Olive Garden Touting Its New Logo As The Symbol For Its “Brand Renaissance”

(Darden)

(Darden)

Olive Garden has been busy trying to convince people it’s not the same fast casual dining experience it’s always been — first with tapas, then a burger and some new menus, and now Darden is pinning its hopes and dreams on a revamped logo as part of its “brand renaissance” efforts.

In a presentation to investors today (you can see the entire slide show in PDF here if that’s your thing), Darden shows off the new logo which my colleague Laura points out looks kind of like a generic package of veggie burgers.

The company is “very excited” about the logo, calling it “clean, fresh and appealing.”

“We started with brand conditioning as the foundation for our initial design,” Dave Pickens, chief restaurant operations officer for Darden, said in the presentation. “We then conducted extensive testing and quantitative research to further shape and validate the new design.”

Executives also dished about new plateware (!) coming in 2015 that “lets the food be the star” and addressed the upcoming spinoff of Red Lobster.

“We believe separation will allow Red Lobster and the rest of Darden to better serve what are increasingly divergent guest targets,” the company said in the presentation. “Separation removes from Darden the high level of same restaurant sales volatility associated with the more promotional nature of the Red Lobster business.”

You can follow MBQ on Twitter to see if she changes her logo for brand renaissance: @marybethquirk

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