The Crackle Barrel Story is Not a New One

The story of Cracker Barrel’s quick switch back from its new branding may go down as one of the fastest changes of marketing minds in history.

It took only a few days for the 55 year old restaurant chain to scrub its new logo without the image of old Uncle Hershel and go back to the old one.

The initial change from the old to the new was first seen as Cracker Barrel’s desire to attract new and younger customers as their old customers aged out, with changes they had already made to modernize the look and feel of their restaurants.

But now it’s back to the old and only time will tell if it will be a success.

This isn’t the first time a company has had to do a switcheroo in branding.

Back in 1985, Coke’s introduction of what it called “New Coke” a slightly reformulated version, was aimed at getting new customers away from Pepsi that was marketing itself as for younger folks. But Coke faced a backlash that led to the swift return to the old regular Coke.

At the time, 40 years ago, it was called a legendary marketing blunder by Coke. And now the story of Cracker Barrel will be added to those marketing history books.

(Photo Getty Images)