You have determined you need a new menu board for your restaurant.
You know it should be a great tool to improve your top and bottom lines, but how do you make it accomplish that?
Our goal is to give you strategies to create that fabulous first impression of your restaurant or retail space – your menu board and signage! Here is a blueprint to help you make your menu board a powerful tool to increase profits for your restaurant or retail store. It contains the things you should consider while you formulate your plan. The goal should be to make your new menu board a creative, effective, and attractive element of your retail space.
Define Your Brand
The first steps are not quick or easy. You will spend a good deal of time going through your current menu or developing your new one.
You will need to make some hard decisions about your offerings, including what stays and what goes.
Here are some suggested questions to start your conversation.
• What do you want your brand to say?
• What’s your brand’s personality?
• What’s your brand’s colors/fonts?
• Who are your best customers?
• What are you most known for, and for what do you want to be known?
Analyze Menu Content
Evaluate your menu and determine what items fall under the following categories:
BAM's — items that rank both high on the profitability scale and are also highly popular. Highlight these items on the menu.
Winners — items that are low in profitability but high in popularity. Let customers know you have them, but don’t direct too much
attention to them.
Specials — items that appeal to only a certain few, but are highly profitable. Display these creatively to attract more attention and turn
them into BAMs.
Mehs — items that are neither profitable nor popular. If they are displayed at all, the focus should be minimal.
Something to Consider: Slow speed of service is a hidden cost. Consider service speed and prep time when evaluating your menu items.
Layout Your Menu
After classifying your items using the categories above, lay out how you would like your menu board to look. Using a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel helps you visualize each panel. Title a column with a working header, and then list your items below it. Simple listings are best, as customers usually don’t take the time to read extensive details on a menu board. Studies show that when a line forms behind a guest, the guest feels pressured to make a quick decision. They will quickly scan the menu board for a familiar item or service, or a favorite meal, and not try other options.
Although it is not ideal for guests to feel uncomfortable or stressed when ordering, make the best of it with a well-designed board that draws their eye to your BAMs.
Less Is More
According to menu engineer Greg Rapp, customers will be overwhelmed if there are more than seven items per category. They will default to ordering something they have had before, decreasing the opportunity of turning their attention to BAMs.
With a limited menu, customers make faster decisions, and you will see improved speed of service.
Think like a customer!
• Avoid having too many items displayed on your menu
• Have 7 choices (or fewer) per category
• Limited menus will help customers order more quickly
Menu Board Hot Zones
Get your customers to see BAMs and Specials first by creating a menu board hot zone. This is the area customers see first and most frequently.
Hot zones are usually the top center area of a menu board where the eye naturally gravitates. Hot zones can also vary depending on how customers line up and where the primary order point is located (typically near the cash registers).
Depending on the design, hot zones appear when you have the perfect combination of:
• Location
• Real Estate
• Color
• Imagery
• Clarity of Content
When used correctly, these elements can powerfully boost sales of your most profitable selections. If handled poorly, you could push your customers to order Mehs instead of BAMs. Although it is not an exact science, we have some guidelines that we have found successful.
When laying out content, keep the physical space in your order area in mind. There are two conventional designs:
Walk-up Counter with Multiple Stations
Most customers will not read your menu board from left to right; they look to the middle first. Place your main items, BAMs, and Specials in this area, with your add-ons (beverages, à la carte, sides, etc.) to the left or right.
Left-to-Right or Right-to-Left Order Station
Your main food items should be immediately visible when the customer walks up to the register, with beverages, à la carte items, and sides to the right (or left).
After determining where the hot zone is on your menu board, position menu categories in the order they are purchased based on customer flow:
Combos & Entrées -> Sides (Soups, Salads, Snacks) -> Beverages -> Desserts (Cakes, Shakes, Sweet Items)
Design Tip:
• Place the highest margin items and combo meals within the hot zones
• List items in descending order from highest profit margin to lowest to help sell the high margin items first.
Manipulating the Hot Zones
Unfortunately, it's not enough to place BAMs and Specials within the hot zones if the menu design distracts the customer into looking
at the warm and cool zones first and often. Simple design elements like size, blank space, and colors cause these distractions.
To keep BAMs and Specials as the focal point of the menu, treat them like royalty.
• Larger text
• Large, appealing photos
• More surrounding space
• The most surface area on the menu
Limited Time Offers (LTOs)
If possible, incorporate LTOs on your menu board in a designated area within the hot or warm zones to help direct customers’ attention to new product introductions. The customer will become accustomed to looking in a specific place to see “what’s new.”
Alternative Solutions:
If there isn’t any room on your menu board to display LTOs, no worries. Use alternative merchandising and POP products to help you upsell limited-time offers in-store and at the drive-thru.
Research Menu Board Systems
Now that you have your menu, investigate different menu board systems to find the one that best displays your content. Evaluate different board styles to find the best expression of your brand and decor.
