will differentiate ourselves from the local competitors. With a unique style, design, food offering, quality and overall picture, our competition now spreads from being just Soho local to being compared to Japanese concepts in London and even on an international platform. Well, that is the aim!
So the question you ask is, how does one differentiate from the competition without the big budgets?
To compete in a saturated market, you need to stand out from the rest. The most common method is offering better service and better food. But, sometimes, service and food are insufficient, and you must do more. Here are seven ways of setting yourself apart.
1. Improved Service – focus on providing the most consistent and highest standard of service. Visit the competition and take note of common service problems. Avoid repeating these same mistakes by training your staff. Do you have enough staff? What are your time standards for greeting a guest at the door, seating a guest or performing quality checks? Do you do something different that stands out from the competition?
Something different in service is to look at training your staff on expressions and not just the sequence of service. Experiment with your team by testing their reaction when eating good, bad, and cold food (when it’s supposed to be hot), etc. Doing this lets you train your team to read customers before the comment. Be it good or bad. It’s almost like being able to read minds. From the facial reaction, the staff will begin to make more eye contact with your guests and be proactive to possible problems.
2. Higher Quality Food – if the food is good, people will come and continue to return. Focus on using fresh ingredients and keep frozen foods to a minimum. Does your menu call for premium ingredients? Will products be sourced from local farms? Do you have organic produce?
Why not create a differentiating product? Spend time on your menu development and monitor global trends. Look for multiple signature items and ensure every product you sell can be a signature.
When testing your new menu before launch, could you create a tasting panel of people you know who can give constructive criticism on flavour, portion size, value for money and uniqueness? Of course, similar people will eventually be your customers with the same type of comments and criticism.
3. Menu Variety – if your competition offers similar menu items, adjust your menu accordingly. Offer a variety, but keep it simple and do what you do best. Avoid complex menus and specialise. Starbucks specialises in coffee, KFC in chicken and Five Guys in burgers. Even though the examples may not be directly related to your product, we can see that a single-item focus breeds success and that success comes from doing something consistently and doing it right. An extensive menu will also keep food costs high.
How would you describe your menu? Is there a selection of meat, seafood and vegetables? Do you offer vegetarian options? You’ll be able to use your tasting panel to define the customer’s needs.
4. Atmosphere – if you have the budget, hire a professional interior designer with a reputation and restaurant design expertise. An appealing restaurant can instantly draw customers. How can your space be different from the rest? Will it be upscale casual? Sleek and modern?
The restaurant atmosphere comes from music, lighting, seating arrangements, noise levels and type of service. All of these elements must be balanced to suit your concept vision. A designer will be able to direct you to find that right balance.
5. Star Quality Chef – a renowned chef can attract customers. Landing an award-winning chef may be the key to surviving in a highly competitive area. A star-quality chef will understand menu development, cost, and quality. How many years of experience does your chef bring? What are their credentials? Is your chef’s name marketable?
Budget always plays a part when it comes to employing the right chef. If budgets do not permit, consider contacting a consultant who could offer a star chef for seasonal menu changes and PR activities. Savvy IQ (www.savvyiq.com) is a consulting company offering these services. There are many companies out there that could provide something similar.
6. Focused Offering – specialising in a particular item can build loyal customers and attract new ones. Do you offer something unique that no one else has? The most extensive wine cellar? Premium Japanese sake? Best lobster Brioche?
The likes of Burger & Lobster (www.burgerandlobster.com) have hit the nail. A unique concept that specialises in 2 items. Flat Iron (www.flatironsteak.co.uk) is another good example with only one product: a steak. Do it well and be creative; you do not need an extensive menu, just a good one.
7. Marketing Gimmicks – sometimes, a restaurant will implement a marketing strategy to create hype or exclusivity among guests who dine at their restaurant. The goal is to create a buzz and be the town’s talk. For example, as a Japanese restaurant, you could offer homemade soba noodles, which the only master soba maker develops in the city. The restaurant could offer these creations between certain hours, driving demand and creating a buzz.
Another example of someone doing a product amazingly is a concept in Tokyo offering the kakigori (shaved ice). Taiwan’s much-hyped Ice Monster shop in Omotesando, Tokyo, is such a success and buzz that you may have to wait up to five hours in a queue to get a crushed ice dessert. It offers Taipei-born flavours like coffee, ice and milk tea with tapioca pearls, complete with a texture resembling powder snow, which now has a global following.
Why Are Some Restaurant Concepts Not Being Creative?
Some operators take standing out to extremes.
Why don’t more restaurants use unique concepts for their food, service, décor, or overall execution? After all, buying, preparing and serving food is one of the most personal forms of expression for those engaged. Restaurants aren’t retail clothing stores or airports. They’re far more unique, and the concept within them should reflect the people who created them.
