Fiamma Burger – Brand Extensions & Guts
When asked what I consider the best brands in Bellingham to be I always put La Fiamma near the top. There are many reasons I admire La Fiamma. Great service, delicious and interesting food enjoyed in a fun atmosphere topped off with great personality. I think the Bothmans sucessfully created a restaurant experience that met their vision and that also resonates extremely well with the people and mindset of Bellingham. I mentioned in a previous post that people love taking out-of-town visitors to Casa Que Pasa for Potato Burritos. I think La Fiamma is another place people love introducing to to visitors.
Brand Extensions
Extending an established brand like La Fiamma into a new product or service is a challenging venture. You’re essentially using the existing brand equity that exists in your current company/product and attempting to leverage it into a new related venture (think home equity loan). If the new brand extension doesn’t work out, you wind up confusing your customers and damaging both the new extension and the original brand. Which brings us to Fiamma Burger, a brand extension of La Fiamma.
Assuming that the food standards and environment will be just as strong as La Fiamma’s, I think Fiamma Burger will be a hit and a testament to how strong the La Fiamma brand is. Fiamma Burger, “Bellingham’s premier all-natural burger joint,” has a beautifully simple menu, similar to In-N-Out Burger’s menu, a virbant looking atmosphere and is positioned as a distinctively different burger choice to the competition just across the street (Bob’s Burger & Brew).
Fiamma Burger Advertising
Lastly, and getting to my original reason for this post, I wanted to point out Fiamma Burger’s very savvy
and creative means of advertising the launch of the new restaurant [link to full ad pdf]. The ads have appeared in several of the local newspapers as well as in the fold of La Fiamma’s current menu. Similar to selecting a desired level of sponsorship for an event or a PBS fund drive, the ads offer the reader different dollar levels and a certain percentage bonus for purchasing one of Fiamma Burger’s prepaid gift cards. For instance, if you buy a $1,000 gift card you receive a $300 bonus (30% of the purchase price), two invitations to the Fiamma Burger pre-opening party, and a VIP hoody.
Opening any restaurant, let alone a Fiamma restaurant that includes many construction and architectural details, is expensive. The advantage Fiamma Burger gets with these gift cards is money up front before the restaurant is even open thus reducing potential risk and cash flow problems.
Also, notice the different card levels you can buy: $500, $1,000 $5,000 or $10,000. Those denominations aren’t your typical gift card amounts are they? They’re uncommonly large amounts that get your attention and nobody around here has ever done anything like it. And that’s exactly why the offer is so interesting and why La Fiamma is at the top of my “Bellingham’s Best Brands” list! The Bothman’s have the creativity, brand equity and loyal customerbase to pull a promotion like this off without coming across as desperate for money like an unknown startup restaurant would. Most importantly though, and the reason the Bothmans get my full respect, is that they had the guts to implement their idea. Many people and businesses get great ideas, but very few ever seem to have the guts to implement them.
So, a few closing questions for you and your brand:
Do you have the business savy, creativity or loyal customers to pull off a promotion like this?
If one of your employees came to you with a remarkable idea, similar to Fiamma Burger’s for promoting your business, would you honestly consider it or have the guts to implement it?
My days in Manhatten showed me the best places to grub were the hole-in-the-walls with something special. FB here in Bham needs to fit that certain niche above Boomer’s (and certainly above fast food) and below gourmet burgers like Bobs. But to really make it happen they need to get some kind of grass-roots momentum around town, some kind of burger rep that precedes the “Fiamma” name..
From a business standpoint, they may have been been better off setting this up in Fairhaven but I appreciate the addition of another nice place on Railroad – they definitely will have lots of foot traffic. The menu is wonderfully simple and if the food is good, the lines will be long. I look forward to the veggie burger and fries.
Unfortunately, La Fiamma burger doesn’t even compare to Burger King in taste. Their prices are high, quality and quantity low. Not a good combination. I fear La Fiamma Burger won’t fair well unless they make a major change. Great decor however but it all seems like a facade.