When Cracker Barrel unveiled its new emblem final week as a part of an ongoing model refresh, it would not have anticipated the advertising and marketing transfer to spark a public furor and trigger the restaurant’s chain worth to sink by practically $100 million. 

But the episode highlights the perils of tinkering with an organization’s model. Cracker Barrel acknowledged in a press release on Monday that “we might’ve executed a greater job sharing who we’re and who we’ll all the time be.”

Manufacturers as tales

Advertising and marketing specialists are extra blunt about Cracker Barrel’s misfire. 

“From a branding perspective, it is principally a flop,” stated David E. Johnson, CEO of branding company Strategic Imaginative and prescient PR Group, of Cracker Barrel’s emblem redesign. “What they did mistaken is that they went towards their model story, which was the previous emblem, that mirrored the southern, whimsical ambiance within the shops.”

In Johnson’s view, Cracker Barrel’s mistake was that it changed a emblem with real symbolic forex for a “very generic trying emblem that does not inform a narrative.” Different branding specialists say the hubbub is the results of a enterprise severing its design from its roots — a cardinal sin for a corporation like Cracker Barrel whose folksy picture is supposed to evoke “homestyle nation cooking.”

Extra particularly, Cracker Barrel’s new emblem retains the country shade palette of the unique design, whereas eradicating the picture of an older gentleman sitting in a wicker chair leaning towards a barrel. 

The primary Cracker Barrel restaurant was launched in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1969 by Dan Evins whereas working for his household’s gasoline enterprise. The concept was to recreate the form of homey eating places he’d loved as a toddler, in accordance with the corporate’s web site. The person in Cracker Barrel’s authentic emblem is alleged to be Evins’ uncle, Herschel, who till now has been central to a lot of the restaurant’s branding and merchandise. 

The transfer to take away each Herschel and the namesake barrel from the brand irked some Cracker Barrel loyalists as a result of the unique picture represented what franchise marketing consultant and branding knowledgeable Nick Yeonakis known as a “throwback to a less complicated time that was about house cooking.” 

“So, folks have this picture of their thoughts of a Cracker Barrel that’s fixed and secure, and that is why after they rebranded, backlash occurred,” he stated. 

Nonetheless, advertising and marketing specialists agree that Cracker Barrel, which operates practically 660 corporate-owned places throughout the U.S., was due for a picture revamp. The corporate’s development, which soared within the Nineteen Nineties, has slowed in recent times. In 2024, the corporate reported income of roughly $3.5 billion, up lower than 1% from $3.4 billion the earlier 12 months, whereas internet earnings fell to $40.9 million, down sharply from $99 million in 2023.

In 2024, issues over its competitiveness and stagnant development led the corporate, led by new CEO and former Taco Bell government Julie Felss Masino, to announce modifications to its eating places, menu and pricing. 

The chain had change into much less related partly as a result of it had leaned too closely on the “timeless nature of our idea,” Masino stated in a Could 2024 convention name with Wall Avenue analysts. “The objective, merely put, was to freshen issues in such a approach as to be noticeable and enticing however nonetheless really feel like Cracker Barrel,” she stated.

Immediately, Cracker Barrel maintains that its eating places will retain their old-timey vibe, together with utilizing Uncle Herschel in its advertising and marketing. 

“We love seeing how a lot you care about our ‘old-timer.’ We love him too. Uncle Herschel will nonetheless be on our menu… on our street indicators and featured in our nation retailer. He is not going wherever — he is household,” the corporate stated in its assertion on Monday. 

Signal of the occasions

Buyer anger over Cracker Barrel’s new emblem additionally displays the culturally and politically charged atmosphere firms face at present. For instance, when Bud Mild partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023, some prospects known as for a boycott of the beer model, badly denting the beer model’s gross sales.

In a single social media submit that typified a number of the criticism of Cracker Barrel, one account known as “Woke Conflict Room” known as for Masino to resign. “Cracker Barrel’s new emblem is not an accident — it is CEO Julie Felss Masino’s challenge. She scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and changed it with sterile, soulless branding,” the submit reads.

Such critiques illustrate the superb line firms are sometimes compelled to tread, Carreen Winters, president of status at MikeWorldWide, instructed CBS MoneyWatch.

“It’s extremely arduous to be a model for everyone at present as a result of we’re so polarized, and folks have a look at issues by a political lens even when there isn’t a political intent,” she stated. “When you’re a legacy model, it is actually essential to know who your core is, and to not do something to alienate them whereas cultivating your future or subsequent technology buyer.”

Different branding specialists are skeptical Cracker Barrel’s redesign was politically motivated.

“I actually doubt the Cracker Barrel executives sat down and stated, ‘We’ll undergo this enormously costly enterprise to alter all of our signage and every little thing on social media with a view to change one thing as a result of we really feel we need to be ‘woke,'” Thomas Murphy, a enterprise professor and branding knowledgeable at Clark College, instructed CBS MoneyWatch.

Somewhat, Cracker Barrel missed the mark by failing to totally consider folks’s emotional funding in its model, Winters stated.

“If you’re a legacy model and also you’re modernizing, it’s important to ensure you’ve appropriately honored that legacy as a result of on the finish of the day, your stakeholders personal your model — you do not,” she stated. “Not understanding the shopper and the remainder of stakeholders and what they care about actually issues and that appears to be what went awry right here.”