I have a restaurant client who has had their family restaurant name for 31 years. It was changed slightly from decade to decade; however, their last name has always been in it. They are unfortunately known as the "place where old people eat". Even though their following is largely older adults from 50 up, they want to begin attracting more 30+ ages for lunch and dinners. Plus, they want more families in for large meal tickets. I came up with a few names and some have received positive reaction from family and friends. The name has to reflect a modern bistro/cafe style to satisfy the tastes and likes of all ages. It needs to be ageless and nongender specific. I want to find a name that is simplistic but yet different and catchy. The food is Americana style with a homemade touch. The physical atmosphere is changing to mesh with the new brand image... which as you can see I haven't presented yet to the client. Any ideas? :-/

What they wish to accomplish is the “holy grail” for many companies and not without a lot of risk. In many respects it is not all that different from what other companies with different products have faced (aging consumer group) including Cadillac, McIntosh Audio, the state of Florida, Sears, etc. Or companies whose image problem is not an older consumer but rather some other “negative” (I put that in quotes because having older consumers is not necessarily a problem). For example, Circuit City, which went from being perceived as a leader in technology retailing to a weak follower.

I suggest you carefully consider the foundation of what their image should be beginning by not assuming the new image will necessarily be negative to any age group (you may have said that when you said it must be ageless). Put aside tactics such as names, décor, etc and along with their management, list what you consider to the be foundation of the business. In other words, who will want to eat there and why? With that complete you can begin to develop the tactics for communicating those attributes.

Finally, you should definitely consider formal testing of your hypotheses because so much is at stake. In many cases, what you and their management feel is obvious and the way “everyone” will feel, may not be.