Dive Brief:
- Food and beverage brands are beginning to see the benefits of having a brick-and-mortar restaurant as another way to engage consumers with their products outside of the grocery store aisle.
- Nestle operates two restaurant formats, the Nespresso boutique cafe and the Nestle Toll House Cafe, and Chobani opened its own cafe, which now features La Colombe coffee, in New York City's SoHo neighborhood. Last month, Amy's Kitchen opened Amy's Drive Thru in San Francisco.
- All of the restaurants' menus mainly feature items derived from the manufacturers' grocery products, such as Amy's frozen entrees made fresh to order or Nestle's coffee pods. But they often include other dishes and drinks as well to enhance the dining experience, such as Nespresso's additions of beer, wine, and sparkling water to its luxurious boutique menu.
Dive Insight:
Instead of traditional in-store marketing and packaging, the restaurants and cafes offer brands the opportunity to present a more hands-on version of their products designed in an elevated way, such as Chobani serving its yogurts in a glass jar and topped with fresh toppings and a cheesecloth to add character. Brands can also offer products in a restaurant that they can't necessary create for the grocery store, such as Chobani's simit sandwiches.
In some instances, these restaurants act as a test kitchen or "incubation and innovation hub," as Chobani refers to its SoHo cafe, where the company tests new ways of preparing yogurt. Chobani's new Flip product line was inspired by the cafe's creations. Amy's has created a new chili mac product based on a customer's habit of putting Amy's canned chili on the restaurant's macaroni and cheese.
Many brands feel the restaurant concepts are more than a massive marketing ploy, and they plan to build more. The restaurants are social media savvy as well, offering physical environments to complement their designed products all worthy of social media shares.