LUCA
Turning instinct into strategy
The Situation
Luca had established itself as one of London's most respected restaurants.
Loved by guests, admired by peers and driven by an ambitious leadership team, the business had built an enviable reputation through exceptional food, service and hospitality.
Yet as the company looked towards future growth, a challenge emerged. Everyone agreed Luca was special, but nobody described it in quite the same way. The business needed a clearer articulation of its identity, culture and long-term ambition.
The Context
The founders wanted to roadmap the future of the business, align stakeholders and establish a strategic framework that could support growth without compromising the qualities that made Luca successful.
This required more than a positioning exercise. It meant understanding the perspectives of owners, staff, guests and industry peers to uncover the beliefs, behaviours and experiences that sat at the heart of the brand.
What We Did
We undertook a comprehensive discovery programme, combining leadership interviews, employee surveys, staff workshops, customer interviews, competitor analysis and a review of the brand's existing communications.
From these insights, we developed a strategic framework for both Luca and its parent company, Smith & Willis. This included defining brand architecture, establishing a long-term vision, mission and values, creating audience personas and articulating a clear brand essence that could guide future decision-making.
To ensure the strategy lived beyond a presentation deck, we translated the work into an internal engagement programme designed to embed the values across the business and strengthen recruitment, culture and team alignment.
The Outcome
A clear strategic platform that united leadership, employees and stakeholders around a shared vision for the future.
The resulting framework provided clarity, established a distinct positioning for Luca and created a set of values that continue to shape culture, decision-making and growth. What had previously been instinctive became intentional, giving the business a foundation for expansion while protecting the character that made it successful in the first place.
“Brand Reveller deployed a thorough, research-led process of interviews and workshops that helped us step back and have more meaningful conversations about positioning, identity and long-term direction. Their work helped lay the foundations for the strategy we have continued to develop in the years since.
Their work also informed a recruitment campaign in a post-Covid period which really galvanised the team and played a role in building culture across the business.”
