September 2, 2025 • 31 mins
Trevor and Mark dive into the recent Cracker Barrel rebrand controversy, exploring its impact on customer trust and brand identity. They dissect the risks of alienating loyal customers, the importance of maintaining unique selling points, and the potential consequences of changing a beloved restaurant experience. The hosts offer creative suggestions for doubling down on Cracker Barrel's nostalgic appeal, proposing unconventional ideas like mismatched chairs and hiring chatty older servers to enhance the "grandma's house" vibe.
For more exciting daily content, follow us on Instagram @Unstoppablemarketerpodcast!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yo, what's going on everybody?
Welcome to the UnstoppableMarketer podcast.
With me, as always, is MarkGoldheart.
Mark, how are you Doing?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
just fine.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah, yeah, how are you?
I'm good.
Another Tuesday morning, Iwould say.
The clouds have rolled in, therain has begun.
The fall colors have alreadystarted changing here in Utah.
Have you noticed this?
I haven't noticed that at allIf you drive over Suncrest right
(00:32):
now, you'll see that the leavesare changing a little bit.
We had a dry summer, and thatusually happens.
When you have a drier summer,the leaves change a little
quicker, do they, which is alittle unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I have no idea, but I do know it is fall fishing,
which is great, nice.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Why is that any different?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
um, the fish get a little more colorful oh, they
change with the leaves.
Yeah, interesting I think ithas more to do with spawning and
stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
But oh yeah, you've got like the uh like the
coconuts have gone.
Yeah, the coconuts are starting, not yet.
Oh.
They're red, oh, but but whendo they start?
Uh, spawning?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
oh, I don't know when the whole.
I think it's like mid-september.
I don't know when the whole.
I think it's like mid-September.
I don't know when the rushhappens, but it's in the fall At
.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Strawberry right.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, but they're all turning colors.
They're turning nice and brightand then it's easier to fish at
night in the fall, because it'sdarker, faster.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I like to fish near dusk.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I have a random question for you.
That's just something wehaven't talked about or I've
ever asked on this podcastbefore.
Yeah, you are somebody wholikes to investigate and read up
on peculiar things.
Is that fair?
It's probably fair, fromconspiracy theories to real
(02:07):
things to political Things thatare just interesting to me.
Right now.
What is the most interestinglyweird thing you are reading or
thinking about?
Interestingly weird thing, justthe thing that people would just
be like what the oh man, if youcould say one thing like what's
(02:29):
one thing on your mind thatyou're just like, this is
interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, I read Annie Jacobson's book Area 51.
Okay, book area 51, okay.
And what's interesting in thatbook is how she talks about it's
not aliens, it's really justmore of their secret weapon
development and air.
You know aerospace developmentthat they did there, but also
(02:58):
all the nuclear testing, andmost people don't know this.
But we brought over a bunch ofNazi scientists to develop our
nuclear program or help with ournuclear program.
Okay, and one of thosescientists who was like the head
of NASA at one point and thenyou know whatever, but one of
them, basically they didn't wantto go out to the South Pacific
(03:20):
to drop bombs anymore, so theystarted dropping bombs in Nevada
without telling anybody.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Which is where Area 51 is.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Which is where Area 51 is.
Now they weren't doing it onArea 51.
They do it up in thesemountains, but what's weird
about that is you would thinkthat the fallout from that is in
the air.
But one thing that they did notaccount for is all the
earthworms that becameradioactive and all the bugs,
and then birds were eating themand then dropping them off into
(03:51):
fields in Utah, and so theradioactive waste actually went
further, and if you go to wheremy wife grew up, they have an
incredibly high cancer rateInteresting, and she lives on
the west side of Utah insouthern Utah, near the Nevada
(04:12):
border.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Where they were dropping bombs.
And then on the other side ofUtah, which is like the Four
Corners area, my uncle had ahouse that had radioactive
bricks Interesting.
So there's some conspiraciescoming out about, like our
certain, like Chupacabrasightings or something like that
(04:36):
, just like mutated monstersfrom all the radioactive waste
Hills have eyes down there.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
That's what that show is based off of right, that
kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I can't remember if it's radioactive or if it's just
like inbreeding in that show isit more?
No, no, it's radioactive it'snot like Appalachia inbreeding.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I don't think so.
That's a messed up show.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Hey, I love Appalachia, though I'm not
saying anything, that's just thehorror stereotype of it.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I live near the Appalachian Trail.
That's cool.
Apparently it's haunted.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Oh yeah, Big time.
People say you hear things?
Yeah it's pretty freaky, whichI'd love to go check it out.
I got.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I like haunted stuff.
There's so much poison ivy andpoison oak everywhere in those
mountains.
It's like on all the trails,like if you go off that trail.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So if you forget some toilet paper, you're in.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
If you go off that trail like at all you are dead.
I got so much poison ivy ReallyRashes there and the first time
I'd never had it before and soI just like it was like on my
arm and I had no idea what wasgoing on.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I thought I had like leprosy yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And it like oozes it oozes oh really, and whatever in
the.
That's disgusting.
Not the venom, the poison orwhatever.
The oils, yes, it spreadsbecause it's oil.
So they say not to issue,because if I, if I were to do
this and then like do?
This and then it spreads yourchest.
It spreads because it's the oilfrom the leaves.
(06:11):
Oh and so I had it likeeverywhere for days before I
decided to go see a doctor see,doesn't it just make sense that
people wore long sleeveeverything?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
oh yeah, for sure, because people were doing stuff
like that all the time, likethat was like a normal day.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Well, yeah, they had to create their own trails
Bushwhack yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, so crazy man men used to cross oceans on
wooden ships.
Isn't that nuts?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
All right, what are we talking about today?
