Ep 307: Cracker Barrel's Logo Disaster: 3 Big lessons for small business owners

The Cracker Barrel Logo change recently to a plain, minimalistic design caused a massive uproar all over social media and tv. There's 3 big lessons small business owners can learn so you never have to upset your customers this way.

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Transcript

Introduction and Welcome

Speaker 1 0:03

Well, hello. This is Kimberly Brock, and for over 20 years I've been running my own businesses that have not only been profitable but personally fulfilling to me. So now I'm on a mission to help other new business owners, just like you, make money doing what you love to. Now we're going to have some fun, so let's get started.

Speaker 3 0:37

Well, hello friends, let's get started. Cracker Barrel it's like a tongue twister. Have y'all tried to say that in a while? Anyways, the Cracker Barrel logo debacle has been all over the news. You've seen it, I'm sure how there was outrage over their new minimalist logo. You can learn from that whole controversy, okay, and actually I'm gonna talk about three things that you can learn from it.

Speaker 3 1:08

As a small business owner, I think it's so important that we look at things that are going on in the world with bigger businesses and we use that data and we use that information to apply it to our businesses so we can be successful. So I'm so excited you're here. If you're new, welcome. You've come on a fun day. I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker 3 1:29

Whether you're in the idea stage of your business starting or growing, this is for you. Whether you're a new coach, service provider, product seller, whatever you are, you're in the right place, because I just want to help you get moving and start building your business dream. There are all kinds of free resources down below, so grab them, and there are paid resources. I offer one-on-one coaching. Yes, you can work directly with me and I can help you, as you are moving along, to be more strategic and smart about the steps that you are taking and get you moving fast. So make sure you check out the freebies below. Also, I have a free Facebook group. It's called Women Starting Businesses and Podcasts Doing what we Love. So, yes, I can help you with your podcast as well. If you've got a business that you want to grow online, especially, a podcast is an awesome way to do that. Y'all, I started my podcast right as I was starting this business and literally the best business decision I've ever made. I love it so much. It's a blast. So, anyways, make sure you check all that out below. And, if you've been listening a while, thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. Y'all are amazing. All my GrowGretters, all of those of you that were in the PodSquad and the Binge-Worthy Podcasting Bootcamp y'all are just inspiring, and I looked up to each of you. I really do. I know some of you may not believe that, but I do. I look up to you because I see that you are taking courageous steps and you are pursuing your dream, and it's just awesome to watch. So that's it. Okay, on to the episode.

Speaker 3 3:09

Well, hello friends. How are you? How is everything going today? Are you having a good day. If not, it's time to change that. Put a smile on your face, get excited. We're about to have a fun conversation about the Cracker Barrel debacle.

Speaker 3 3:20

No, I'm not saying like let's have fun out of someone else's like pain, but I think what we can learn from the whole cracker barrel thing if I can say it again, y'all, it's a tongue twister If we can learn a few things from it, we're going to be better off and I think that's what we've got to do. In life, you know, there's things that are hard, that go on around us or even in our own lives, and we have to take the lessons and we have to turn them into good for what we're doing. So today I had to talk about it. It's actually in the morning. I rarely record these in the morning, but it was just on the Today Show and stuff and I was like that's what I've got to do, my podcast episode on this week. I had another one recorded to go live this week and with the whole debacle with the logo, I was like I've got to talk about that. It's so pertinent and there's so many lessons to be learned from this. So let's kind of talk about what happened. So I know that and I'm kind of reading on some of the data that I found online and stuff. But there, so Cracker Barrel has been in business. Gosh, how long has Cracker Barrel been in business? Cracker Barrel has been in business, y'all, for 55 years, 55 years. I need to find out if they've had this exact same logo. Let me look it up really quick and have they had the same logo? I'm looking this up on Google. Okay, so it has changed over time with a text-only design. Oh, and 1977 was when the iconic logo featuring a man by a barrel was introduced. Okay, so since 1977, they've had that logo. They opened in 69.

Speaker 3 5:00

If y'all don't know what Cracker Barrel is, it's a restaurant that's kind of like a country store. It's an old like country store feel where there's the whole merchandise area at the front, which I think is so cool because you kind of have an experience as you go to this restaurant and in the front, like on the porch, there's a whole porch to it and there's rocking chairs and it's just kind of like this nostalgic restaurant that's got home-style cooking. Okay, travelers have been known to stop here Like people traveling. It's always all along the highway or something where you can pull over and have a country home-style meal and it's just a cute little place. It's a cute place. They have all this candy in the front. It just feels you know. It kind of feels like those like old timey ice cream shops or something where you're like you want to feel the days of old. We have one near us. I used to have them in Austin when I lived there and they're great.

