Enhancing brand recognition and fostering customer loyalty are essential goals for any restaurant. One effective way to achieve these objectives is through strategic merchandise offerings. From stylish branded apparel to quirky accessories, restaurant merchandise is a marketing tool for brand exposure and a revenue stream.
In this article, we’ll explore the world of restaurant merchandise and its potential to elevate your brand. We will describe effective strategies for marketing restaurant merchandise, along with a list of creative and popular restaurant merchandise ideas.
Discover innovative approaches to promote your eatery’s branded products and boost brand awareness among your target audience to ensure your marketing campaigns achieve maximum impact.
What is restaurant merchandise?
Restaurant merchandise refers to branded items and products sold by restaurants to customers for promotional purposes or as additional restaurant revenue streams.
These items feature the restaurant’s logo, name, or other branding elements. They can include a wide range of products such as apparel (t-shirts, hats, jackets), drinkware (cups, mugs, glasses), accessories (keychains, bags, phone cases), and even food-related items (spices, sauces, cookbooks).
Restaurant merchandise serves as a way to extend the restaurant’s brand beyond its physical location, increase brand visibility, create a sense of loyalty among customers, and generate additional income. Incorporating your restaurant branding elements into merchandise reinforces brand recognition and ensures that your restaurant remains top-of-mind for customers even when not dining in.
Why investing in restaurant merchandise is a good idea?
Before we jump into the various types of merchandise available and offer some ideas on making them unique and marketable, it’s important to understand why selling restaurant merch is still worth looking at in our digital-first age.
- You get better brand recognition: Branded merchandise allows you to build a strong and memorable reputation. In some cases, famous food stalls, restaurants, and diners have built such recognizable brands that tourists travel there from far and wide.
- It has an impressive shelf life: According to a Global Add Impressions study, on average, people keep branded products for at least a year and sometimes up to 18 months. For an advertising campaign, that’s an impressive return on your initial outlay.
- You’ll get increased customer loyalty: Branded merchandise is tangible and helps show off your restaurant’s personality. That’s why it can turn your customers into loyal customers and bring strong customer retention.
- It’s an additional revenue stream: Selling merchandise provides an additional revenue stream for your restaurant. The profit margins on merchandise can be significant, especially considering the relatively low production costs compared to food and beverage items.
- It’s a fantastic lead generator and a promotional tool: Branded merch helps to increase restaurant bookings by acting as a lead generator. Promotional items can provide better results than printed menus or flyers, even though both function similarly. Offering merchandise as part of special promotions or giveaways can incentivize people to visit your restaurant and increase foot traffic.
These days, you don’t have to worry about investing your hard-earned profits into a huge pile of physical merchandise that you have nowhere to store. Print-on-demand companies allow you to not only design and print your restaurant merch quickly and effectively, but they also only print the items when you need them or when a customer makes a purchase.
Best restaurant merchandise ideas
Selling branded merchandise can increase your restaurant revenue and promote your business. If you’re unsure what to offer, below is a list of the top restaurant merchandise ideas.
1. T-shirts and hats
Custom T-shirts and hats instantly emerge when most think about merch for a restaurant or food business. These are excellent restaurant merchandise ideas because they’re easily customizable and tend to be worn for long periods, giving your establishment the greatest amount of exposure.
If you’re considering selling branded clothing with your establishment’s logo or slogan, keep in mind what you’re trying to achieve and your clientele. For example, if you run a world-class burger bar in a busy holiday destination, branded clothing will work much better than it would for a fine-dining restaurant where clients typically dress more formally.
2. Reusable tote bags
Reusable custom tote bags are another awesome restaurant merchandise item. Tote bags typically become part of everyday life, and unlike clothing items, most people consider them a utility item rather than a fashion choice. Therefore, a tote bag will typically be used for a long time, giving your brand maximum exposure.
You can introduce tote bags to your diners in a couple of tried-and-tested ways. For example, you could deliver food in branded tote bags or run promotions or giveaways where the tote bag is filled with gifts.
3. Branded mugs and water bottles
Branded coffee mugs and water bottles are more examples of those functional products that customers will typically use every day. Like tote bags, when you customize them, you can subtly merge your brand (and menu!) into people’s everyday lives.
4. Coasters and napkins
When diners drink in your restaurant while waiting for their meals, a branded coaster or napkin can make your business more memorable and add a layer of detail that elevates the overall dining experience.
Just like mugs or water bottles, items like coasters will be used back at customer’s homes for many years, keeping your restaurant and brand in people’s minds and encouraging repeat bookings.
Another good tip for branded coasters is to include a QR code menu. Thanks to that, your restaurant can offer a contactless dining experience, allowing customers to access your menu directly from their smartphones.
