You Might Not Be a Big Company, But You Can Look Like One

If you’re like many in the catering industry, you started your business because of your passion for the art of cuisine–not because you loved branding and marketing. 

For a lot of growing catering companies, it’s hard enough to keep staff paid well and food costs at bay in today’s market. There’s simply no room for a high bill for monthly marketing or branding expenses. Luckily, there are options. 

This past month, Jamie Pritscher and Michael Larson, partners at Nuphoriq—the International Caterers Association's go-to catering and venue marketing agency—came together to share strategies for growing caterers to make a significant impact in their local markets and beyond, for far less than the average branding spend.

What is a brand? 

If you’re new to the world of business, it’s important to start with the basics: 

What is a brand anyway? 

After over 10 years of marketing and branding experience, the Nuphoriq team defines branding as:  

The set of expectations and intuitions, that, taken together, account for a customer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. 

Simply put, expectations are what you do for customers, and intuitions are what consumers feel about your business based on engaging with your services and/or your marketing. 

Essentially your brand is the blend of perception and reality.

Defining and creating the foundation of your brand

So, how do you build it if you don’t have full control over what others are feeling about your brand?  

Step one: Create your brand identity  

Your brand identity is that one sentence that truly defines and separates your brand from the others. To do so, just answer these three simple questions:  

What do you sell? 

What is your price point? 

Why do people choose you over the competition? 

For example, corporate delivery catering featuring fresh, local fare in Chicagoland for less than $20 a plate. At your core, these three things will create a solid brand identity that helps consumers know what to expect.  

Step two: Look at the catering industry 

Next, you need to look at what other companies like you are doing. Whether they’re your competitors in town or a similar business across the country, garner inspiration from those who have been in your shoes and are doing similar things. It will spark ideas nearly every time. 

Step three: Look to global marketing masters 

Larson emphasized that “Everything we want to design has been worked on by a company much richer than us… Starbucks® has spent hundreds of millions of dollars optimizing how an email should look and feel. Exactly how big to make that font, where to put the button, how to organize it–everything. So, take their research and put your brand on top. Then, you have your own marketing without the major investments.” 

Designing like Starbucks®, Nike®, and Apple®

Next, the visuals. This is where the world's best practices are going to come in. Larson suggests, “Start by finding examples by the richest, most popular companies. From there, you’ll be able to find the trends to inspire your own brand,” Larson suggests. 

You’ll be surprised that when you look at industry giants like sweetgreen, Cava, or Chipotle, they have many similar characteristics: bold and bright colors, cut-out plates, and a minimalistic style.

While you can do this while designing your brand foundations, you can also do it for individual campaigns as well. For example, if you’re launching a new lunch delivery option and want to get the word out, what do you do? 

You’re going to determine the goal, meaning what you want the design to do. 

Then, decide on the medium, which could be email, website, social media, etc. 

Go to our trusty friend Google and search for, “Starbucks® seasonal drinks email” and grab design inspiration from a recent Starbucks® campaign. Then, pay attention to the font size, text length, colors, placement, and how zoomed in the photo is, and re-create it yourself on Canva or hire a professional designer to whip something up quickly from your inspiration.  

Use what’s out in the world and what’s been researched by brands with big marketing budgets. That’s the secret sauce to high-value marketing without the spend. 

High-value items to invest in to elevate your brand 

“To come across as a professional brand, you don’t necessarily need a lot of money but you do need to be strategic and intentional,” Pritscher explains. Realistically, you can brand everything from your trucks to your napkins and just about everything in between. Think about what your priorities are when investing in branded items.  

When thinking about what to brand, ask the following simple questions: 

What is the most viewed item?  

What is the investment? Are there cheaper alternatives that provide better value?  

What will have the largest impact? 

For example, while a full wrap for your trucks is basically a moving billboard for you, it is incredibly expensive to do. So, instead of a full wrap, choose a few spot graphics for a lower cost, like a logo and a QR code. These graphics are still just as high-impact as the full wrap, at a lower investment.

Tasty Catering van with spot graphics. Photo courtesy Tasting Catering/International Caterers Association

You can do this at a more micro level as well. For delivery catering, invest in branded wax paper for sandwiches and stickers to put on dessert bags or to close the boxed lunches. The branded wax paper also doubles as a prop for all sorts of food photos (see example from Tasty Catering below). These are affordable ways to get your brand front and center on every food item that goes out the door. 

Tasty Catering branded wax paper paired with Tasty Catering’s ⅓ Black Angus Cheeseburger, their most popular picnic item.  

Fabulous food photography for under $250 

Now, catchy slogans and beautiful campaign designs are great, but they won’t have the same impact high-quality food photos do. Pritscher and Larson shared exactly how you can take food photos for less than $250 as you’re getting started.

Three essentials are a two-sided flat-lay photography backdrop board, a folding light diffuser board, and an LED lighting kit. There are also some caterers who will simplify even further with a 24” x 24” photo studio light box. It’s totally up to you.

But Pritscher and Larson recommend that you set up your food photo station once and leave it up. Understanding that there isn’t always a ton of room in the kitchen, but the time saved setting it up each time you need a shot for social media or promotion will be well worth the space investment.

Now, they also recommended that there’s a time and place for DIY photos. If you have your largest event with the most complex menu to date, get a professional photographer to step in. Or if you’re applying for the ICA’s annual CATIE awards (or the Caatersource ACE awards for a specific dish or event, you’re going to need a set of professional photos. But for everyday marketing needs or until you can really invest without fear, this setup will do just fine.

The bottom line: creating your brand shouldn’t lead to bankruptcy

At the end of the day what all of this comes down to is that your brand is what you make it–but it doesn’t have to cost a million dollars.

Pritscher shared, “There’s no one-size-fits-all for branding. What you choose depends on your unique brand and who your end user is.” The key is being strategic, intentional, and using the resources out in the world to garner your creative inspiration. 

For more information on how to join the ICA and to be notified of future catering industry webinars, events, and education opportunities, visit internationalcaterers.org.