News

Olive Garden's Getting A Facelift

by Andrea Garcia-Vargas

Olive Garden's latest action plan involves one hell of a makeover — one that executives at owner Darden Restaurants Inc. are calling a "brand renaissance." This so-called renaissance includes not only a new logo for Olive Garden and a new look to the chain, but new menu options with "a sense of flair and sophistication," including plates under 575 calories and $9.99 make-your-own-pasta dishes.

The plan to rebrand Olive Garden came after a not-so-stellar financial year for the chain. In Dec. 2013, Olive Garden's customer traffic dropped by a whopping 13 percent, and Olive Garden restaurants that have been open for at least a year faced a 2.8 percent drop in revenue.

And it's not just Olive Garden: Red Lobster, also owned by Darden Restaurants, Inc., has also fallen prey to this trend. It saw a 19 percent drop in customer traffic last year, and can expect a 6.2 percent drop in revenue by the end of 2014. Given this, we might very well expect a "renaissance" for Red Lobster very soon, too.

So what will Olive Garden's renaissance look like? Well, Olive Garden will be taking this...

... and turning it into this.

Basically, the restaurant's rustic look is being updated to a more modern, sleek feel. It's not clear yet whether this rebranding will improve Olive Garden's lagging revenue and customer traffic, but rebranding is a very common solution for businesses. Just look at the recent excitement over the resurrection of the Tamagotchi and Coach's rebranding.

Images: Olive Garden