Glenn Beck recently did an interview with Julie Masino and some stooge at the company to do some "brand rehabilitation" after the debacle of changing the logo, the interior decor of the store and removing the gift shop. The stooge was talking about the changes made to the menu that were difficult to execute with the kitchen. Julie Masino begging for forgiveness that she never meant to hurt anyone or damage the brand. As she put it, "it's my job to insure people love cracker barrel." They both went on to say they lost their 'north star' or some kind of politically correct mumbo jumbo for how they nearly destroyed "the brand." Cracker Barrel is hanging by a thread - unsure if they will recover.
They interview probably did more to trigger the cracker barrel customer than heal the wounds done to their customers through what looked like to me was an insincere cathartic meltdown to try and prevent Julie and the stooge from being promoted to customer. Interesting to note - Julie Masino is gen x and is the same age as I am. She's held positions at Taco Bell, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Mattel and Starbucks. When Masino did an interview on Good Morning America shortly after the branding debacle she was wearing the nerd glasses ala Rachel Maddow or as trump calls them "clark kent glassess" when worn by Rick Perry. For the interview with Glenn Beck she traded the nerd glasses for the serial killer special edition originally worn by Jeffrey Dahmer in 1992 and debuted for this century by Gwyneth Paltrow at her ski accident trial in 2023.
There was a weird lack of realization that people saw themselves in Uncle Herschel sitting in a chair propped against the cracker barrel. Glenn Beck remarked that going to CB was like going to grandma's house. Further extending the analogy to the doilees under the lamps on the tables at grandma's house and no one gets to move them because that's just one of those strangely familiar and special things about Grandma's house. Then it was commented about changing the decor was removing the "stories of America" that were told with the artifacts hung on the walls. Apparently the CB resonates with a certain demographic. Without a doubt it was Masino's job to "grow the brand" to a younger customer as evidence by a hoedown that was thrown by CB for social media influencers as part of the brand's relaunch. News flash - social media influencers only ever sat foot in a cracker barrel when visiting their great grand parents while visiting the smoky mountains of Tennessee.
Listening to Masino's beg for forgiveness and redemption from the CB faithful was sad. She almost started crying. Or pretended. What do I know? I don't know what in her heart.
The easiest way to broaden the appeal is to sterilize it. Take out the old man. The nostalgia gone. Make the logo look like a slice of cheese out of a toaster with the words cracker barrel burned into it. So it fits nicer on an iphone screen. Whatever. Shutup.
Masino treated her rebrand attempt like a class project from a college marketing class. She keeps referring to it as "the brand." I don't think Masino ever set foot in a cracker barrel until she worked there and was probably repulsed by what she saw. Old timie. Antique. Dated. So it makes sense to light all that one fire and make it neutral. Soulless. Bland. Boring and Ordinary. Complete backfire.
You can't lead a company like cracker barrel unless it means something to you. Masino claimed "everything was missed in the data" about the brand. That's because a brand is more than data. People have strange relationships with brands and chances are good the CB customer is stuck in their ways. While you may want to increase the appeal to a younger generation you can't alienate the core customer. Unless you don't want the core customer anymore. News flash - the social media influencers would never be caught dead in a CB. They would probably feel more comfortable in some "new and modern pancake house. Like the Original Pancake House. It's got similar food and is a lot less entrenched in Americana.
A new leader of a nostalgic brand isn't capable of leading a nostalgic brand because their incapable of understanding the appeal of the brand in the first place. Unless they've had a relationship with it. There's no understanding of the customer it appeals to or what's important to them. You can't just turn it on it's head. To lead a nostalgic brand like CB you have to know it and love it with your heart. Understand what you can do to lead change. Not radically transform.
I'm reminded of the Corvette brand. Every logo looks like a corvette logo. They're all the same but different. You don't just burn it to the ground and create something new. You change a brand the same way you eat an elephant. One bit at a time. You don't take away the elephant and replace it with brussel sprouts. Every corvette has the crossed flag logo and it has changed with time. It's still a corvette. They didn't take anything away from it. It evolved with each generation of the car. But it's still a corvette. Those who have are on the corvette understand the history and heritage of the corvette. It's logo, it's place in the market, the customer - both old and new. I would be they love the brand.
Masino doesn't love CB. She hates it. She burned it to the ground. And there was a revolt. Now she's pandering to keep her job. All she had to do was evolve the brand in baby steps. She would have been fine. I guess the other option was to launch a new brand with the same food and a new look as more of a pilot experiment in one store instead of a remodel across the board and brand.
In the meantime - go back to your north star and make food that works with the existing kitchen. CB customers don't want something new. They eat the same thing they've eaten everytime they've been there. Don't mess with it. Don't move the doilee. You can add to it - but don't take away.
That concludes today's branding leadership lesson.
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