5. Keychains and stickers
Keychains and stickers are also classic merch items that can fit restaurant advertising campaigns well. You can use them as free promotional products or even sell them to add revenue stream — especially if you already have a popular, well-established brand.
When designing these kinds of items, you typically won’t have the space of something like a tote bag or T-shirt, so it’s vital to keep things simple, bold, and easy to recognize. If in doubt, just stick to a logo and avoid complicated patterns or lengthy slogans.
6. Aprons
A custom apron can be an amazing way to build brand loyalty if you run a grill, outdoor restaurant, or food truck. Imagine all the opportunities you’ll get to show off your brand during a long summer of BBQs, garden parties, and outdoor events.
Just make sure your branded aprons are visually appealing. If you’re particularly creative, you might even consider a funny or memorable slogan to ensure your brand is memorable.
7. Cookbooks
Cookbooks featuring signature recipes from your restaurant are a fantastic way to bring a piece of your culinary experience into customers’ homes. Offering step-by-step instructions and insider tips, these cookbooks allow enthusiasts to recreate their favorite dishes and share the flavors of your restaurant with family and friends.
8. Gifts for pets
For pet-loving customers, consider offering branded merchandise such as pet accessories or treats. From branded pet bowls to dog bandanas featuring your restaurant’s logo, these items cater to pet owners and extend your brand’s reach to furry companions, creating a memorable and inclusive experience for all.
9. Meal kits
Meal kits allow customers to enjoy restaurant-quality meals in the comfort of their homes. Packaged with pre-measured ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions, these kits allow customers to recreate your restaurant’s dishes easily.
Implementing your merchandise successfully
Now that you’ve got many ideas for themed merchandise, it’s time to start putting a plan together for implementing them into an effective marketing campaign. Here are some important things to consider before you head out to the printers:
1. Think of your target audience
“Consistency is key” is a great mantra to remember when creating branded restaurant merchandise. When designing print-on-demand shirts or other merchandise, ensure that your logo, color scheme, and messaging sit well with your overall brand identity.
Your merchandise needs to be an extension of your restaurant’s personality and the dining experience you offer. Still, it’s also important to consider what type of person you’re hoping to attract:
- How old are they?
- Are they interested in a specific niche?
- Is your restaurant located downtown or by the beach?
- Does the food on offer fall under a certain diet or come from a specific region?
Learn more about defining a restaurant’s target audience here.
2. Think about SEO and online optimization
If you plan to sell restaurant merchandise online, invest in an easy-to-navigate website that works equally well on smartphones and laptops. You can use a restaurant website builder like UpMenu, Wix, or Shopify, to create your online store and sell your restaurant merch.
Optimize your product descriptions and images for search engines to attract organic traffic. Meanwhile, consider using restaurant marketing tools to keep your customers informed about new releases, especially if they coincide with a menu change or special offer.
3. Use partnerships and collaborations
Collaborating with local artists, designers, or other business owners can be an awesome way to create unique merchandise. It’s also a great way to build trust and become a part of the community.
Collaborations can help tap into new customer bases, add authenticity to your brand, and show off your values. These types of partnerships can also take place online and, if you’re lucky, be shared by influencers on social media. Consider combining some of the most creative restaurant guerrilla marketing strategies to promote your merchandise.
Key Takeaways
- Restaurant merchandise effectively extends your brand beyond the dining experience, increasing brand visibility and customer recognition.
- Offering merchandise creates opportunities for deeper customer engagement and loyalty by providing tangible reminders of their dining experience and fostering a sense of belonging to the restaurant’s community.
- Selling merchandise provides a revenue stream for restaurants, with the potential for high-profit margins compared to food and beverage items.
- Merchandise offers various marketing opportunities, serving as walking advertisements and promotional tools that can reach a wider audience beyond the restaurant’s physical location.
- Through creative and diverse merchandise offerings such as branded apparel, drinkware, accessories, cookbooks, and meal kits, restaurants can extend their reach beyond the dining experience and create lasting connections with their customers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why do cafes have merch?
Cafes offer merchandise to extend their brand reach beyond their physical space, increase customer loyalty, and generate additional revenue. Branded items like mugs, t-shirts, and specialty coffee beans serve as walking advertisements and foster a stronger connection between customers and the cafe.
By providing tangible reminders of the cafe experience, merchandise enhances customer satisfaction and reinforces brand identity.
What is the purpose of merch?
The purpose of merch, or merchandise, varies depending on the context, but generally, it serves several key purposes that include:
- Brand promotion
- Customer engagement
- Revenue generation
- Enhanced customer experience
