I am taking the restaurant home

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2024/12-2025/01

Branded products tied to restaurants, pubs and cafés reinforce and leverage these values, at the same time physically extending the reach of the brand, strengthening guest loyalty and in most cases generating extra revenue. These are called merchandising products – although merchandising is a much broader concept in business, this article focuses on branded restaurant merchandise and calls the products merchandising or merch products.

The world’s most successful merchandising project is probably that of Hard Rock Café

Merch products make the brand, i.e. the restaurant better known and more recognisable, and they provide a way to build a strong and memorable “reputation”. They also increase guest loyalty and retention! Merchandising products can be bought in-store and on the restaurant’s website – the former is much more common, due to impulse buying.

Large restaurant chains also sell restaurant goods in retail chains

The best-selling products

At places with a strong brand affinity, T-shirts and sweatshirts are the best-sellers. Employees sometimes wear them to work, which also serves as good advertising. The reusable shopping bag trend is based on the idea of sustainability and Hungarian restaurants are offering them too. Where the cuisine is good and the chef is respected, a cookbook can be based on their credibility and regulars are happy to take it home. If you go to a restaurant for a tasty bite, you will be interested in a kitchen apron, one of the most common branded products. Mugs and water bottles are essential elements of the merchandising portfolio. These are functional products that people typically use every day. Keyrings and fridge magnets are also classic merch items.

Bringing the flavours home

Restaurants sell their own-brand wine, beer and spirits coming from the best suppliers. The favourite sauces, marinades and spice mixes of guests can be taken home as an authentic souvenir or gift. You can also take home whole meals in “meal kit” format. If you then want to sell merchandising products, there are a few things you should keep in mind: think about how you will display these products in your shop, if you sell them online, invest in an easy-to-navigate website that works well on smartphones and laptops, and be a partner and collaborate with local entrepreneurs and artists to design and produce your merchandising products.

In practice

Róbert Rosenstein
chef-owner
Rosenstein restaurant

Róbert Rosenstein, chef and owner of Rosenstein restaurant in Budapest told our magazine that offering their own products to guests had been inspired by their experiences in Italy.

Rosenstein-branded food and drinks are available, together with variety of items: coffee, pálinka, wine, fruit syrup, jam, pasta, olive oil, cookbooks, coffee cups, canvas bags, baseball caps, bread baskets and even vouchers – in the restaurant and in the online shop.

Rosenstein products aren’t advertised anywhere outside the restaurant or its social media platforms, and 80% of them are sold in the restaurant.

_{Rosenstein merch features a strong brand identity and witty gags}

Concentrating on the family

Rudolf Semsei
owner
Semsei Gastronomy

According to Rudolf Semsei, owner of Semsei Gastronomy Group, if you have a brand that is likeable and good, you need to find exciting little merch products that guests can take home with them.

After the birth of the VakVarjú brand in 2008, they organised a competition for young and talented Hungarian artists to create T-shirts with the VakVarjú logo.

Later food and drink products came out under the VakVarjú brand.

They don’t want to make money from merchandising: it is more important that VakVarjú products should remind guests of the great time they had there or they should support a noble cause, e.g. the World Down Syndrome Day.

The many creative products reflect the concept and the family-centricity of VakVarjú

Coffee, books, culture

Szuna Noémi
marketingvezető
Cafe Frei

Head of marketing Noémi Szuna told our magazine that sales off the shelves are increasingly important in the more than 60 units of the Cafe Frei chain, as these units sell more than 30 types of coffee in packaged format – they serve as brand ambassadors and are also available in retail outlets.

Cups bearing the Cafe Frei logo are available in both espresso and cappuccino sizes. The main place to shop for merchandise is the Cafe Frei webshop, where besides cups and glasses T-shirts, coffee makers, grinders, the books of Tamás Frei and creative board games are also available.

A Cafe Frei mercheinek elsődleges értékesítési helye a webshop

Zsuzsa Kincses
sales and marketing director
Gerbeaud Gasztronómia

Zsuzsanna Kincses, sales and marketing director of Gerbeaud Gasztronómia Kft. spoke to us about how they are currently making plans for the creation of a merchandising range for Gerbeaud Café.

The project will involve several categories and a unique image that reinforces the Gerbeaud brand – perhaps even using a “shop in a shop” concept. //

Classic Gerbeaud merchandising items will soon be back alongside the brand’s confectionery products

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