Your menu is more than just a list of dishes and prices. It's a powerful tool to communicate your brand identity, create memorable experiences, and influence your customers' choices and satisfaction. In this article, we'll show you how you can create a sense of surprise and delight with menu design, using some proven techniques from menu psychology and marketing.
Before you start designing your menu, you need to know who you are serving and what they want. Research your target market, their preferences, their expectations, and their pain points. Use surveys, feedback forms, online reviews, and social media to gather insights. Then, segment your audience based on their needs, motivations, and behaviors. This will help you tailor your menu to appeal to different types of customers and occasions.
One of the easiest ways to make your menu more enticing and engaging is to use descriptive language. Instead of using generic or technical terms, use sensory words that evoke images, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings. For example, instead of "chicken sandwich", you could say "crispy buttermilk fried chicken on a toasted brioche bun with tangy coleslaw and spicy mayo". Descriptive language can increase sales, satisfaction, and perceived value of your dishes.
The visual appearance of your menu can also affect how your customers perceive and order your food. Use design principles such as contrast, alignment, hierarchy, balance, and white space to create a clear, attractive, and easy-to-read menu. Avoid clutter, too many colors, fonts, or images, or unnecessary information. Use icons, symbols, or boxes to highlight your special offers, signature dishes, or recommendations. Use a consistent style and tone that matches your brand identity and theme.
Another important aspect of menu design is the layout. The layout determines how your customers scan, navigate, and process your menu. You can use some menu engineering techniques to optimize your layout and maximize your profits. For example, you can divide your menu into sections based on categories, courses, or themes. You can use the golden triangle or the sweet spot to place your most profitable or popular items. You can use decoy items or price anchoring to influence your customers' choices.
The golden triangle is where most people look on a menu: first to the center, then upper right, followed by upper left. This space should highlight items with the highest profit margins. Speaking of menu real estate, it’s worth mentioning that one of the most common menu mistakes is offering too many items. Keeping offerings on the smaller side can help guests avoid overwhelm, keep unique ingredient costs down, and help your BOH team be more efficient and organized. An efficient menu strategy can provide an opportunity to test new dishes as daily specials, or drive sales because guests love a dish but can only get it at certain times. Creating a sense of urgency can make the difference between a good service and a great one.
You don't have to stick to the traditional paper or digital menu formats. You can experiment with different formats to create a sense of surprise and delight with your menu. For example, you can use interactive menus that allow your customers to customize their orders, see photos or videos of your dishes, or access additional information or stories. You can use creative menus that use unconventional materials, shapes, or methods to present your food. You can use seasonal menus that change frequently to reflect your fresh and local ingredients.
Finally, you need to test and update your menu regularly to make sure it works for you and your customers. You can use different methods to test your menu, such as A/B testing, sales analysis, customer feedback, or observation. You can use the results to identify what works well and what needs improvement. You can also update your menu based on changing trends, customer preferences, or business goals. By testing and updating your menu, you can keep it relevant, attractive, and effective.
One thing I’d like to add is to proofread, proofread, proofread. Having owned a food business, I know that the days can be long and exhausting, making it easier to miss errors. However, as a graphic designer, I also know that it’s more difficult to catch our own typos when we’re familiar with the text. Our brains anticipate what the words are intended to be, making it easier to miss errors. A few tips to help ensure accuracy: 1. Read the text out loud 2. Read the text backwards 3. Ask others to help. And spell-check is great, but won’t catch jaw-dropping misspellings of words like, “crab,” or “Angus.” ?? It can be expensive to print menus and once ink hits paper, it’s too late to make corrections until the next print run.
While I ?? agree with the suggestions in this excellent article, I know that many food businesses owners don’t have the time or expertise to do extensive market research or A/B testing. This is an area where it can be helpful to hire a graphic designer who specializes in the business of food. They have the experience to know what questions to ask, and should have examples of menus they’ve created for other clients. A professional menu will elevate and promote your brand, increase sales, and create a more enjoyable experience for your guests, allowing owners to focus on staff, training, networking, recipe development, and the myriad additional issues a restaurateur must manage daily.