As QSR recently reported, a name change can be a game changer for brands. In the case of Modern Market, formerly known as Modmarket, the tweaked name paves the way for growth.
“When this opportunity came up, we looked far and wide and said is there anything else that better represents what we do and we just kept coming back to the fact that we are, in our mind, what a modern market is—where you go to get fresh food and the modern version of it is where someone cooks it for you,” says Modern Market founder and co-CEO Anthony Pigliacampo. “Then we started playing around with the branding assets and realized we could do more of an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary change.”
In fact, Pigliacampo adds that “Modern Market,” was the working name when the brand was first conceptualized in Colorado. Modmarket was founded in 2009, one year after fast casual MOD Pizza started in Washington. During the initial years, the distance between the two—MOD Pizza in the Pacific Northwest and Modmarket in Colorado and Texas—served as a branding buffer. But as both brands ramped up their expansion plans, MOD Pizza asserted that the shared “mod” might confuse consumers. In August, the two brands reached an agreement that Modmarket would change its name, and this week, it made that new moniker, Modern Market, public.
Ahead of the formal announcement, the brand casually asked a few customers their thoughts on the new name, and Pigliacampo says the feedback has been positive.
“It’s turning out to be a pretty positive process,” Pigliacampo says. “What’s great is there’s some interchangeability that can occur between the two names so for existing stores. I think it will be a pretty seamless transition.”
The logo will also remain largely unchanged; it still features an inverted fork, spoon, and knife with the tagline, “Farm Fresh Eateries,” but with a different font. For Pigliacampo, these subtle changes are ideal because it’s not a major disruption for the brand and its progress. The timing of the name change was also fortuitous as Modern Market is slated to open some dozen stores over the next 13 months.
“We both have a lot of irons in the fire,” Piglacampo says. “We thought this was the point to resolve this and figure out the path going forward. As we both continue expanding rapidly, there’s more breathing room between the brand assets.”
Modern Market is expected to open some dozen stores over the next 13 months including new markets like Austin, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. The D.C. location will mark the brand’s first entry into the East Coast, and Pigliacampo says the plan is to build a pipeline there that would facilitate opening multiple locations.
By Nicole Duncan
