Old name was their un-doing

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This article was published 11/10/2014 (4234 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marc Priestley hopes the correction of what is essentially a three-year-old typo will educate Winnipeg hamburger fans and eliminate confusion about his restaurant.

The co-owner of Nuburger has only recently renamed the Osborne Village eatery, changing it from its original moniker, Unburger. Since opening in 2011, it had been able to carve out a niche with foodies who crave healthy, fresh burgers topped off with local vegetables and cheese.

But another segment of the food-eating public was staying away due to a perception the restaurant served vegetarian fare only.

“That’s not true as we serve beef, chicken, bison and veggie burgers, but this incorrect perception was a real problem for us because it meant our name didn’t properly represent our food,” Priestley said. “There were still a lot of people who were confused about the name and scared to try the place because they thought we didn’t sell meat.”

The idea behind the Unburger name was if people thought burgers were just Big Macs and Whoppers you could order at the counter and eat 30 seconds later, their restaurant sold the opposite — healthy, nutritious and made from scratch.

So, by reversing the U and the N, the restaurant’s new name was born. Priestley is quick to point out everything else, from the menu to the logo to the colour scheme, remains the same.

“It could be short for nutritious burger,” he said.

Derrick Coupland, a partner in Blacksheep Strategy, a Winnipeg consulting company, said Unburger had developed a great reputation and a very strong brand in the marketplace.

“It didn’t have a branding problem, it had a naming problem,” he said. “They didn’t have the naming part right and they were probably disadvantaged by that.”

Coupland said while the new name isn’t “wildly compelling,” he thinks it will work just fine.

‘They didn’t have the naming part right and they were probably disadvantaged by that’– branding expert Derrick Coupland of Blacksheep Strategy, crediting Nuburger for recognizing the firm’s image problem

“It’s a strong restaurant with an excellent reputation. I think they’ll get where they need to be,” he said.

Now that the name has been taken care of, Priestley said he can resume considering an expansion. He said he has been looking at real estate and while he hasn’t been able to find the right spot, he’s hoping to open a second location within six months.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca