Properly, it appeared like a good suggestion on the time.
Once we final left Cracker Barrel Outdated Nation Retailer (CBRL) , the southern-country-themed restaurant and present chain had gotten its biscuits fried after making an attempt to dropkick the Uncle Herschel character from its emblem.
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The transfer was a part of a “strategic transformation” supposed to modernize the corporate and appeal to a youthful crowd within the face of declining gross sales and visitors.
Many firms are simplifying and streamlining their logos, as a part of a longstanding pattern towards minimalism.
Cracker Barrel’s CEO says the corporate misstepped on its emblem change.
Picture supply: Shutterstock
Cracker Barrel rocked by emblem controversy
“Visual identities have the power to make a brand instantly recognizable,” Jessica Wong, digital advertising and marketing strategist, wrote in Entrepreneur in 2023. “The simpler a logo or other element is, the quicker customers can memorize and identify it. This has never mattered more than today.”
Wong, CEO of Valux Digital, mentioned that on common Individuals see between 4,000 and 10,000 adverts per day, double the determine from 2007 and a fivefold leap from the Nineteen Seventies.
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“Simplifying visual identities allows brands to cut through the noise and be noticed by consumers,” she mentioned.
Along with the (virtually) emblem change, the Lebanon, Tenn., restaurant chain’s renovations concerned a shift from the normal rustic aesthetic to a brighter, extra fashionable design with lighter partitions, streamlined cubicles and new seating.
Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino defended the redesign efforts, saying in a “Good Morning America” interview that public suggestions to the reworked places had thus far been “overwhelmingly positive” and that “people like what we’re doing.”
Maybe not.
An awful lot of people — right on up to President Donald Trump — rallied around the overalls-wearing “Outdated Timer,” who resembles Herschel McCartney, the real-life uncle of the company’s founder, Dan Evins.
Trump declared that “Cracker Barrel ought to return to the previous emblem, admit a mistake based mostly on buyer response (the final word ballot), and handle the corporate higher than ever earlier than.”
The stock tumbled nearly 16% amid the hullabaloo and the dreaded allegation of wokeness from conservative circles.
Traffic dropped about 8% since Aug. 19, the date of the initial logo change, and the company warned that if the trends continued, it expected a traffic decline of 7% to 8% for the rest of its fiscal 2026 first quarter.
Cracker Barrel missed Wall Street’s fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings forecasts but beat revenue estimates.
Analyst says buy the weakness
Cracker Barrel Chief Financial Officer Craig Pommells said the company expected earnings for Q1, which began Aug. 1, to come in “significantly below” the year-earlier period’s level due to lower traffic and roughly $16 million in investments in advertising and marketing.
“The suggestions we obtained from our friends in current weeks on our model refresh and retailer remodels has proven us simply how deeply individuals care about Cracker Barrel,” Masino told analysts during the company’s earnings call.
Related: Cracker Barrel logo change leads to fake ‘woke’ outrage
“We thank our friends for sharing their voices and love for the model and telling us once we’ve misstepped,” she added. “We’ve listened rigorously.”
Masino said that the company had conducted extensive research to inform its strategic plan.
“What can’t be captured in knowledge is how a lot our friends see themselves and their very own story within the Cracker Barrel expertise, which is what’s led to such a robust response to those modifications,” she said.
“Now we have already taken steps to get again on observe. We would like longtime followers and new friends to expertise the complete story of the individuals, locations and meals that makes Cracker Barrel so particular.”
Masino said the team pivoted quickly to switch back to the old-timer logo and has begun executing new marketing, advertising, and social media initiatives, “leaning into Uncle Herschel and the nostalgia across the model, with extra to return.”
“We additionally hit pause on our remodels and are reverting the 4 places with the fashionable design to our old-timer signage and extra conventional interiors,” she said.
What’s next for Cracker Barrel?
Analysts at Truist recommended buying the weakness in the stock. They say the core drivers of the brand turnaround are intact and that sales soon might start to recover from the rebranding backlash as the autumn menu marketing resumes.
The investment firm lowered its price target on the stock to $58 from $62 and affirmed a buy rating.
It said the initial fiscal 2026 guidance was far lower than expected but also appears to include high marketing and labor spending to support the sales recovery.
Meanwhile, Citi cut its price target on Cracker Barrel to $42 from $47 and reiterated a sell rating on the shares.
The company reset fiscal 2026 expectations well below estimates while saying that fiscal Q1 began in a “deep visitors gap” given the logo mishap, the investment firm said.
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