Kristine, you and Joel are right.
I've not only seen new restaurants in locations where others have failed have to dig themselves out of the holes left by the previous failures, I've also seen ones where the previous ones did NOT fail have difficulty differentiating themselves with merely a brand change.
For example, a Mexican restaurant that went in where an Italian restaurant had been. Customers didn't even realize there was a different restaurant there inspite of changes in signage.
After all, the flags of Italy and Mexico have the same colors!
It just never soaked in because the new restaurant never grabbed the drive-by traffic's attention.
It's often a challenging marketing task to dig oneself out of a hole someone else dug. The first part is simply recognizing that you are starting out your new business in a psychological hole prepared for you by someone else.
Yes, you realize there is all the difference in the world, but you have to get that point into the minds of those in your marketplace and make it stick.
Paul