Bizu extends brand to catering

What enamored people to Bizu is the romance of the brand.

Bizu Patisserie is a local chain of French-inspired restaurants that eventually expanded into catering through Bizu Catering Studio, which brings the Bizu experience to special events of individuals and corporate clients.

Its managing director, Audrey Tanco-Uy, one of this year’s winners of the Mansmith Young Market Masters Award (YMMA), shares here her thoughts on diversification and brand extension.

Q: How does branding work for Bizu Patisserie and Bistro and Bizu Catering? Who benefits more from the other?

A: Each Bizu brand carries with it its own strengths.

Bizu Patisserie, the mother brand, with its six retail locations around the metro, provides the brand assurance and recall.

The outlets provide a staging ground for people to have a glimpse of our delicious food fare and technical prowess in the culinary and pastry stage.

Fifteen years ago, Bizu shook Manila and told everybody that we are ready to look, feel and taste global. More than being known for its Macarons de Paris or its delectable French cakes, what enamored people to Bizu is the romance of the brand.

Tanco-Uy

There is a lot of femininity and charm to it that it spoke to a lot of women. Bizu became a place to meet, connect, share, give and love.

Bizu Catering Studio borrowed the romance of the Bizu brand and successfully scaled the business to a larger audience through events and occasions. It showed its prowess in service and delivery executions. People had a strong connection to the Bizu brand when they chose it for their weddings, corporate launches and light social events at home. It seemed to have echoed their personal ideals and to an extent, even their business’ brand ideals as Bizu also became the preferred choice to partner with when launching upscale brands here in the Philippines.

But as a brand extension, Bizu Catering Studio had a reputation to uphold and it was very difficult initially because of the volume a catering service demands. Luckily, with a lot of our combined efforts, we were able to still deliver the brand promise.

Q: Can you describe the Bizu brand?

A: Bizu was coined from the French word “bisous.” This “beso” or kiss is such a powerful symbol in our culture. There is so much energy to it. We kiss our children, our parents, our grandparents, our friends, our acquaintances and yes, our romantic partners. The kiss is a symbol of a relationship forged. And in this relationship, there is so much respect, emotion, care and deep love that is carried along with it. This is what the brand lives for. All our products and services carry this certain warmth and romance. Everything you do with Bizu is a forging of a relationship.

Q: What challenges does Bizu Catering face?

A: Location, location, location! Being an off-premise company, we are always on the move. To us, there is never a dull day.

Location is one of the greatest challenges we face. Carrying our equipment to places near and far. Wide spaces, narrow spaces, working in tents, working under the sun without tents, up a building, through winding paths, we have to be as quick to respond and to be as versatile as possible.

And despite the difficulties the location provides us, we still need to deliver our customer promise.

In the catering business, we have to get used to the concept of uncertainty and variability. Today we serve for 100 persons, tomorrow for 1,000. There is so much planning, adjustment-handling, team work and problem solving involved that it takes a lot of hard core guts to be in this industry.

With a brand to uphold, the challenge is even greater.

Josiah Go is chair of Mansmith and Fielders Inc.