Introducing Smash Brothers Sliders, a new delivery/takeout led restaurant concept in Columbus, OH launching December 2021

A series of 50 posts in 50 days - Day 21/50

Today I'm excited to announce our first virtual brand, "Smash Brothers Sliders". This is my favorite post I've written so far. I hope you enjoy.

Once you’re done reading, head over to our website and check it out at www.eatsmashbrothers.com 🍔 🍔 🍔

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TL;DR:

1. Story - authentic, easy/fun to market

2. Branding- different than cheap fast food

3. Quality - we never trade off cost for taste

4. Business model = Off-premise led - WE ARE BUILT FOR DELIVERY AND TAKEAWAY!

All of these will help us stand out.

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1. Story

I am one of 3 brothers. Myself and one brother are working on this as our primary business venture.

Our third brother is also involved. His skillset is commercial construction, residential construction, custom products, woodworking, metalwork/welding, etc. He gutted and rebuilt the food truck that we will be using for our mobile pop up.

Including "brothers" in the name was natural, and we are all pumped that this is the first time we're all involved in building something together. Our parents are excited too.

Additionally, theres a pretty clear marketing narrative we can tell being 3 brothers, all raised in Columbus, all with different skillsets, launching a local company. I have some things in mind for a "then and now" marketing approach. It will be good.

In the logo, you can see 3 smaller burgers. This has 2 meanings:

1. These 3 burgers are sliders, and a 3 slider pack will be a standard combo we offer

2. Each burger represents one of the 3 brothers

One tagline on the logo is "Smashed, Sealed, Delivered" - a play on the Stevie Wonder song, but deliberately different (I did look into trademark issues here, to my knowledge there are none).

Our model is literally:

• SMASH burgers

• SEAL them in a box

• DELIVER them to you

Well, you can come pick them up too... But Smashed, Sealed, and Picked Up doesn't have the same ring to it.

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2. Branding

Standard is red/yellow (McDonalds's, In-n-out, Wendy's, Hardees, Carls JR, Jack in the Box, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut...)

There is psychology behind why so many brands anchor on Red, Blue, and Yellow in the fast food space.

But we don't want to be seen as "just fast food". And we don't want to look "just like the other guys".

These guys are running a massive volume play. We're running a local quality play.

So our colors/branding will look and feel "elevated" when it comes to burgers and sliders. We developed a brand guide that we want to stick to as we deploy Smash Brothers, to achieve a consistent look and feel.

If anyone wants more info on how we did this or wants this template in a .sketch file, DM me.

Our presence on social channels will be less staged and gimmicky than Applebees, Burger King, McDonalds, Chilis, etc.

Booooooo 👎

Instead, it will be a lot more like:

• Brewdog

• Stans Donuts

• Five Daughters Bakery

• Boxed Water

• Small Cheval

👍 👍 👍

Our branding has simple colors: Black, Coffee, Retro Gray, Cream, White. Simple, bold appearance. Coffee is used as an accent if needed, but not frequently.

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3. Quality / taste

The bottom tagline in the logo is "An American Classic" - Smash Brothers is modern day take on a classic burger experience. Nothing about what we will do is too fancy.

No "bacon jam remoulade w/ arugula" sliders. Instead, we have built a simple, classic smash burger slider. We don't have the menu exactly figured out, but it will be SIMPLE:

• Burgers served in packs of 2, 3, 6, 10, and 15

• Tots - plain or a gourmet flavor

• Sauces - we'll do a Garlic Aioli Tot Sauce, a signature slider sauce, and an "Angry" sauce (spicier)

• Drinks

TBH we're not going to compete with a dollar menu from a national chain. WE DON'T WANT TO. We will cost more, because our ingredients and preparation costs more, because they're better. And you'll taste the difference.

We're a bit biased, but this is our strategy at least 😂

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4. Business model

Off-premise led means we will invest heavily in:

A) Packaging - Takeout boxes that function better (designed for delivery) AND look better (cc: Crumbl Cookies). Our food must still be high quality 30+ mins after cooking We think that consumers are OK to pay for premium packaging when it boosts the overall function or aesthetic.

B) Operations - everything we do should minimize waste, maximize throughput, and simplify the order -> delivery process. We have the freedom to build things in a way that legacy restaurants don't, because we're starting from scratch while they had to adapt a legacy operation.

C) Menu creation - we are selective about what goes into our recipes for sides and mains. Our commitment is that our burgers won't just be built to travel, they will GET BETTER WHILE TRAVELING. We didn't design a menu for you to eat on site. We didn't take our standard burger, put it in a box, and put it on Doordash.

We designed a burger thats meant to live inside a takeaway box for 30 mins to 1 hour.

Those are 2 very different things. By leading with off-premise vs. pivoting to off-premise (like most companies had to do), we can set the bar way higher for delivery and carryout food.

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Wrap it up…

In summary, Smash Brothers Sliders is an off-premise led concept serving classic style cheeseburger sliders.

• The branding shows how we're different than competition.

• The name + story is authentic and will be fun to tell.

• The taste will speak for itself.

Smash Brothers is a family built business, and we want to welcome you to our family with open arms.

Try one of our sliders, and join the family #jointhefam.