Steakhouse chain Sizzler is making a comeback with a new refreshed look even as the quick-service restaurant sector continues to face a challenging environment that has prompted countless closures.
Creative agency Tavern, tasked with helping the brand reinvent itself, said the steakhouse had been a pop culture icon in the 1980s and 1990s on the West Coast, but “over the years the brand faced an identity crisis and lost its way.” Today, the agency said, “most Californians don’t even know where the nearest Sizzler is (if they even know the brand is still in business).”
The company is trying to change that, announcing its plans to refresh the brand last year. The company said in a 2024 press release that it’s tapping “into the sentimental value associated with the brand” and plans to “compete with fast-food giants like McDonald’s and offer a more appealing alternative for parents seeking a dining experience that evokes comfort and familiarity.”
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Chief Growth Officer Robert Clark told QSR last month that the company is seeing sales in the updated restaurants lift 47%. One of them saw sales lift 100%. The company currently has 80 stores and completed nine renovations in the last two years. The company is also looking to make a plan for franchise owners to adopt, and most of them are agreeing to it, according to the outlet.
In its heyday, Sizzler operated more than 700 restaurants nationwide, according to several reports.
Fast-food companies are already facing margin pressures from supply-chain disruptions and rising labor costs, while industry-wide traffic remains subdued. Lower foot traffic has forced many restaurants to roll out more promotions and even pursue rebranding efforts to attract their core customers, who have been pulling back on discretionary spending.
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Sasha Shennikov, vice president of marketing, told QSR the brand is popping up “all over” Los Angeles with radio ads and billboard space.
Tavern is focusing on the brand’s history and modernizing its assets.
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“Instead of throwing away decades of heritage in the logo, we built upon it by stripping it back, slanting it and stamping it into place as a literal cattle brand,” Tavern previously wrote.
It used a rich maroon color as the hero of the identity’s palette and also reused the “ZZ” design from the logo (and the word “sizzle”) as fun, secondary design elements that make the brand’s tone more playful and distinctive.
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