BGR is a burger joint. But not just any burger joint. It’s a burger joint where the patties are a carefully curated blend of cuts from pasture-raised beef, minced with only salt and never frozen; where the buns are made daily using real milk and toasted with real butter; where the cheese is good ol’ melty, creamy American cheese; where the bacon is American-style crispy; where the fries have the best crisp to fluff ratio; where the frozen custard is smooth and dense and the shakes are decadent.
Josh Cherry, an American who moved to South Africa, found himself growing increasingly frustrated with poor food quality and bad service experiences. By 2012, he’d had enough and decided to introduce South Africa to the “real American burger”. Cue the birth of BGR. Josh was alarmed at how restaurants were taking advantage of cheap labour and how customers were prepared to pay for experiences that were at best, very average. Josh believed that we needed better food and a better employment and labour model to foster growth. He wasn’t wrong. If you don’t already know this, we needed ourselves a BGR.
Rather than doing a lot in a very average way, BGR focuses on doing a few things really, really well. It takes care of its team, its customers, its suppliers and its community. To say they care very deeply about the quality of their food would be an understatement. They are obsessed. BGR is a place where people can escape the chaos of daily life and enjoy really great food with friends, family or even just treat themselves to a little TLC in the form of a juicy burger. At BGR, the meals are quick and convenient but never skimp on quality. You’ll taste the love in the ingredients that are sourced with vehement dedication and care.
BGR believes in creating value through generosity and abundant energy. They want to nurture their community of makers, customers and investors by always delivering on their promise of quality food. BGR maintains this level of quality by using their labour model to serve their employees. They see potential in people and then they recruit, train and coach them to open up doors of opportunity. They actively search for the best ingredients and they actively invest in their employees. The quality is always there because BGR is always fostering an environment for it.
“The food is fresh and real”
— BGR employee
“The real American burger”
— Josh Cherry
Strategy
We needed to tell people about all the BGR goodness, but first, we needed to find a voice for BGR. After getting to know BGR and the people behind it, we knew that that voice was of a Southern matriarch. This is because BGR is, like a Southern matriarch, overtly gracious, hospitable and always a darn pleasure. BGR embodies generosity and charm, is a touch cheeky with a good sense of humour that is tongue-in-cheek, genial and inoffensive. This tone of voice is unique and really sets BGR aside from the brands around it. A Southern matriarch tone of voice created a link to BGR’s American culture but we needed the personality to be considerate of BGR’s current location as well. It needed that African nuance so that they could say, “we look global but we’re here and we’re locally relevant.” We added some African flair that says “we’re hustling but we don’t take life too seriously”. BGR is full of energy and passion and fuelled by a love for their home city, Johannesburg.
We needed to clarify their brand positioning of the best American style burger in South Africa and the reason BGR has the best American style burger in South Africa is because nothing but pure goodness goes into their products. Their ingredients are good ingredients sourced in ways that are good for the people who cook them, who serve them, who supply them and who eat them. The brand positioning for BGR is tied to their inherent goodness as a company so we really leaned into this idea of BGR owning “good inside.” This meant erring between silliness and seriousness but staying grounded in the middle, in wholesomeness. We called this the ‘good scale’. On the silly side, BGR could be a little frivolous and show that they can have fun. On the serious side, they could show how considerate they are to important events, in a light-hearted, concerned way. In the end, BGR always circles back to wholesomeness – their natural state of being. We developed social media content pillars for BGR that would really speak to the “good inside” qualities that were unique to them as a brand. These also helped their social media audience get a sense of the many different ways BGR was good on their word of being “good inside.”
Design
We put together a visual language for BGR to build brand awareness and loyalty. The visual identity brought the brand strategy to life ensuring customers immediately resonated with the brand’s characteristics: Good inside, American style, and exceptional quality.
BGR had some inconsistencies with the application of their logo and were using two different logos. One iteration felt cluttered, lacked clarity and was inconsistent with the packaging they were using. We encouraged them to use the newer version of their logo which was clean and simple, just like their food and was consistent with their packaging. The letters were simple which made it easier to read the abbreviation of “Burger.”
We took some cues from American design and used it to inspire the visual language. The important thing was, we wanted to hint at America but not shout it. We took the idea of distressed texture, bold type and the American flag colours. We built out a library of assets that used vintage texture, real, authentic imagery, vintage stickers and badges of quality as well as hashtag stickers and bold, pull-out copy.
The font was chosen for its simple and neutral but bold characteristics. The colour palette was made up of BGR’s signature red and white, to which we added a dark denim blue, a bright red, a bright blue and a soft grey. The revised palette would give that American feel while allowing for a greater variety in social media roll-out. The set of icons we developed speak to “good inside” and are badges of quality.
Impact
We successfully created a tone and visual language for BGR. That Southern matriarch voice with African flair appealed to customers who started engaging more and more with BGR’s new-found social media presence. The brand positioning and brand purpose was made more clear and allowed BGR to start showing people on the outside all the good they had hiding on the inside.
Credit
Design: Hestré Kamper, Shannon Davis
Creative Director: Shannon Davis
Project Management: Anri Coetzee
Strategy: Ross Drakes