Speaker 3 5:57

So, from what I've read, they had missed earnings recently, in May of like 2024, and it has fallen and so everything had been kind of weaker at that point. And they hired a new CEO. Her name is Julie Messino, I think that's how you pronounce it. She took over in 2023 and was going to try to help the company create like a strategic transformation plan to modernize the brand. Okay. So they came out and announced in August of 2025. So that's this month.

Speaker 3 6:40

Just a few like days ago literally this is like a week and plus a few days they unveiled a new minimalist, text-only logo. So if you see the logo online and maybe you've seen this on social media, it's been all over my social media and everything and it has a logo with the man leaning against a barrel, okay, and it's an older gentleman. It looks like in the logo, right, and it kind of has that feel of the country store. To me it fits the brand perfectly. And they had removed the man and the man's name. I don't know if they call him Oldtimer or Uncle Herschel, I've heard both. They removed that whole barrel imagery and the gentleman and it just was completely stripped of all of its personality. The logo was completely stripped to a minimalist design. Okay, which I know. It's good to be a minimalist and not have extra stuff. Sometimes with your logo you got to be careful, okay. So, anyways, that happened supposedly on August 19th of 2025.

Understanding What Happened

Speaker 3 7:49

There was instant I'm talking instantaneous backlash all over, all over social media, all over the news. It triggered a complete, like media uproar. People were posting about it. Then there was all this talk that the brand had gone woke and it was, you know, some kind of political move. I have no idea if that had anything to do with it or not. Its stock plummeted like somewhere. They said between 7 and 12 percent, wiping out nearly 100 million in market value. Y'all that freaks me out just thinking about that, that just by changing your logo, that could drop that much. President Trump even had weighed in and was like it needs to be changed back, like this is ridiculous.

Speaker 3 8:40

The company did come out and respond and it acknowledged that it mishandled the communication of the rebrand, that it affirmed that its signature elements, the rocking chairs, uncle Herschel and its classic whole-country hospitality vibe would remain now despite the redesign. So this is like a total 180 from where they were a few days ago. This is like a total 180 from where they were a few days ago. And they have come out over the last two days, like August 26, august 27, saying that they are reverting to the original logo. So again, y'all can look it up if it's not already on your feeds, everywhere you can see it. So here's the deal.

Speaker 3 9:22

The company was probably, like I had said earlier, that probably trying to come in and like let's revamp this, let's clean it up, let's give it a fresh look, a fresh new face don't exactly look better than the original. Would y'all agree when it comes to some of the women, dare I say, out there who are getting all kinds of facial stuff done? That does not look natural? I mean, I think we can all agree there's times when facelifts don't work and this is one of them, but it has to do with a restaurant, right. And so what can we learn as small business owners from this whole mania about this? And I think there's some really important lessons. Okay, I mean, there was a literal uproar. The customers online, everyone was freaking out like absolutely freaking out about this. Okay, now, our businesses aren't this big, but we have to keep in mind a whole bunch of things when it comes to this, like, let's go through this. I've picked three that I think are really important. I think you can learn from it, and don't let this happen to you. Don't let this happen to you where you get alienated from the people who actually support you, right? Don't get alienated from the people who pay you money, right? Don't turn people away. Don't be your own worst enemy, okay, okay. So here's the three big lessons that I think we should take away from this debacle. Number one talk to your customers.

Speaker 3 11:15

I kept wondering the whole time when they changed the logo. I'm like, did they do focus groups? Did they go to stores and towns and be like, hey, if we change it to this? I mean, they literally could have had a mock-up printed out and stood in front of the store when people were coming in the restaurant and they could have said, hey, what do you think of this new logo? They could have had employees that were already working at the stores. They could have had the managers do this y'all. They could have taken a poll. They could have done it online. They could have done an Instagram poll, like literally, they could have done anything to verify. Now, I don't know what they did, so I'm not going to act like I know what focus groups they did or didn't have, but I'm willing to bet they didn't get a big enough sample size, because the uproar was so fast that it was obvious that people would have said that right away Like no, why are you taking the whole personality of this brand out?

