Food replicas for food court cafés case — how a café in a food court increased sales and stood out from competitors through realistic displays
Food replicas for food court cafés
Date: November 2014
Location: Khabarovsk, Russia
Client: Bulion Baton
Category: Restaurants & Сafe
Client Overview
Bulion Baton is a cozy fast-food café located in the food court of a large shopping mall. Its menu includes soups, salads, hot dishes, and desserts such as waffles, syrniki, and ice cream in a basket.
On weekdays, most visitors are employees of the shopping mall and nearby offices, while on weekends families with children come to enjoy lunch as part of their shopping day.
Challenges & Goals
Shortly after opening, the management of Bulion Baton fast-food café faced a problem: despite the wide and appealing menu, dessert sales remained very low, and many items had to be written off. The task was to make the café’s showcase more noticeable and to promote desserts together with drinks to increase the average check. While exploring different food court café marketing ideas in a highly competitive environment, the team learned about food replicas for food court cafés, which help stimulate customer interest in the display and increase sales.
Our Solution
The Nippon Dom workshop created food replicas for food court cafés, reproducing the café’s most attractive dishes and desserts with high realism. The replicas were installed in the central showcase near the ordering counter and illuminated with bright lighting. As a result, the display became a strong visual accent that attracted visitors throughout the shopping mall — a great example of food court café display ideas that help cafés stand out and engage customers. Guests could now easily see what desserts were offered, their composition, and portion sizes.
Feedback from Our Client
Take away the dessert replicas from the showcase!
Food replicas for food court Bulion Baton is working — which is very pleasing.
During the first weeks after decorating the showcase with food replicas for food court, it was difficult to say that sales had grown sharply. Visitors to the shopping mall were more interested in looking at the replicas than in ordering food. Sales of dishes represented by replicas fluctuated from day to day.
The specifics of our food court are such that on weekdays the main flow of customers comes at lunchtime and at the end of the workday. Most of them are employees of the shopping mall and nearby offices, some of whom chose our café Bulion Baton as their regular lunch spot.
On weekends and holidays, many families with children visit. For them, stopping at the food court café is a part of their shopping day. However, the flow is uneven: the peak is usually between 1:30 pm and 4:30 pm, and again closer to the evening — but it is hard to predict exactly.
While salads from our menu had always been popular, desserts such as waffles, syrniki, and ice cream in a basket used to be ordered irregularly. About two weeks after installing the replicas, things changed dramatically. Our pastry team even started to “complain”: “Take away the dessert replicas from the showcase! We can’t keep up with the orders!” That was when we realized that fake food replicas for food court really work.
Now, the number of orders influenced by replicas has grown by about 130% compared to almost a year of stable sales without them. Regular guests already know our menu, but for new visitors, replicas make the decision-making process much easier. Many even change their preferences directly at the showcase, trying new dishes they wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. For our café, it became a powerful way to attract new customers and boost sales.
We plan to order more replicas in the future as our network expands. A new Bulion Baton café project is currently being developed in another shopping mall, and in the design plan we have already included a showcase with replicas — an example of how food court café display ideas can successfully support brand growth.