Consider how often you will need to change your menu content. If your listings change frequently, bear in mind the time and expense involved in creating new graphics. Also consider the available light in your space to determine if digital, illuminated, or non-illuminated systems would work best.
Digital Menu Systems
Digital menu displays using TV-type monitors are now the norm, and they're not going away. While this is the most expensive menu display, it is also the most versatile.
Interspersing moving graphics of food, beverages, or services with a static menu listing creates an attractive, engaging menu board. Menu board changes can be made instantly rather than waiting weeks for replacement graphics.
If you have several locations, some software applications can apply changes system-wide over the internet. While operators will need some computer skills to design and manage menu content using the provided software, The Howard Company offers content management services to help keep your menu up to date.
Illuminated Systems
Some illuminated systems require dedicated circuits; others run on low voltage and are more energy efficient. Traditional light boxes featuring fluorescent tubing are bigger and more expensive to operate than LED light panels.
Tube lighting tends to show hot spots and is less evenly lit — making the system look a little outdated, while LED panels offer more evenly distributed backlighting, and transparencies will “pop” with color.
Non-Illuminated Systems
Non-illuminated or magnetic menu boards are very dynamic and easily customized. They use the entire face to display menu items and pictures, and can be sized and shaped to fit your available board space.
Magnetic panels and strips are removable and easily updated. Depending upon your layout, you can design some areas to be frequently changed for a “limited time offer” panel, or to change out a listing panel and leave the food graphic.
Optional chalkboards or erasable graphics are available for those with artistic skills or those who are looking for a unique handwritten look.
If you can’t decide which system to choose, consider a hybrid solution: a digital menu board combined with either a non-illuminated or illuminated system.
Design Questions
To a creative designer, designing the menu board may seem to be the most straightforward step of this process, but there’s a lot more to it than creating a pretty picture.
An effective menu board design looks good, is easy to read and navigate, and, most important of all, generates profits. You’ve already done the homework of analyzing your menu to determine the items to sell and where they should be on your board. Maybe you’ve also decided on the menu system that you intend to purchase, but who will take all that well-organized content and make it visually appealing and legible?
Good designers will ask you the following questions to create the right menu board for you:
How Far Away Will the Menu Board Be From the Guests?
On average, a menu board is about 5–6 feet from the first person in line and mounted about 8 feet high. However, sometimes the board needs to be farther away depending on the available space. In this case, it’s best to measure how far the board is from the front of the line. A good designer will consider this, so the text is legible to as many people in the line as possible.
The larger the font, the easier it is to read from a distance. If you’re not sure, print it at full scale on paper and see how far away you can stand and still read it.
Refer to Howard Company’s Font Size Chart for Print and the Font Size Chart for Digital Screens (linked below) to determine the best font size.
Sizes vary from font to font, even if they have the same point size. Measure the actual font height in inches. Anything smaller than .375 (3/8) inch will be challenging to read from 6 feet away.
If the customer can’t read it, they won’t eat it!
In addition to font size, keep in mind font styles that may be difficult to read, even if the text is close and large enough. Use script and serif fonts as design elements, but avoid using them for menu items or descriptions. They take a little more time and effort for customers to read.
What is the Max Available Space?
It may seem obvious, but you also have to consider the amount of space you have. If it is tight, you may have to reconsider your product offerings or eliminate descriptive text. Always measure the exact space where you intend to put your menu board before starting the design. If you tell your designer the menu board needs to be 3 feet, they will design it accordingly.
Even if you have plenty of space, you still want to give your designer the desired board size. Without boundaries, you can’t be sure what to expect, and you certainly don’t want to overextend your budget.
What Hardware will be needed to hang the Menu Board?
This is a minor technical question, but it still correlates with design. Waiting until your board is installed to find out it is too heavy to chain-mount from the ceiling can be frustrating. If you are hanging it above the registers, it might have to be mounted at an angle so customers can still read it. It should also be high enough to avoid knocking people’s heads.
Having a solid understanding of how the menu board will be mounted will help your designer. Wall-mounting is easier if the board is broken into sections. Hanging five smaller panels is easier than hanging an 8-foot-long single board. Of course, the layout will be slightly different between a multi-panel and single panel board.
Need for Changeability?
When purchasing a menu board, you want it to last a while before you need to replace or upgrade it. The Howard Company offers multiple solutions for both illuminated and non-illuminated systems to accommodate menu changes while keeping costs relatively low.
Some restaurants change the pricing and images of menu items more than a couple of times a year. The most time-efficient way to do this is to invest in a digital menu board. Otherwise, the designers can set up your menu items and descriptions as easily-removable content. Whenever you make a minor adjustment to the ingredients or if you want to switch out an item, you only need to replace a small section of the board. Is Changeable Pricing Right for you?
LTOs and Promos:
LTOs & Promos displayed on your board should be in a specific section of the menu and set up so they can be easily swapped.