Speaker 3 12:13

You know, talk to your customers, everybody. Listen to me. If you are creating a product, you are creating a service, and you want to know what's going to sell, or you want to pivot, or you want to change something, talk to your people and don't just talk to two people. Don't just talk to your sister or your BFF. Okay, don't just do that. That's not enough. That's not a big enough focus group.

Speaker 3 12:37

I guarantee you that the people that were around them that were. You know they were wanting to change. They all had the same kind of mentality and they were not actually the customers, like the customers in a town. They are too close to the situation. They needed to get people that were removed from corporate. I don't know. I just feel like there wasn't enough done. I think it's a huge lesson to everybody. You have to talk to your customers. So please tell me now, right now. Agree with me. You'll say, yes, I will. I will talk to my customers, I will put polls out. I will ask people if they come in, if you have a store, if you have a booth. I will send out emails with a survey. You can do Google Forms and you can do a quick survey there. There are so many things you can do. You can have a little anonymous tip jar, a jar where they can put comments. That's what I mean, not a tip jar, but comments, feedback. I always want to do that at businesses. I often look around for a feedback jar that's anonymous, because I'd like to say something that would help them from a customer's point of view.

Lesson 2: Don't Hide Who You Are

Speaker 3 13:52

Y'all you can't see the label from the inside of the bottle that you're in. Everyone is stuck inside a bottle with a label and we literally can't see it. It is impossible. It's like saying can you see the back of your head? You cannot see the back of your head unless you have a mirror, and even then it's a reflected, reversed image, but you cannot see the back of your head. You cannot see the back of your head unless you have a mirror, and even then it's a reflected, reversed image. But you cannot see the back of your head standing there without anything. It's the same with your business. Like we literally can't see how we're viewed, and wouldn't you like to know how you're viewed? It's hard. We probably will never know the 100% truth about how anyone views us. But we can talk to people, be close to people, have relationships with people so that they'll be honest with us about things, right? So talk to your customers. Talk to your people, even if they're not customers. They're just people who see your stuff. They're shoppers, whatever, they're browsers. Ask them what do you want? Do you like this or that? You need data before you make any big changes. So talk to your customers. That's number one. Number two don't be afraid to be who you really are. Okay, I think you should share who you are.

Speaker 3 15:07

Every business now has to be based on a story and a brand. Cracker Barrel had a story within that logo with the Uncle Herschel leaning on the barrel, and it has a story when you walk in the store. It has this old-timey feel that somehow you get transposed, transformed into I don't even know the word. You get, you know, teleported to days of old. That's what I feel like. When you walk in the store, you are put in a different day and time and you have to remember that we only felt teleported to a different day and time because they shared who they were. They had a whole brand on who they are right and what they kind of stand for. This old feel this country feel like life is good, life can be easy. I don't know, that's just kind of how I describe it. Right, you have to share who you are, your values and everything that you're building your brand around, right? Maybe your brand of your business isn't exactly representing who you are, your values and everything that you're building your brand around, right? Maybe your brand of your business isn't exactly representing who you are, but I think people buy into brands.

Speaker 3 16:12

Now. Branding is more important than ever. In fact, on next week's episode, I'm talking about that, y'all. It is crucial that you build a brand now. It's around a story, it's around a feel. It's around a feel, it's around a vibe Like I want you to think about.

Speaker 3 16:27

Even when you listen to this podcast each week, is it consistent in terms of the feeling that you get every time you listen? Now I'm only asking you this because people tell me this that like I know that I can go to your podcast, I'm going to feel uplifted. I like your energy, I feel motivated, I feel like I can do things. I feel like I can get past all the things that I'm doing, like overthinking, procrastinating all that stuff. Like I feel like I can get moving.

Speaker 3 16:57

Right is that you do feel a sense of consistency with that. And you know where I stand on things. Right, I stand for simplicity. I believe in faith in your business and your life. I believe in I don't talk about it a ton, but like physical fitness, taking care of your body, but also just the ways that we run our business with integrity and really pursuing our dream and going for it, because we know that our businesses are more than just a business. They are a sense of purpose for us. They bring us fulfillment in our life. They allow us to use our God-given gifts for greater right. So I hope that you feel this each week, that you show up right, so you cannot be afraid to share who you are.

