08 29 25 Marketing lecturer Darrin Duber-Smith on Cracker Barrel return to old logo

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Chad Bauer in for Marty and Gina today. The
changing of Cracker Barrel's logo is very controversial and after
a lot of blowback, the company changed it back. Here
to talk about that, MSU Denver Marketing Professor Darren Duber
Smith professor, good morning, and thanks for joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, good morning. I actually recently retired. I'm a retired
MSU Denver marketing professor. Congratulations on that, Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
And so every day corporations rebrand, they changed their logos,
they changed their slogan. So why did this change by
Cracker Barrel strike such a nerve?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, you know, I think it hit customers with a
very loyal customer base. I think it took them by surprise.
And they've been making changes really for the last year.
They've been changing changing stuff inside the store. They've changed
their menu somewhat, they've they've switched out a lot of ingredients,
a lot of their marketing has changed, and so I

(00:54):
don't think it really resonated until the logo changed. You know,
companies do update their logos, but they don't make such
extreme changes. They generally do what we call tweaking. But
when you engage in facelifting or makeovers, You're definitely going
to get controversy, and this isn't the kind of controversy
that they want to have.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
And so do you think there are going to be
any long term effects on the Cracker Barrel brand or
is it the all publicity is a good publicity thing?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
No? No, no, it's never been true. I mean that
was a pt Barnin that said that. But you know,
if you're getting attention and you haven't done anything egregiously bad,
then yes, you can actually have an opportunity. And they
do have an opportunity here to turn things around and
really apologize to their customer base. And I think what
they did was they hired a hot shot from Taco
Bell and they lost I don't know, fifty percent of

(01:46):
their stock value since twenty twenty. This was before what
they did, and so I think there's a lot of
pressure to do something by shareholders because the company really
wasn't doing well and they added alcohol and they did
a number of things I think that made the customer
base really question the company's values. And Chad, I think
authenticity is really going to be the word for the

(02:08):
next ten or fifteen years in business. Especially with AI
and this is a very authentic brand. The old logo
is extremely cluttered, extremely ugly. It absolutely needed to be updated,
but it was the way that it was done, and
I think it's the intent that's behind it. I don't
think that there's a feeling that there's a lot of
authenticity there that they're somehow corrupting the brand. And I

(02:29):
really agree with this. I think that it's a really
bad thing that they did and they can recover from it,
but they really do need to apologize to their customers
and do some things to make it right.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
And so what are the lessons that other corporations should
be taking from this whole cracker barrel incident?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Ask your customers what they want, do not ask the
general public. And I think that's what they did. They
ran focus groups and say, hey, does this logo appeal
to you? And you appeal to you? And you know,
the average person is probably like, well, no, not really.
This is a country store for country people. It's a
slice of Americana and it's got almost a cult following.

(03:12):
And so when you try to mass marketize a brand
that really is focused on a group of consumers, albeit
a very large group of consumers traveling along the road.
What you're doing is you're corrupting your brand. You're supposed
to be a brand steward, and to change the brand
completely you do alienate your current customers. And we've really
seen this with brands in the past, where really large

(03:34):
changes were made in the name of expanding the market,
and what it does is you end up alienating your
current customer base in the name of getting new customers.
And it's a really bad error in branding.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Now, sports marketing is another of your areas of expertise,
and this week there was a huge response to the
announcement on social media of the engagement between the biggest
artist in music, Taylor Swift and NFL superstar Travis Were
you surprised about how much attention that got.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
No, gosh, it's amazing this couple has it. It's almost
like if you were I'm not old enough, but the
whole John F. Kennedy and you know, and the obsession
with the Kennedy family that happened in the sixties. This
really sort of reminds me a little of that. This
is it's really interesting Taylor Swist and Travis Kelcey. I

(04:24):
think it's interesting that you mentioned that in the context
of Cracker Barrel, because you're really talking about, you know,
all American type people who really resonate across a broad
swath of society. And I think that that you know,
almost like in every girl and in every guy, they're
such relatable people and the fact that they're authentic and
relatable and transparent and not afraid to show their faults

(04:49):
and all that other stuff. Travis Stift admitted that he
doesn't read very well, which I don't think was a
surprise to most people. But authenticity, once again that theme.
This is an authentic couple and it absolutely the does
resonate with the vast majority of the population. And we're
definitely obsessed with Taylor Swift. So we're going to see
more of this, I think.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
And do you think that whatever they decide to do
with their wedding, whether it be brands or clothing they wear,
that's going to have a huge economic and marketing impact
as well.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Right, Sure, they're celebrity endorsers. You know, celebrity endorsers are
used for a reason. When people like the celebrity endorser,
what happens is is that the brand hopes that that
affinity will translate onto the brand. So when you show
the celebrity next to the brand over and over and
over again, through classical conditioning, through associated learning, what happens

(05:37):
is the consumer learns how to feel positively about the brand.
And that's why celebrity endorsers are used. These folks are again,
they can be very choosy with what they endorse. I
don't know if Travis wants to do any more state
farm commercials, but yes, anything that they do is going
to have a positive impact on the brands because there's
such a positive energy around This couple really represent hope

(06:01):
and love and all these things that I think have
been absent in American culture for quite some time now.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Retired marketing professor Darren duber Smith, thank you so much
for your time and for your expertise.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
I'm getting whistful in my retirement chat. Thank you so
much for you too,