The Brief:

Middle Eastern culture emphasizes lunch and dinner more than breakfast because the family meal is paramount. Breakfast is usually something simple and insubstantial, on-the-go snacks that never truly constitute a healthy option for what is widely acknowledged as the most important meal of the day.With a new generation of young, educated and health-conscious individuals interested in the exercise, yoga and detox juices, there was a new segment that wasn’t being really served.

And so Breakfast Barn was born! A new eatery launched in Beirut, Breakfast Barn offers a new and unusual proposition for the Lebanese market: healthy nutritious and delicious breakfast made of high quality farm-to-table ingredients in an easily accessible way - yummy, tasty, natural and drives a new trend of healthy yet convenient eating habits.

So how can Breakfast Barn brand itself in holistic, relevant way that would immediately set its name as a strong and successful new player in an overly-saturated market?

The Challenge:

Breakfast Barn enlisted Blackink to develop its brand and launch it in Beirut in a creative way that not only defined its target audience and positioning, but also attracted Easterner as well as Western mindsets, focusing on young health-oriented foodies who love simple and easy breakfasts on the go.

This new generation of millennials sometimes confuse the trend of organic foods as healthy, some focusing on dieting rather than nutrition, and so Breakfast Barn decided to educate its audiences that treating your body properly and eating the right foods was far more beneficial than counting calories.

Blackink was given the challenge to develop a modern dynamic brand image that resonated with its customers and communicated the proposition in a clear, simple and direct way that was attractive and trendy with plenty of character. 

The Solution: “Bonjour Healthies!”

As a boutique branding firm that specializes in cross-cultural branding for Middle Eastern markets, Blackink was the perfect partner to craft a clear and strong brand strategy for Breakfast Barn. We decided to develop a charismatic branding solution that was simple and modern with a quirky touch that utilized a multilingual tagline to communicate the core positioning.

And so, the memorable tagline “Bonjour Healthies!” was created. Building upon Beirut’s historic multiculturalism and a knack for witty linguistic playfulness, we combined French and English words in a way that sounded positively Lebanese!

Complementing the exuberant tagline is a handcrafted brand mark that highlighted the modern yet rustic character of Breakfast Barn, with a bright and clean styling alongside warm and light photography. The sheer volume of Breakfast Barn’s menu could’ve easily overwhelmed any diner and so, an intelligent tri-sectional visual system was devised that showed the variety of foods in an appealing way that was simple, robust and easy without overloading the customer’s mind. Adding to that we designed the full list of collaterals that blended perfectly with the interior signature look.

The Result:

The target audience’s visually stimulating preferences combined with zany linguistic freedom meant that Breakfast Barn was an immediate hit with its customers. A wide and varied fanbase was established very quickly and Breakfast Barn became a socially-validating referral, meaning people were excited about recommending the hot new breakfast place to their friends. Customer loyalty became the hallmark of Breakfast Barn with dedicated and loyal clientele that quickly became a like-minded community focused on positive vibes and tasty food, most of whom are repeat customers who are the core of the Breakfast Barn audience.

As the eatery started to flourish within weeks of launching, the new breakfast trend spread quickly and other restaurants started introducing their own breakfast options and the competition skyrocketed. The ultimate marker for success was how within months the brand caught the eye of prominent investors and immediately review franchising offers across the Middle East.

Other measurements of success can be seen online: (Breakfast Barn Launched in May 2016, stats below are from July 2020)

• Trip advisor rating: 5 stars

• Facebook rating: 4.9 stars

• Instagram followers: 7,200 followers

• Zomato rating: 4.8 stars

• Toters rating: 4.8

How BLACKINK Can Help:

We understand the difference, and more importantly know that to address each brand’s unique challenges with meaningful insight, we need to create highly customized, targeted and effective strategies based on thoroughly conducted market analysis. BLACKINK offers you a seat at the table with people that matter most.