Cracker Barrel Situation

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Cracker Barrel Situation

Key Points

Marketing trend of diluting logos to bland, minimalist text has been cringe for years
Companies are removing fun, whimsy, and personality from their brand identities
Staples infamously held an E3 press conference just to unveil their worse, simplified logo
Cracker Barrel redesigned their logo and lost roughly $100 million in value overnight
Their stock price nosedived immediately after the logo unveiling
Everything is becoming generic, bland "sludge" - the enshittification of brands
Cracker Barrel is also redoing menus and restaurant interiors, not just the logo
CEO claims to want "Cracker Barrel of today and tomorrow" while insisting nothing changes
Company claims response has been "overwhelmingly positive" despite stock crash
CEO insists the "heart and soul" will stay the same while modernizing everything
The contradiction of modernizing an "old-timey" experience doesn't make sense
This mirrors video game industry's confusing naming conventions (multiple games with same titles)
Companies unnecessarily rebrand minor changes as major "sequels" or refreshes
The new logo removes everything identifiable and creative about the brand
Minimalist logos suck life out of brands and waste resources
People are tired of seeing this trend across multiple businesses over the years
The backlash likely won't last long - people will return to normal behavior patterns
Stock price and customer sentiment will probably rebound once the controversy fades

Full Transcript

Language: en
There's a marketing trend that's existed
for far too long now. It's been years
and it's more cringe than when all
companies tried to use Gangnum style to
promote their brand. It's this fixation
on diluting all logos to just be bold
text with the company name. just this
minimalist garbage where it removes all
fun and whimsy and personality and
completely erases all creativity of
logos and just reduces them to the
company name on a very bland color. It's
like the most sterile [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] ever. It's
not interesting. I think it super sucks.
But this has been the norm for corpo dog
[&nbsp;__&nbsp;] for a while. I still think the most
infamous example is when Staples made an
entire E3 press conference to unveil
their new logo where they removed the
iconic Staples logo to make this and
then they had like paid shills in the
audience going
all over like this Staples logo
unveiling which again nobody cares
about. It's a worse logo. All you've
done is just make a worse logo. And now
Cracker Barrel has finally followed suit
where they redesigned their logo. And
man, did it hit them hard where it hurts
the most. Right in their [&nbsp;__&nbsp;]
precious nut sack of money. Pretty much
overnight they lost roughly $100 million
in value. Their stock took a nose dive
into this shitterter here. And of
course, plenty of people make the
argument, it's just a logo. is so
overblown and unnecessary. It's not that
big of a deal. And I guess I can kind of
understand that. But I also understand
why so many people are fed up with the
inshitification of things. Like
everything seems to like be going in
this direction where it gets boiled down
to like the same generic sludge where
everything has to be the most bland same
e poop ass. Like it's just so
unnecessary. Like changing that logo and
making it simpler does nothing for
Cracker Barrel or for anybody. It's just
a waste of time and resources. And there
is more to it. It's not just the logo.
They are like redoing the menu. They're
redoing the restaurants as well. The
idea is they want to make it the Cracker
Barrel of today and tomorrow is the
verbiage that the CEO used. She actually
went and did an interview with Good
Morning America where she affirms that
Cracker Barrel is really happy with how
everything's going and that the response
has actually been overwhelmingly
positive. I don't know if they're just
filterfeeding her like five like tweets
on Twitter that are like, "Actually,
this is good." And they're like, "Yes,
we're going in the right direction." But
they don't seem at all shocked or rocked
or even slightly perturbed that their
stock has just no dived after unveiling
the new logo and the plans to like
redesign and redo certain elements of
Cracker Barrel.
&gt;&gt; Well, remember the heart and soul of
Cracker Barrel is going to stay the
same. And so today we're actually
launching a new campaign called All the
More, which really highlights how people
feel about Cracker Barrel. It's bigger
than just a meal. We've got a retail
shop. You're going to get great country
hospitality with our scratchade food in
our restaurants. And that's really what
this campaign celebrates. So we've
enlisted a little bit of help from a guy
named Jordan Davis. Maybe you've heard
of him. He's got a new single and album
out and he's in our ad and is the voice
of it as well. And it really again just
highlights those things that make
Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel. I know
