The uncomfortable Craacker Barrel: All the customers who loved its old logo stopped going to the restaurant

The new CEO of the restaurant chain, Julie Fils Massino, put the argument for investors last year: The Cracker Barre customer movement decreased by 16 % compared to 2019. Research showed that consumers thought that the brand was less than competitors in basic ways, from food quality to value and comfort.

“We are not at the forefront of any region. We will change that,” said Massino.

But during the past week, I tried to renew Cracker Barre Wall. The company saw a severe violent reaction to its plans to update and simplify its nostalgic slogan – including President Donald Trump.

“I don’t like changes. I mean that it was always the biscuit barrel as it is, so I would like to stay as it is,” said client Sayed, not during a visit to a crushing barrel in Vespourg, Mississippi on Tuesday.

By the evening, Cracker Barrel reflects the path and said that his old slogan will remain. He is characterized by a generally comfortable man-it is said that he represents Uncle Hershel, one of their relatives The founder of Crack of barrel – It tends to a barrel, with the phrase “old country store” under it.

Investors chanted this step. The price of the Cracker Barre shares increased by 8 % on Wednesday to close at $ 62.33 per share. This was higher than the closing price on August 15, before announcing the new logo.

Here is how Lebanon has arrived, the Craker barrel, based in Tennessee, to this point and where it might move from here:

The transformation plan

I rented the Massino crushing barrel, Taco bell for a long time and Starbucks In July 2023, she was chosen for her record as a creator, hoping to attract new customers to Cracker Barre, which runs 660 restaurants In 43 states.

Masino has provided updated menu elements, such as Hashbrown Shepherd, to increase the DinnerTime traffic from Cracker Barrel. It also started to reshape the vibrant dark restaurants of the company, reduce the walls and install more comfortable seats.

The changes seem to help. The third quarter of Cracker Barrel, which ended on May 2, was the fourth consecutive quarter of the company’s same store’s sales growth. The store’s sales, which is a main measure of restaurants, measures sales in sites that open at least one year.

Error logo

Richard Wilki, a former LIPPINCOTT Consultative Correspondent Officer who helped lead brands for companies such as Delta Airlines and Wal MartThe current slogan of Cracker Barrel said very detailed and a diramic man, when companies have to think about how their brand appears in the smartphone application.

But Wilki said that the new Cracker Barre Logo, which includes the company’s name only with brown letters against a golden background, lacks the character. The display of the logo also seems like a later idea. In a press release on the elements of the new Fall list, which was released on August 18, the company stated the new logo in the fourth paragraph.

Walmart’s approach in 2008 provides a better model for a successful rename, according to Wilck. Walmart wanted to expand its attractiveness, especially for shoppers in urban areas. She redesigned the stores, slowly adding a new blue and yellow color system and the yellow star code. She trained employees on the meaning behind her new slogan, “saving money. Live better.”

After a year or more, the company recently presented its new logo, which added the yellow star brand and dropped the connection from Wal -Mart to remove the assertion of the deducting term “Mart”.

“Change the logo was almost a natural conclusion for this multi -year transformation,” Wilki said. “I think that if we do this with the same chain Craacker, we will not have the same noise.”

Nostalgia

Craacker Barrel admitted on Monday that he should have done better with the new logo display.

The company said that it should have emphasized all the things that would remain the same around the cracking barrel restaurants: vibrant chairs on the front balconies, the heaters in the old food rooms and the American and antiques that are widespread all the time.

The company said it will also continue to honor Uncle Hershel in its list and the elements sold in stores in the rural style attached to its restaurants. But after it is too late, the Cracker barrel withdrew its new logo the next day.

The following steps

Thomas Murphy, professor of practice at the College of Business Administration at Clark University, said that returning to the original slogan was a “positive correction of the course” given the severity of the response of the fans. Now, Murphy said, Cracker Barrel should reinforce a message that it does not move away from its values ​​or heritage.

Murphy said that Cracker Barrel can continue to “update” its stores, making it brighter and more welcome to the younger customers. He said he does not really need to “rename the brand”, indicating a greater change in the direction or purpose.

Wilcck agrees that the cracking barrel must adhere to the old logo, but continues to renew its restaurants in the short term. In the end, he said, the company will have to build a simpler logo, but it must design a network that maintains more brand heritage.

Political repercussions

One difference with the transformations of previous companies – including rename 2014 by Southern West Airways To attract more business customers or Dunkin ‘Donuts 2019 Dunkin ” rename ‘ – It is the most exciting political climate.

The Cracker barrel was caught not only by Donald Trump Junior but from the president himself. On Tuesday morning, Trump said via Trccial that Cracker “must return to the old logo, and admits the error based on the customer’s response (the final survey), and the company’s management better than ever.”

Later, Trump celebrated the Cracker Barrel decision to drop his new logo.

Welck said he hopes that both Republicans and Democrats will remain outside the brand decisions such as Cracker Barrel. He said that the brand renamed is about trying to attract new customers without isolating their old offers.

“This is not a political story,” he said. “If the politicians now convert every update to the company’s logo design into a discussion about being” wake up “or” fighting tourists “, then we are heading to a new harmful era for companies brand.”

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AP Video Sophie Bates from Vicksburg, Mississippi.