The Bullhearted Brand

Building Bullish Restaurant Brands That Charge Ahead of the Herd

By: Joseph Szala

Narrated by: James Woodrich

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Grab the bull, and your brand, by the horns.

The statistics are infamous with anyone in the industry—newbie or veteran. Many restaurants never make it past year one, and even less make it to year five. But why? What are the causes of such high rates of failure? While one can argue for one cause or another, the truth is that it’s rarely one thing that causes failure. Instead, it’s usually a perfect storm of multiple causes that lead to a failing business model. It’s my belief, that most, if not all, of these causes could be avoided through an understanding and adoption of branding best practices.I know what you’re thinking, “Of course the branding expert thinks it’s a branding problem”, but hear me out. Branding is a strategic endeavor that is meant to guide every decision in a restaurant’s business—from operations to human resources, culinary innovation to, yes, visual and verbal identity design. When the strategy is fully adopted and used, decisions are made much clearer. Saying “no” to a poor space or bad menu item becomes much easier and innovation becomes much more comfortable.

When true branding best practices guide the development and growth of a restaurant concept, the risk of failure is reduced. In The Bullhearted Brand, I seek to lay out the foundational elements and details about creating and scaling restaurant brands. I infuse knowledge with real-world experiences throughout the book and leverage stories, fables, and folklore from around the world that use the bull as the hero. Through these stories, real-life accounts, and expertise garnered from nearly 20 years of experience, my hope is to fuel the courage, conviction, and empathy required to lead the charge for your bullhearted brand.

©2021 Szalapalooza, LLC (P)2021 Szalapalooza, LLC

Why Branding Matters

Make it or break it decisions are often some of the first ones we make launching a business and/or product.
Who are we?
What are we selling?
How much does it cost?
Features?
Unique differentiators?
How does it stack up against the competition?
What do we name the product and/or company?

Sometimes we launch a product or company with good people, good products and all the answers above seeming to fill the need. Yet sometimes we fail in spite of all our best efforts. What makes the biggest brands in the world successful?

Until I read this, I didn't realize how much well thought out branding is at the heart of their success. In many cases the branding - not the "name", defines everything we aspire to be and the path to follow to success.

This book is a guide to everything you should understand when embarking on building a successful brand. The advice is based on a long career in branding by the author and draws inspiration from you guessed it... proverbs and stories related to bulls that create thoughtful lessons worth hearing.

I've been around marketing for a number of years and there were lessons and truths in this book that had a great impact on me. Don't make a big commitment in a massive endeavor without getting some guidance from this book and the author first. I myself shared it with someone who really needed it and i'm glad I did.