everyone's all excited about Hollow
Night Silk Song around the corner, but I
tell you what, I am chomping at the bit
to get a piece of that Cracker Barrel ad
campaign with Jordan Davis being the
hired spokesperson for it.
I can't wait. That's exciting. Yippee.
Thanks so much for sharing. Basically,
this whole interview is her just trying
to uh reassure people that the Cracker
Barrel they love is going nowhere. Even
though they are redoing the inside of
the restaurant, even though they are
changing the menu and redoing some of
the dishes, even though they are
changing the logo, and even though they
have redesigned their philosophy to be
more about the Cracker Barrel of today
and tomorrow as opposed to the Cracker
Barrel of the past, but other than that,
like everything's exactly the same. Is
the food changing?
&gt;&gt; The food. Well, here's what I'll say
about that. Innovation has proven to be
really great at Cracker Barrel. People
are loving our new menu items. for
reinvigorating our dinner menu.
&gt;&gt; And a lot of these a lot of restaurants
are leaning and going back to nostalgia,
things that the customers are really
comfortable.
&gt;&gt; We never left it.
&gt;&gt; Yeah. You you never left it, but you're
kind you're changing up. You're kind of
going a a different direction. Why is
that your strategy?
&gt;&gt; Yeah. Because people the Cracker Barrel
needs to feel like the Cracker Barrel
for today and for tomorrow. And again,
the things that you love are still
there. We need people to choose us. And
we want people to choose us because
people love this brand.
&gt;&gt; People love this brand, which is why
we're changing it. Like it's just I
don't It feels really contradictory cuz
like this is all about her saying like
no everything that makes Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel is going to stay the
same. You know, we never left nostalgia
except we are leaving nostalgia. We're
modernizing. Like her whole her whole
spiel here like the entire pitch is
about why the modernization of Cracker
Barrel is a good thing and it's the
right direction to go for the company.
The changing of the menu, the new food,
bringing back like some old food. She
mentioned like a a meal is coming back
or I don't I don't recognize the meal by
name. I've only been at Cracker Barrel
like maybe 10 times in my life,
actually. All of which have been a
pretty decent dining experience. I've
never actually had like a really bad
time at Cracker Barrel. It is kind of
cute as like this oldtimey experience.
But what she's insisting is like that
experience will still be there, but
modernized, but that clashes. I don't
know how you could modernize an old
school like old style experience. Like
that would clash by its very nature, I
would think. Like if you're improving
the food, great. I never had any big
complaints about the food at Cracker
Barrel. But if you want to introduce
more highquality cuisine options and
just upgrade it, that's fine by me. Let
it rip. I just don't know why that also
means you have to redesign like the
entire like brand identity and whatever.
It to me it reminds me of what video
games have also been doing for a while
now, which I [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] hate and I'm always
the first to spit on this where a new
entry into a franchise will have the
same name as another entry in the
franchise. And it grinds my ass so hard.
like Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Call
of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Call of
Duty Modern Warfare 3. That's actually
six games I just named right there
because there's two of each and they are
so different. So, Call of Duty Modern
Warfare is different from Call of Duty
Modern Warfare. Call of Duty Modern
Warfare 2 is different from Call of Duty
Modern Warfare 2. Call of Duty Modern
Warfare 3 is different from Call of Duty
Modern Warfare 3. Like, you see the
problem? Like, I hate that [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] I hate
that [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] I'm going off on a different
tangent. Stop me now. Stop me now before
I start getting out of control with the
ranting. Point is, Cracker Barrel feels
to me like it's doing that same thing
where it's taking Cracker Barrel and
introducing Cracker Barrel 2025 on it,
which is different, but she's insisting
that it's the same. So, what's the point
in trying to present it as different?
Like, just go ahead and make a marketing
push that's like, "Hey, we upgraded our
food. We changed these things around. We
added new things to the gift shop, some
more modern items. We repainted things
inside to brighten it up." That kind of
thing, whatever. Another thing she
mentioned is they're changing the chairs
to make more comfortable chairs. Big
thumbs up for me. I actually hated the
chairs at Cracker Barrel sometimes. My
ass is a little bony. So sitting on
those chairs is a little uncomfortable
for an extended period of time. So
changing the chairs there, great idea.
Does that also mean that it needs to
come with like this whole push of like