Speaker 3 17:40

Do not be generic, do not be a minimalist. I don't think you should be a minimalist in terms of what you share about you and your business. I think you should share it because that's why people will follow you and want to buy from you, because they buy into the story, and I'm not talking about a fake story, I'm talking about the real story. They literally and figuratively buy into your story. So, share who you are, okay. So number one, I said talk to your customers, make sure you have open communication about anything you're doing, any changes you're making, anything you're offering that. Number two share who you are. Don't be afraid to be, be who you are, because you will attract your people. And number three, offer people what they want.

Speaker 3 18:28

So last week I talked about this on episode 306. I said how are you going to start making money? You're going to start making money by selling something that people actually want to buy, not what you want to sell. Now, this is hard for passion-based businesses like ours, like something we're very passionate about. We already have in mind what we want to sell, but I think it has to be in the form that people want to pay money for it. It has to be in the form that people want to pay money for it. So think about this logo. All of a sudden now they're not bought into this brand and they don't even want it because it doesn't represent what they wanted to buy. They wanted to buy that feeling and the story when they come in, no one's even talking about the food. Do y'all see this Like? This has nothing to do with the food is what they are selling, but everyone is walking in with a feeling, with a feeling.

Speaker 3 19:25

What's that saying that quote people won't remember what you said, but they remember how you made them feel. Oh, my gosh, I can't think of it. Let me say this statement Okay, it was Maya Angelou. Like I did not know that. It's a famous quote by Maya Angelou. People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Y'all people will never forget how you made them feel. Y'all people will never forget how you made them feel.

Speaker 3 19:58

Sell what they want. They want a feeling. They want to buy something that you offer that product or service, but they're actually buying a feeling. This is kind of an aha moment here. Sit with this for a minute. Whatever you're selling, what's the feeling that you're selling? If you're a landscaper, what's the feeling? That I have a happy home, that I can feel proud of my home, that I can get excited to have people over because I'm not embarrassed, right? What is the feeling that people get when they listen to this podcast? Like what I said, they're buying into the feeling of I can do this. Like I can actually do this. That's the feeling I can pursue greater things. I can. I have more to give. Like I'm excited. Let's go Right.

Speaker 3 20:46

When I sold monogrammed gifts, what's the feeling? They were so excited to give the gifts to their friends because it was actually a personal gift. It had their initials on it, had their name on it. They were proud. They helped them. Just feel good about giving. What is the feeling?

Speaker 3 21:06

I think, if you can get down to the feeling, y'all, this is a huge lesson. Provide them what they want, right, but give them the feeling with it. Provide them what they want. They do need something, they're not going to pay unless it's something they need, right, whether it's just cute jewelry or whatever, it can be something very you know fun, or it can be life coaching or divorce coaching. I mean it can be something very life-changing, right. It doesn't matter where you are on that spectrum of what you're selling, right, but you have to provide what they want with a feeling. What they want with a feeling.

Speaker 3 21:51

And when the logo changed, it removed the feelers, it removed all the feels, it removed it and they were like wait, what am I buying? This is boring. This is not what I wanted to feel when I looked at your logo or your store, because now you've revamped it all to minimalist and I loved that. It was like kind of I don't even want to say junkie, not junkie, but there was just a. There's a lot of stuff in that store Like you can spend a long time and I'm sure it's by design and it's awesome because it keeps you in there while you're waiting on your table and you're like shopping around this country store Y'all.

Speaker 3 22:26

There are so many lessons to be learned from this. Let's review again. Number one talk to your customers Open communication, okay. Number two don't be afraid to share who you are. Be who you are. That's what people are buying into, is the story. And number three sell what they want with the feeling that they want. Sell what they want with the feeling Because if you're not doing this, then are you really a brand?

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Speaker 3 22:50

What are you? You're just a drive-through business where they just buy and go and they don't care. You're more than that. You're a brand, and this is proof of that. This whole debacle is proof of that. That there is so much importance in the way that you build your brand and what you do and the decisions you make for the people that you are meant to serve. Okay, remember that. I am so glad you're here. This was so much fun. I like doing this. Current events I need to start doing more current events. This was like firing me up this morning. It's 830 in the morning. I literally never do this and I'm fired up. I'm ready to go. I'm gonna go play some pickleball and have a great day. So I hope you're going to have a great day ahead. So happy for you, so proud of you. Keep moving, start pursuing your dream even more than you were before, because you can do it. Life is short people. Okay, have a great day.

Speaker 2 23:41

Bye now. Now this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to KimberlyBrockcom and, yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey and you know what. You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help you. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.