Where to Start:
The Howard Company provides hardware and installation instructions for every menu board purchased. If you are not sure how you want your board to hang, review our standard mounting hardware options.
What is the Overall Look, Theme, and Brand?
Think about the overall look of your restaurant design, and incorporate the menu board into the atmosphere. For a small rustic cafe, you may consider a rustic-style menu with a worn wood frame and neutral colors. If you’re opening a fast-food restaurant with a fun, loud, bright look, the menu board should be just as loud to stand out in its environment.
Include your brand's style in the design as well to heighten a customer’s trust and overall experience. If you have a logo, incorporate the same colors and typeface in the menu board to have a consistent look with your marketing.
Review designs that other restaurants are currently using and decide what you like: large images, no images, simple text, the color scheme, the generic layout. Share the ones you like with the designers so they better understand what you want.
Remember not to get carried away with clever designs and superfluous graphic details — customers want something easy to read and easy to navigate
Using Food Product Imagery
When examining different menu board styles and how your content will look, consider adding food photos. Use stock photography, hire a food photographer, or use custom food service pictures to illustrate your selections.
Pictures sell your products, especially for people who haven’t been in your restaurant before or who don’t have much time to make a menu decision. Studies have shown that food pictures can increase sales by 15% or more! Keep this in mind when laying out your menu, especially for your BAMs and Specials.
Pictures also visually break up a menu board, making it more interesting to read. Visit photo-sharing sites like iStockphoto.com or Shutterstock.com for photo ideas.
While photos are enticing for your menu listings and a great way to showcase your beautiful food, there is a risk of incorporating too many photos. The customer’s eye can be overwhelmed when reading through a menu with many photographs of food. Just like when consuming most food, it’s good in moderation.
Using Colors
Warm colors, such as red and yellow, are known to help stimulate the appetite. Yellow is associated with energy and happiness. They remind us of summer when we tend to be the most active and eat more. Cold colors (blue, purple, grey) tend to decrease appetite as they remind us of winter when we slow down and hibernate.
Using different colors helps distinguish between entrées, sides, and beverages. A complementary color scheme can add “pop” to specific listings when used as an accent or background color. Use dark-colored type on light backgrounds, and light-colored type on dark backgrounds.
Use Pantone color swatches in your design so the color is printed exactly as intended and consistently matched in future reprints. Printing graphics using CMYK/RGB swatches will be inconsistent on different printers. Using Pantone colors is the only way to guarantee an exact color match.
Free Stock Solutions:
The Howard Company provides alternative solutions to using free images that do not infringe on copyright law
(Overlay on image: THC Stock Images)
Simplify Pricing
Pricing should be straightforward for customers at first glance. Avoid showing prices with dollar signs, as studies show people order more items from menus without the symbol. The dollar sign represents money, and as customers start thinking about their budget, it may not be the best way to induce them to order higher-priced entrees.
Display the total price of combos, rather than add-on pricing. Listing the bundled items separately — “add fries and a drink for just .99 each” — makes people overthink about the additional cost. It is best to roll the entire bundle into one price.
How Much the Space is Needed?
Keeping in mind that less is more (i.e., 7 items or fewer listed per category), what is the minimum space needed for an outdoor menu board? First, determine the smallest size at which the content remains legible. Refer to the referenced Font Document to decipher that size. On average, a typical outdoor menu board is only 5-8 feet from a guest in the drive-thru.
Minimum Font Size for an Outdoor in Inches:
Headings > 1.5” h (100-160pt)
Listing > .75” h (40-60pt)
Descriptions > .5” h (36-40pt)
(Alongside the sample board images)
Design Tip:
Having short, brief descriptions will help your guests to browse your drive-thru & order quickly.
How much would fit on Howard’s 18” Door if I wanted Text only?
For an 18” Drive-thru door, you can estimate that you’ll need at least 1.5” for every header & approximately 2” for every menu item with listing. An 18” door holds a 17”w x 51.5” graphic, so you can fit about 20 menu items, depending on how much description content you want to include.
As noted previously, adding images can grab your guests' attention more than words; however, this will limit space for menu content. The images below show that one image added to your menu would be equivalent to one listing (with description).
Less is More!
Guests can get overwhelmed when there are more than 7 items under a category.
Upsell your menu items by incorporating appetizing images or posting descriptive adjectives on other point of purchase merchandise and drive-thru accessories (wings, toppers, LTO’s holders)
How much would fit on Howard’s 27” Door if I wanted Text only?
A 27” Drive-thru door has almost double the space for menu content. A 27” door holds a 26”w x 51.5” graphic, so not only do you have the same height, but you can also fit two columns of listings. Without images, you can fit about 40 menu items, depending on how much description content you want to include.
We hope this set of information was helpful in analyzing your menu or in getting a good start when creating a brand-new menu for your business.
If you would like further assistance from our design team to get a better idea of how to build your menu, please use the link below to request a consultation.
Request a Menu Board Designer Consult
