The idea of partnering with another business isn’t something that one can undertake easily. It requires a great deal of planning, a careful understanding of how each business operates, and quite a bit of time. But, when done properly, restaurant partnerships are a great means of getting your foot in the door with new customers, more visibility, and a wider reach.
In this blog we’ll cover how restaurant partnerships work, their benefits and how you can get started with partnerships of your own.
Understanding Restaurant Partnerships
A restaurant partnership consists of two (or more) pre-existing businesses combining their resources to create something larger than they could be previously. This can equate to combining menus, physical space, marketing efforts, or even a trade for resources. (E.g., a bakery bakes bread, a cafe makes coffee and they share their resources). In some instances, it actually allows restaurants to partner with artists, musicians, and more to bring in some much-needed attention for both parties.
While there are quite a few reasons to undertake such a massive task, the reality is that the best restaurant partnerships don’t come from necessity, but from opportunity.
Benefits of Restaurant Partnerships
Speaking of opportunity, why would one choose to partner with another restaurant? Lots of reasons! Restaurant partnerships give the ability to combine your marketing budgets (and followings), reputations, and resources.
Increased Customer Reach
Above, I mentioned the ability to combine space, resources, and clientele, and those are great reasons on their own. Generally the largest motivator for restaurant partnerships, though, is the shared marketing. It’s a clear and easy way to combine the marketing reach and budgets of two companies to bring in shared customers for both — which is especially handy when one party has a more established following than the other.
Cost-Effective Marketing
Marketing can get expensive, it’s the way of the world. But that doesn’t mean that it needs to be put on the back burner! With restaurant partnerships, you’re able to share the load of marketing campaigns by splitting it between two businesses (with two budgets), allowing each more reach, more bang for their buck, and a better chance to bring in new customers.
Enhanced Brand Reputation
Another great perk of restaurant partnerships is your ability to take advantage of your peer’s pre-existing reputation. While this obviously only works with companies that have a good reputation, it’s a great reason to consider a partnership with a well-known local (or national) name.
Combined Resources
Perhaps the most obvious of all of the reasons to pursue restaurant partnerships is that you’re able to combine resources. This can vary from fully sharing menus (and, by extent, your inventory) to sharing space, equipment, and staff — but no matter how you partner, it’s an opportunity to grow and try new things.
Examples of Successful Restaurant Partnerships
Before we talk about how to make restaurant partnerships work, we should share some restaurant partnership examples. Below are some of the most well-known partnerships, large and small, that show what can happen with the right mindset.
Taco Bell & Milk Bar
Taco Bell is one of the largest names in fast food, and for good reason — they’re absolutely everywhere. On the other hand, Milk Bar is a well-known (but, in comparison, small) bakery. So when Milk Bar approached Taco Bell in 2022 for a small-scale partnership, people were curious as to why, exactly.
The answer? It’s good for both. Taco Bell was able to run a (by all reports) fantastic dessert in one location in tandem with a handful of Milk Bar’s locations. It gave Milk Bar a wider reach and the resources of a massive company, while Taco Bell got the good press of partnering with a household name.
One of the best things to learn from this restaurant partnership example is that there is almost always a way to gain a foot in the door. Whether you’re trying to gain experience by working with a larger name, more reach through social media, or a mix of the above, there is always the possibility for partnership.
Panda Express & Hot Ones
Hot Ones is one of the largest names on YouTube, and has been for years. They’ve grown a massive cult following around their interview series revolving around extremely spicy wings. Panda Express, on the other hand, is the largest fast-casual Chinese-American chain in America. So, what did they do for each other?
Well, Hot Ones introduced a sweet and spicy bourbon sauce to Panda Express’ famous boneless chicken! They each brought the other an entirely new demographic of customers, and in the process, earned lifelong supporters. In combination with their admittedly large marketing budgets, this partnership blew up and allowed each to grow from the experience. Hot Ones was even able to get their Apollo sauce (the sauce mentioned above) distributed nationwide, all thanks to Panda Express’ massive national distribution system!
Chipotle & Street Fighter
We’ve all likely seen cross-industry collaborations in the past, Mountain Dew and Call of Duty likely being the largest to come to mind. But that’s not the only time that we’ve seen large, well-known brands from entirely different spheres come together for something special.
The most recent case is Chipotle and Street Fighter 6.
Leading up to its release, the team behind Street Fighter 6 partnered with the fast-casual chain Chipotle to offer incentive to new and returning customers: buy a meal through the Chipotle app or website and gain digital currency to be used in Street Fighter 6. This encouraged users to explore Chipotle’s digital offerings (which they needed to push) and gave the opportunity for those who may otherwise never know about Street Fighter to discover the franchise.
It was a creative way to gain something for each that ultimately led to Chipotle becoming one of the only restaurants that’s allowed to advertise on the Playstation Network. Now that is a good give and take.
Tim Hortons & Artist Av Wu
In this restaurant partnership, Toronto artist Av Wu partnered with Canadian chain Tim Horton’s on their “Coffee Styles” collection. The collection featured a handful of Wu’s work, all inspired by the Canadian wilderness, and allowed an otherwise faceless national chain to show a bit of a personal side. They were able to lean on this to emphasize that they are a uniquely Canadian chain, earning a bit of good press in the process.
As for Wu, she was able to have her artwork displayed on a national scale, ultimately leading to a heavily increased demand. Both groups got something out of the relationship (as unlikely as it may have seemed at first), and they were able to give guests at Tim Horton’s a collectible, gorgeous piece of art in the process.
How to Form Successful Restaurant Partnerships
Just like any relationship, you can’t hop right into the thick of things. Restaurant partnerships take time and, crucially, trust to work out — so take your time and find the right partner.
Identifying Potential Partners
When you begin to consider potential partners, it’s important to ask a few questions. Namely:
- What can they offer me? Do they have more space? A larger following on social media? A better location? What do you get out of this?
- What can I offer them? This is a two-way street — so consider what makes you special. Can you help expand their menu to cater to a wider range of guests? Are you able to provide a special service, like baking?
- Is this realistic? Even if it sounds good on paper, consider the final product. Do you think that you can see yourself working with this restaurant for an extended period of time? If not, why?
In other words, it’s crucial to understand both sides of the relationship; are you capable of supporting another business should they begin to struggle? If not, how does that leave your partnership?
Approaching and Negotiating
After you’ve found a good potential partner, it’s time to negotiate. This won’t be an easy process, as it’s likely that both parties want “the best” for themselves, but that’s another part of this process. Restaurant partnerships follow the same rule as every other relationship in your life: there’s a give and take that needs to take hold before the magic can happen.
Knowing this will make the process of approaching and negotiating far simpler; it’ll allow you to enter knowing what you need, what you can offer, and how best to frame what you need as the deal that it is.
Put simply, negotiation is all about understanding that you both need to compromise and have something to give. It may sound dumb, but it’s genuinely the best way to pursue restaurant partnerships.
Maintaining and Nurturing Partnerships
Once again, we get to the “relationship” analogy. Put simply, the best way to maintain restaurant partnerships is with constant care and attention. Take the time to figure out what you can do to support your partner as well as you can, and demand the same. Establish clear routines, schedules, and procedures for all shared tasks and spaces, and stick to them.
You can’t force another business to work for you, but you can help them work with you. This will require establishing clear boundaries on what’s okay and what’s not, and will likely take a good bit of trial and error to truly nail down. But once you’ve created a clear pattern of how the partnership should work, things will smooth out. You’ll have the time, resources, and space for both of you to grow, which is the ultimate goal of restaurant partnerships.
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