Bahraini burger brand Blaze has appointed food branding agency Figjam to work on updating the restaurant's concept.
After five successful years of operations in Bahrain, the Blaze team, headed by its founder Abdulla Alabsi, has decided to expand to the UAE. Figjam has been hired to translate the original concept while updating it to fit todays consumer and compete successfully in the UAE market.
“It’s important we stay true to the original Blaze concept while consciously structuring the profile and creating a level of consistency with a view to achieving international growth,” said Sanjay Murthy, managing director, Figjam.
“The core values of quality burgers and an edgy look and feel has been achieved through establishing a trusted, high quality, supply chain and creating an environment that exposes the rebellious attitude."
He added: "This project presents certain challenges, namely, taking a revered brand from Bahrain, one that customers will travel many miles to reach, and remaining true to its heritage while updating the characteristics. We are not working on a rebrand or a redesign here but instead crafting a strong identity for Blaze that is based on its original operations and can be rolled out to new outlets as the chain grows.
"We will focus on identifying fundamental characteristics that make Blaze what it is in order to further develop these, triggering greater impact and building brand recognition.”
"Our skillful team of in-house creative designers, interior specialists and product development chefs bring together art, branding, food and technical disciplines, this, combined with our extensive knowledge of the industry will see Figjam deliver a complete creative yet functional food outlet leading to greater chance of profitability for our client," concluded Murthy.
Work has begun on the project marking the start of Blaze’s regional and international expansion plans in view of current market research showing the F&B sector enjoying positive growth and the GCC foodservice sector registering US$16.5 billion in annual revenues in 2012, of which full-service restaurants accounted for 32%.