Cracker Barrels? No, we've changed the
logo and everything. I don't think so.
But that's the trend of business these
days where even like the slightest
change, you need to introduce the
sequel. Like Overwatch, Overwatch 2,
we've done almost nothing and we're
calling it Overwatch 2. This is the
sequel. It [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] sucks. It's just super
useless. Like that's kind of like the
DNA that I feel from this Cracker Barrel
logo change and like this whole push
about like the refreshing of Cracker
Barrel. I think ultimately it probably
won't change that much, but they have
changed the logo. So immediately people
will recognize it as something
different, even if she's insisting it's
going to be the same experience. And I
think the logo is worse. It follows
another trend I hate of these really
boring minimalist logos. I think there
is nothing fun or creative about it. It
sucks a lot of life out of a brand. It
just seems like a huge waste of
resources to take a logo that everyone
can immediately identify and take
everything out of it to just be the name
and then try and present like Cracker
Barrel 2 is here. This is the refresh,
but also it's like the exact same
experience that you've always
remembered. Don't worry, everything you
love about Cracker Barrel is still
there. Okay. Well, then why did you redo
the logo? And why are you calling it
this huge refresh? It's just I don't
know. It feels super sloppy to me. I'm
not surprised to see people aren't
really responding well to it. It's
worthless.
&gt;&gt; Um, what if all the customers um are
coming at you hard enough about the look
of the restaurant and they want to go
back to the old way? Would you do it?
Honestly, the feedback's been
overwhelmingly positive that people like
what we're doing. I'll give you another
sound bite. I actually happened to be in
Orlando last week with all of our
managers. We bring them together and
&gt;&gt; once I every other year and the number
one question that I got asked, Michael,
was how can I get a remodel? When can I
get a remodel? How do I get on the list?
Oh, really?
&gt;&gt; So, because the the feedback and the
buzz is so good, not only from our
customers, but from our team members.
They want to work in a in a wonderful
restaurant. So,
&gt;&gt; sure, that's all fine and dandy, but it
is not really representative of
everyone's perception of this redesign
and this refresh. Like, you can
anecdotally talk about the managers in
Orlando shaking you like, "When can we
get a remodel
and use that as an indicator that you're
going in the right direction, but that
doesn't tell the whole story." Like I
feel like and of course I'm not in the
board meetings here but I feel like you
could point to the stock price
correlating with when the logo design
dropped and then also couple with all
the feedback you can publicly see from
everyone including your loyal customers
and probably make the assumption that
maybe there's more people unsatisfied
with this than we're thinking. like they
are currently writing it off as a vocal
minority, but I feel like it's probably
a pretty large group of people that
isn't really excited about this. Of
course, plenty of people that are upset
about it are people that never eat at
Cracker Barrel and probably never would
have stepped foot in one in the first
place, but there also are definitely
some customers that probably are a bit
turned off here because it's following
the trend of every other business that
is diluting everything that they've
built into just being like generic slop
looking. Even if that's not the case
here with Cracker Barrel, people have
already seen this song and dance from
plenty of other businesses over the
years that a lot of people are just
tired of tired of it in general. Now,
what I will say is I don't think this
will last long. Not not like the logo
and everything and the refresh. I'm sure
they will fully commit to that and that
will probably be the norm from this
point going forward for Cracker Barrel
for a long time. What I don't think is
going to last a while. What I think is
ephemeral is people avoiding Cracker
Barrel and the stock plummeting. I think
this will follow the trend of most [&nbsp;__&nbsp;]
where once it stops being flavor of the
month, people will just go back to
business as usual and they'll eat at
Cracker Barrel when convenient or with
their grandparents or something like
they're not going to be cancelling trips
to Cracker Barrel a week from now. So,
I'm sure it'll probably rebound to some
extent or or even completely. Maybe it
ends up being successful for them. I
don't know. I just don't think it's
going to stay like this from this point
going forward. But I guess I could be
wrong about that. Maybe people are just
like, "You know what? [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] Cracker
Barrel for this and they're done with
it. That's possible. I just find it
unlikely because that almost never
happens for any business really. Anyway
though, just wanted to yap about this.
That's about it. See you.

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