The original YO! company by Simon Woodroffe that works with others like Robin Rowland; the man behind YO Sushi!, to develop and seed finance YO! ideas and new YO! brands. Simon's philosophy is' He believes that the holy grail of retail today is to constantly and never ending innovate in order to deliver high luxury without the high cost' From Simons philosophy i can see why he has branched out into different areas of retail but the overall corporate and personality remains the same throughout the YO! sub brands.
The Sushi – Japanese-style raw fish with rice and vinegar was quite a small market in the UK in 1997. Furthermore, most restaurants in the UK certainly didn’t serve their food on conveyor belts! Simon Woodroffe, founder of YO! Sushi, took the risk to be different and opened a conveyor belt restaurant specialising in sushi. The customers loved it and found it fun.
The idea for YO! Sushi came from a remark made by a Japanese friend of Simon’s who had suggested to him that he should open a conveyor belt sushi bar with waitresses in black PVC miniskirts. Two years later Simon had invested £150,000 to develop the idea and the first YO! Sushi restaurant opened in London. The girls in PVC miniskirts weren’t there but robots, talking drinks trolleys, the latest music and ‘cool’ staff were. The public loved it.
The new brand aim after a recent management buyout is ' no two YO! Sushi restaurants or outlets should be the same' So the idea is to have each outlet, worldwide to have there own individual and unique identity relating to there city. Brand each YO! Sushi into its destination.
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| designed by Mark Norton |
YO! Sushi is based around a fast food restaurant , like McDonalds but higher class which narrows the target audience and makes it more important for the whole interior feel to be modern and fresh, as the target audience is mainly 18-25. After the recent buy out the whole company philosophy has changed ' No two YO Sushi! restaurants or outlets should be the same' Which goes back to my views that the location and surroundings play a large amount into the design of the mural. As cities attract tourists of all ages for there landmarks, architecture and culture this means the mural style should be such a distinctive style to attract the younger tourists.
There selling points are unique, the innovative format of a YO! Sushi restaurant gives people the chance to eat in a Japanese sushi bar adapted for the West, enjoying a quality, fast and fun dining experience where customers pick and choose their food from a conveyor belt in front of them. If you miss the dish the first time – wait for it to come round again! and thats how you YO!
