The Burgisto: Penetrating Dubai’s Competitive Burger Market

The Challenge: Launching a Burger Chain in a Saturated Market

Rael Premium Food is a food and beverage distribution company located in Dubai and operations throughout the Middle East.

When Burgisto wanted to launch a chain of Burger Fast Food outlets, it needed a brand strategy and visual identity that would help it penetrate a highly competitive market segment.

This challenge requires:

• Market penetration: Penetrate highly competitive market segment
• Brand strategy: Complete brand strategy development
• Visual identity: Visual identity that helps market penetration
• Mind-share: Gain mind-share quickly and surely

Brand Strategy: Positioning for Mind-Share

They reached out to Spellbrand Dubai to help them with their Dubai Burger Chain Branding journey. Rael has been distributing to fast food joints for over 25 years and has an infrastructure and network to rival any of the major fast-food brands. The UAE and other Middle Eastern countries are embracing “American style” fast-food chains and the market segment is maturing rapidly with saturation with insight. With these conditions, it is quite a challenge to enter and gain market share for a new entrant.

A positioning strategy is vital to be able to not only enter such a market but also gain vital “mind-share” to be able to then gain any market share. The talented Positioning Strategy team at Spellbrand, headed by master strategist Mash Bonigala, dug deep, researched, brainstormed, and came up with a positioning strategy that enables Rael to not only enter the market but also gain mind-share quickly and surely. Also outlaid were marketing campaigns and content marketing strategies.

This brand strategy works because:

• 25 years experience: Rael has been distributing to fast food joints for over 25 years
• Infrastructure: Infrastructure and network to rival major fast-food brands
• Market maturity: UAE and Middle East embracing American style fast-food chains
• Positioning strategy: Enables entry and mind-share gain quickly and surely
• Marketing campaigns: Marketing campaigns and content marketing strategies

Brand Naming: The Burgisto

To succeed with this brand, the client needed a brand name that not only sounded American but also had a bit of the European slant to it. We came up with a few names that matched these criteria and the name “The Burgisto” was finally chosen. It is a fun name that is easy to remember and can be used effectively in campaigns to build brand recall.

This brand naming works because:

• American sound: Sounds American for market appeal
• European slant: Has bit of European slant for differentiation
• Fun name: Fun name that is easy to remember
• Brand recall: Can be used effectively in campaigns to build brand recall

Brand Identity: Emblematic Design

After the name was chosen, we set to work creating a visual identity language that matched the brand strategy that we had set out. This included a simple yet iconic and powerful logo design incorporating a couple of elements from the parent brand’s old logo and also making it into an emblematic design that would work well within the fast-food market segment. We also incorporated the parent brand name into the logo to transition the company into this new venture and still tie back to its heritage.

Extending the logo design into the package design as well as the various visual touchpoints of the fast-food joint was the next step and this included designing the burger boxes, napkins, chip holders, burger wrappers, coffee, and juice cups, trays, and more. In fact, we are currently working hard on designing the burger joint interiors after which we will start working on the various print and media exposure designs including billboards, adverts, and more.

This brand identity works because:

• Simple yet iconic: Simple yet iconic and powerful logo design
• Parent brand elements: Incorporates elements from parent brand’s old logo
• Emblematic design: Emblematic design that works well in fast-food market
• Heritage connection: Incorporates parent brand name to tie back to heritage
• Complete system: Extended to burger boxes, napkins, chip holders, wrappers, cups, trays
• Interior design: Burger joint interiors in development
• Media exposure: Print and media exposure designs including billboards, adverts

Results: A Brand That Gains Mind-Share

The brand identity we created for The Burgisto successfully enables Rael Premium Food to enter the competitive Dubai burger market and gain mind-share quickly and surely. The positioning strategy, combined with the fun brand name “The Burgisto” that sounds American with a European slant, and the simple yet iconic emblematic logo design that incorporates parent brand elements, creates a complete brand identity system that extends to all visual touchpoints from burger boxes to interiors.

Today, The Burgisto uses this brand identity to attract customers in Dubai and throughout the Middle East, positioning them as a burger fast food chain launched by Rael Premium Food, a food and beverage distribution company with over 25 years of experience and infrastructure to rival major fast-food brands, with a positioning strategy that enables market entry and mind-share gain in the rapidly maturing American style fast-food market segment.