Here are top five approaches to design a menu card that can help in the successful running of a restaurant with higher profits due to increased orders.
- Reading pattern
For designing a remarkable menu, that can increase the order more, one has to be aware of the reading pattern or the way that the customers usually analyse the menu card. In business terms, the sweet spot must be known. Usually, the sweet spot is at the right-hand corner at the top, where the food menu designer can emphasise the most selling and special dishes of the restaurant.
Rather than using pictures and graphic illustrations, the brochure designer will usually use big bold letters with the tasteful description of the food at the sweet spot, as the customer can tend to look at the highlighted menu at the sweet spot, which can bring profit to the restaurant. Most of the researchers who analysed the reading pattern have come to the conclusion that the top right corner is the area of most attention whereas the bottom part is the area of least attention. By taking advantage of this analysis, food menu designers can design the menu card accordingly for more orders.
- Colour psychology
Colour psychology is commonly used in all the ventures, to attract the customers according to their needs. From advertising a match stick to choose the tie colour for an interview, colour can play the most beneficial role. As people are always integrated with the colours in an emotional way, this can be made use by the brochure designers for coming up with a better menu card design.
Based on the target audience and the theme of the restaurant, choose the colour palette. For example, red colour can be used for a barbeque restaurant, blue colour can be used for the restaurant which focuses on sea centric foods and green colour can be taken by the vegan restaurant. By choosing the appropriate colours, the food menu designer can attack the customers in a way that makes them order more and more.
- Nostalgic feeling
Another way of making the people order more from the restaurant is by attacking them with the nostalgic memories. The brochure designers can evoke the nostalgia in the menu by associating it with the ‘childhood days’, ‘traditional foods’ and ‘homemade foods. This can bring out the good old memories with the friends and family, thereby attaching with the dish emotionally.
Humanising the food or the dish can be another way to evoke nostalgia. By associating the food with the chef or an old recipe, the humanizing of the food can be done. Along with that, the names can bring out the nostalgic feel. Bread and milk can be least attractive, whereas fresh farm milk with homemade bread can bring out the nostalgia. By this way, the food menu designer has to research the integration of dishes with the memories that can increase the food order.
- Food photographs
Never try to insert food photographs for all the dishes provided in the menu. The brochure designers should prepare the menu card in such a way that the food pictures are provided here and there, not everywhere. Placing too many pictures on the menu card can make it the least attractive and a cheap end restaurant.
Also, while picturing foods, try to make it look as natural as possible. If the imagination was overly shown in the pictures, it can lead to suspicious customers who will demand the exact same one as the picture. Hire a professional photographer who is well aware of your brand, to make the food as a picture-perfect dish. Such perfectly photographed dishes can attract the customer to order more.
- Descriptive language
One of the important aspects that have to be kept in mind by the food menu designer is the descriptive language used in the menu, just below the dish’s name. The expressiveness involved in the description must make the customers mouth-watering and should order without any second thought.
Make sure you use the best use of creativity to describe the dishes to catch the eye of the customer. By using tasteful words that can increase the essence of the dish, like tender chicken breast rather than simply chicken breast can increase the satisfaction of the customers. Hence it is needless to say, the restaurants must hire a team for the creative writing of more sensual descriptions to enhance the customer satisfaction. The brochure designers must have an eye on details and craftsmanship on how the dish is prepared and must come up with the best expressions to describe the same.
The last but not the least tip, is to not give a hard time to the customers by pushing too many things in the menu card and flashing the price rates of the dishes with big letters than the dish name itself. One must avoid the usage of currency symbols on the menu, so that the customer can focus on the food rather than the cost. The food menu designer can make the menu card as creative as possible according to the theme of the restaurant and by following the above strategy. This can benefit the restaurant and increase the profits.
