Welcome Ellie Varicak, Sr. Designer

Looking for a Senior Designer is a bit like looking for a unicorn. You know exactly who you’re looking for, but finding that person requires a bit of magic. They must a world-class design talent, a deep conceptual thinker, storyteller, communicator, problem-solver, and most importantly, able to tolerate the groan-worthy jokes around the office. Luckily, […]

Untangling New Restaurant Terminology

Restaurant ghost kitchens

The rise of “spooky” kitchens If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve heard the term “ghost kitchen” a lot in the past couple of years. You’ve probably also heard terms like dark kitchen, cloud kitchen, and shadow kitchen. For better or worse, these spooky kitchen terms reflect the way the restaurant industry is grappling with […]

What’s the ROI of Restaurant Branding?

The ROI of restaurant branding

It’s a Tricky Question Whether Vigor is creating a new restaurant brand from scratch or evolving one with plenty of history, there’s a question we get asked from time to time which is on the mind of every business owner: what is the return on investment for a branding project? I’ll admit, the last time […]

Coming out of COVID-19 with positive brand momentum

Coronavirus brand strategy for restaurants, hotels, and beverage brands

Let’s state the obvious: During this COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants are being left without dining rooms, and sometimes without essential staff. Operating in your core competencies—serving food to restaurant patrons—is severely hampered. Even if you’re fortunate enough to have a drive-thru or a strong delivery business, you, like all of us, are left asking some extremely important […]

Know Thy Personality—Strategy Series Part Three

Understanding branding basics - know thy patron

This article is the third of a 5-part series about Vigor’s strategic framework. Read part two here. Imagine that you’re a brilliant computer programmer working at a shadowy tech giant. One day, your boss pulls you aside for a special project. You’re seated in a white room with nothing but two microphones and two speakers. The […]

How to make cause marketing believable

Cause Marketing for restaurants

We’ve been talking about cause branding and cause marketing around the office more than usual as we gear up to do some work for a few great food and beverage brands with true philanthropic causes at their epicenter. These conversations have brought to light many questions of what makes cause marketing actually connect with people. […]

Know Thy Patron—Strategy Series Part Two

Marketing to a consumer group

This article is the second of a 5-part series about Vigor’s strategic framework. Read part one here. Imagine you’ve been dating someone special for a few months. Things are going great. The two of you are on an idyllic date at the county fair when your significant other drops a bomb: their parents have invited […]

The most expensive thing you’ll ever say: restaurant tagline do’s and don’ts

At a recent lunch with the Vigor team, someone brought up a chain restaurant slogan that they just couldn’t stand. It had a major cringe-factor, and didn’t communicate much. After throwing around some equally cringe-inducing variations on the tagline, we felt the need to do something constructive. So we thought some restaurant tagline do’s and […]

Know Thy Position—Strategy Series Part One

This article is the first of a 5-part series about Vigor’s strategic framework. Imagine that you’re preparing to interview for your dream job. As you carefully comb through your wardrobe, you imagine how each item might strike the interviewer—this shirt is conservative, these glasses make me look smart, these socks are coy, et cetera (we […]

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