Case Study
Culver’s Branded LED Outdoor Lighting
As most franchisees and business owners know, brand colors are extremely important and often what sticks the most in a customers mind, when they associate the company name and its products or services
Restaurant Lighting Situation
The restaurant chain known as Culver’s, has branded their business with specific white and blue colored lighting designs to evoke brand recognition and create an eye-catching appeal for patrons. Culver’s who opened their first restaurant in 1984, is headquartered in Wisconsin and as of June 2019, operates over 710 restaurants across 25 states, with 18 currently under construction. As new locations for this successful and tasty business model continue being opened around the Midwest and throughout the United States, franchisees want to ensure they harness the full benefits of attracting patrons to their amazing company location further to build upon their business success, as the founders George and Ruth Culver did when they transitioned A&W location colors from orange and brown, to the know infamous white and blue associated with Culver’s restaurants which are taking the country by storm with their delicious ButterBurgers and Frozen Custards.
With each new location being established, franchisee owners will notice that there are many benefits to opening a Culver’s franchise, in particular a guide and SOP that provides what is required to establish, operate and maintain a new Culver’s location in their desired area in the USA. These benefits also include fundamental lighting that every commercial location should have for safety and appeal to satisfy brand requirements for their patrons, which often includes lighting fixtures, kitchen equipment and inventory. Similar to many brand franchisee opportunities, Culvers allows and advises their owners, as explained in section G of the Franchisee Disclosure Document, to maintain and improve lighting fixtures for their establishment as they desire without corporate approval, if adheres to their current standards and specifications.
restaurant Considerations
As new locations are constructed for franchisee owners to start their business as a new Culver’s restaurant chain, they often realize that great locations with high traffic areas are often set back off the main roads from passing patrons at high speeds to see and recognize their location as much as they had hoped. With that in mind, and other considerations on the table to ensure patrons would know about their restaurant and want to visit their locations more often than others on the same roads, they looked closer at improving their outdoor lighting design to enhance their presence and appeal. As most franchisees and business owners know, brand colors are extremely important and often what sticks into their customers mind the most when they associate attributes like the company name and its products or services.
“The Garden Light LED outdoor lighting products are amazing, they were able to custom build the exact brand colors we needed into each led light fixture for this project quickly. Once our team installed them outside the restaurant to highlight the buildings architecture as designed, they provided the perfect lighting output and color scheme to enhance this Culver’s location for the new owners”
Jerry Johnson, Coastal Lighting Designs
operational Challenges
While considering the need for further improving upon their restaurant locations outside lights, several challenges and requirements came to mind, including the need for installing true white and blue color lights, along with the need for weatherproof low voltage LEDs to reduce operational costs, while also being able to satisfy their lighting applications of each locations unique architectural elements, and finally being able to ensure the lights had enough power and vibrancy to be seen from far distances at night from passers by to create their perfect new landmark.
Restaurant Lighting Solution
Garden Light LED professional grade integrated low-profile lighting products, suited for commercial outdoor use in all weather conditions, rated IP68 available in the required white and blue kelvin color temps to properly enhance and promote the Culver’s brand appeal. As the franchisee and lighting design company collected and reviewed many architectural low volt lighting fixture options, they realized that the options for true specific color LED lights are either to weak to see the light output from further distances off the restaurant location or would not provide adequate and reliable color lighting temperatures across every light being installed on their new well planned design. Additionally, by utilizing Garden Light LED custom color led lighting fixtures, they were able to install a lighting fixture that would last a lifetime, and provide that clean design to enhance their outdoor architecture during the day and at night, unlike many options on the market that were not nearly as appealing to the eye.
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Branded Lighting designs
At last, the choice was made official when both the franchise restaurant owner and lighting install company chose to purchase the SSA stainless aluminum spotlights and well lights that Garden Light LED offers its commercial business partners. These SSA silver toned lighting product finishes offered their locations a modern sleek look, with anti-corrosive anodization unlike anything the company has seen on the lighting market. While also giving them the lighting designers an ability to add tighter narrow beam spreads to highlight the buildings walls and columns, alongside the power output of 75 watts equivalent, to ensure they shined bright and would be seen from far away to attract potential customers that may not have noticed them.
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