The openers and operators of restaurants are creative people. As a result, there are some unique restaurant concepts around the world. A few of them are well-known. For example, Dans Le Noir in London is a restaurant that offers dining in complete darkness. The idea is that depriving guests of their reliance on sight emphasises food’s taste, texture, sound and smell. Many servers and waitstaff are visually impaired and have been trained to serve guests without relying on pictures.
Or there is Inamo, also in London, where guests order food through an interactive digital menu projected onto a screen. The same high-tech touch-screen tabletop lets guests customise their “tablecloth”, watch their meal prepared by the chef on personal cameras, or play interactive games with dining companions.
For true uniqueness, how about Dinner in the Sky, a 22-person table suspended in mid-air by a crane at the height of fifty meters by a team of professionals? A personal chef and waiter stand at the centre of the oval-shaped table, allowing guests to experience a gourmet meal simultaneously and (potentially) height sickness.
The independence and risk-taking required to open an originally-conceived restaurant are truly admirable. Like many businesses, success often comes in following a formula, if not a corporate concept. This business’s nominal success rates—especially since 2008—make most operators willing to let others take risks when developing ideas. These days, there is enough risk in the mere fact of opening a restaurant.
However, with so many restaurants flooding markets in recent years, it may be necessary to generate something that stands out from the financial crisis the crowd despises. So, it is worth considering what your unique restaurant concept would be. Would it be something like the fabled rude-server concept, in which the servers criticise the guests at every opportunity and slam entrée plates down on the table? Unfortunately, that has been mastered—at the world-famous Ed Debevic’s in Chicago. In this ‘50s throwback diner, the surly servers smack gum and toss salty one-liners while coolly pulling the pencil from their hair bun to write down orders. Guests are as likely to hear “Eat and get out” as they enjoy a cheeseburger and soda.
If your concept is a dining room decorated like a bathroom, this has, unfortunately, been done too. The Modern Toilet Restaurant in Taiwan asks guests to enjoy their meals on a glass-top table while sitting on actual toilets. Two-top tables are situated along the wall against urinals, and the plate and glassware are all fabricated to resemble bathroom accessories and products (we’ll generously leave it at that). Not sure how the actual bathroom is decorated.
You might also try Absolut Ice Bar and Restaurant in Stockholm, where the interior is built entirely from ice (bars, glasses, barstools, walls, everything). Guests are given fur jackets and capes to avoid freezing temperatures before entering and can only stay for 40 minutes. The interior is lit with deep blue, and guests mostly sip on Absolut products before being asked to leave. Also, the food could be better. Otherwise, it sounds like a successful concept.
Finally, there is the VIP Zone in Russia, where the décor, uniforms, plateware and glassware are all replications of an actual Soviet-era gulag. Guests eat on wooden planks with clanky aluminium utensils while attractive servers dressed in striped prison garb stand nearby, waiting to present a fingerprint-smudged bill. Meanwhile, portraits of Soviet dictators line the wall, also staring while guests eat.
It may sound like all the unique restaurant concepts have been taken, but many more have yet to be developed. While it may sound like a risk that might not be worth the reward, unique concepts in this industry will surely get attention across regions and for many years.
Organic Food for Restaurants
I mentioned organic produce above; here is a closer look at that market.
In recent years, more and more consumers are becoming health-conscious. This awareness has led companies to develop alternative offerings in the organic food market.
Major companies are making organic food more accessible by increasing their organic food offerings. Walmart is providing organic food choices in its stores and announced at the beginning of this year that it will improve its supply chain efficiency, making fruits and vegetables more accessible and less expensive to consumers. An increased demand also puts organic food producers on the merger and acquisition menu of companies like General Mills, Kraft Foods, Kellogg and Cargill.
Organic food consumers are also making changes. In the past, consumers were buying mostly organic fruits and vegetables. However, there seems to be an increasing demand for packaged organic foods, such as organic salad dressing, organic dairy products, organic frozen entrées, organic snacks, cereals, and organic prepared desserts. For organic convenience foods, the price, visibility and value for money are key factors to become a routinely purchased product.
Some tips for creating an Organic Menu
- Anticipate price fluctuations
- Expect higher costs
- Embrace menu change
- Know your customers and their needs.
- Charge competitive prices
- Avoid vegan stereotypes
- Value supplier relationships
- Think long-term
Doing business in a saturated market is risky, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Before jumping into a location, ensure you understand the market surroundings. Restaurants are among the most demanding businesses to operate. Draw up a plan and review the steps to set yourself apart.
If you would like support with standing out in a saturated market, explore our restaurant concept development services or contact our London team.
