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As Cracker Barrel’s doomed $700 million rebrand plunged into its death spiral, I decided to visit seven of the iconic stores in a part of the country where it thrives, and I can report that the natives are getting restless.
I also now have a working hypothesis of why the current C-suite denizens of the Barrel might have thought this novel concept, which blew up in their faces, was a good idea, but more on that later.
CRACKER BARREL’S LOGO MEA CULPA IS A START BUT IT SHOULDN’T BE THE END
The good news about the drive, basically from Winchester, W.Va., to Lexington, Va., or as I call it, Cracker Barrel Alley, is that I did not need my GPS. I just stayed on Rte. 81 and looked for the sky-high signs and billboards every 20 miles or so afore the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.
Michael, who I spoke to outside the Winchester store, was in his 50s, and he kind of summed it up by saying, ” I just want a place to eat that’s comfortable, cozy, ya know? Why would they change that? It’s crazy.”
He was talking about the infamous plans, partially reversed now, to not just change the iconic sign, with mascot old man Uncle Herschel, but to brighten up the interiors and remove the old-timey southern charm.
Down the road in Woodstock, Va., I spoke with Malik. A plumber in his 30s, he told me, “It looks like they want to take away everything American about it. It makes no sense.”
At that same location, Tammy, a nurse in her 40s had a similar sentiment. “I just don’t get it, I’ve been coming to Cracker Barrel since I was a kid, and I don’t know anybody who wants these changes,” she said.
And it’s not just Americans, apparently. Corbett, in Harrisonburg, Va., who works in construction, told me that, “even the Mexican guys I work with love the Americana at Cracker Barrel. I mean, there’s a reason they came here.”
Of the dozens of people I spoke with over two days, there were a few who told me they didn’t care too much one way or the other about the changes. But nobody said they liked the idea, and of those who didn’t like it, boy how they didn’t like it.
Even one employee I caught up with, who spoke anonymously, told me, “We’re glad they are switching back. It didn’t hurt business too bad, but we were worried about it and customers didn’t like it.”
John, a man in his 60s in an American flag sweatshirt, even gave me a breakdown of Uncle Herschel. He wasn’t alone; several of the older southern men I spoke with knew the deep Herschel lore like a 15-year-old boy knows Minecraft.
The other question, besides just, “why?” which I heard so much, was who was this rebrand for? Who do the executives think this appeals to?
Maybe, just maybe, our colleges, or whoever is training this ocean of Millennial middle marketing managers who are running our culture through the deflavorizing machine, should teach them the golden question: What do the customers want?
This is where my own theory comes in. In late 2020, Cracker Barrel introduced alcohol to its menu. What was clear from my grand tour, is that they do not sell a lot of alcohol, they sell a lot of trinkets and candy in the gift shop.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner, the restaurants are full of families, tons of kids, but not many people ordering a bloody mary or mimosa, and one thing many have noticed about the new interiors, is that they look a lot like a place for ladies to brunch and knock back a few.
Anybody who has worked in the restaurant business knows that dessert and drinks pay the bills, and while I saw a lot of desserts, I suspect the execs at Cracker Barrel want to sell more of the latter.
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Had the leadership at Cracker Barrel just taken the drive down 81 that I did over the past few days, instead of holding focus groups in Brooklyn and studying data analysis, this debacle never would have happened. It is just so obviously unpopular.
Maybe, just maybe, our colleges, or whoever is training this ocean of Millennial middle marketing managers who are running our culture through the deflavorizing machine, should teach them the golden question: What do the customers want?
This rebrand really ain’t it.
The C-suite dummies really fouled this one up, but maybe this can be a lesson going forward to listen before you leap, to protect the charm of your brand, and to respect tradition. That is really all that the people want.
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