We got another marketingblunder.
We're talking about todayBlunders.
Okay, so the biggest, thebigger.
The big blunder of the week ormaybe we'll just call it topic
of the week the biggest bummerblunder is, uh, the cracker
barrel rebrand cracker barrel,say it 10 times fast cracker,
barrel, cracker, barrel, cracker, barrel, cracker, barrel
(06:58):
cracker sounds like a parrot, um, I mean, so what Cracker Barrel
did was they, and we couldprobably we'll put this up, but
they rebranded, they did Right.
They went from, you know,having the old man and the
barrel, and then they went alittle bit more minimal, and so
(07:19):
what's happening right now isthere's a massive outrage on
TikTok and people are justlosing their minds and, as of
four days ago, their stockdropped 10.
It's a pretty big drop, whichis huge.
Yeah, I can't remember whatthat equates to.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I'm really curious what their uh stores are doing.
Yeah, is it a franchise?
Is it?
That's a good question?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I don't know if it it a franchise.
Is it?
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I don't know if it's a franchise or how that
McDonald's model, or is it all?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, I don't know.
Those are things that we couldprobably look up.
But people are not happy yeahpeople are not happy, In fact,
like it's gotten so muchattention that Trump we got to
read Trump's message on it.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
All the locations are company owned.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Oh, interesting.
Okay, so they're not afranchise Mad.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Dog Maddox in the house.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, maddox is hot on the mic here, so this is what
Trump says.
Cracker Barrel should go backto the old logo, admit a mistake
based on customer response inparentheses, he says the
ultimate pull.
And a mistake based on customerresponse in parentheses he says
the ultimate pull and managethe company better than ever.
They got a billion dollarsworth of free publicity,
(08:32):
referring to the fact thateveryone's talking about Cracker
Barrel for the first time inever.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, who knows how long has anyone ever talked
about it?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Well, on social media , has anyone ever talked about
Cracker Barrel?
Right, yeah.
So for those of you who don'tknow what Cracker Barrel is, by
the way, it's like a home-cookedmeal kind of restaurant.
You know we're talking likechicken fried steak pot roast
comfort food, yes, yeah, and Iwould say maybe like on the
slightly higher end.
(09:00):
I have like a faint memory ofgoing there once as a child.
We're not talking about likelike.
I think we were talking aboutlike, referring them to uh.
What was the buffet company?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
again chukarama.
You know higher end thanchukarama.
It's a restaurant.
Yes, it's a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You sit down right, yeah family style much more
prevalent in the south and onthe east than it is kind of on
the west coast.
Okay, you know, maybe midwest Idon't know much as much about
the midwest, but I used to livedown south and I used to live on
the east coast and they wereall over okay.
But uh, yeah, they got abillion dollars worth of free
(09:35):
publicity if they play theircards right.
Very tricky to do, but a greatopportunity.
Have major new, have a majornews conference today, make
crackerrel a winner again.
But essentially, the main thingthat people are really upset
about is there's like an old manand his name's Uncle, herschel,
and they got rid of him.
His name is Herschel.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Uncle Herschel, I didn't know it.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I didn't know.
He had a name.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Makes it a little more tragic now that he has a
name.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, that he's got like an avatar, like there's a
persona around him so so what isthe deal here?
Like um, we talk about this allthe time, but I'll tell you
what the deal is please.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
This is the deal.
We always talk about brands andwhat a brand is, and this is a
great example of what a brandactually a brand is just trust
yeah, a brand isn't a logo it'sthe trust that you've built.
Yeah, and by doing a rebrand youcan often fracture the trust.
(10:37):
Now there's a big differencebetween, like, if you're a brand
that nobody knows about andyou're like, you can always
rebrand young and it doesn'treally matter as much.
And it depends on your producttoo.
Like no one really cared thatslack changed their logo.
Sure, like people thought itwas kind of dumb.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
But totally just like oh, it looks kind of like
google now, but whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, but cracker barrel, that's people are
sitting down, they're eating.
You probably have some prettylike weekly goers.
I don't know.
You know like restaurants aredifferent.
It's been around for a longtime so obviously people like it
.
Yeah, it's been around sincethe late 60s.
So they, they changed theirvibe.
I know that they changed someof their stores too.
Yeah, I think maddox was sayingthat they're doing some some
(11:16):
interior well, here's, here'sthe, so there's, there's design.
There's two different points.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
We're kind of making here one.
Well, let's talk about this one.
What you said is a brand isn'tnecessarily the logo, it's the
trust that you build so, but arobot logo represents that for
sure.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
So, especially if you've had the same logo for 70
years, I don't know how longhave they been around, maddox?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
1969 1969 yeah, I just looked that up.
That's why I know that, okay,not a huge cracker, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Okay, so they've been around for 55 years, 56 years
yeah, 55 years or 2025.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
It's a long time.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
So what will be really interesting is does
Cracker Barrel?
Because they've doubled down onit, right?
They're like like, hey, this iswho we are, this is what we're
doing.
Um, the big question is havethey built enough trust over the
last 55 years that, at the endof the day, people aren't really
going to do much about it?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
like you know, yeah, I don't know that's.
That's the question like it.
It clearly has made peopleangry.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I don't know if those people are going to stop going
to cracker barrel yeah, I mean Iwas even watching a news
article or like watching that,like somebody being interviewed
on the news and the guy evensaid I am upset about it all.
Who he said I'll hoot andholler about it, but I probably
go back like those were hiswords.
You know so, but but here's thedeal.
So, like whether it's going tohurt it enough that it alienates
(12:43):
their current audience, which,to be fair, cracker Barrel is on
the elder, like I think yourdemographic is older on that one
, yeah, I have no idea.
To my anecdotal knowledge, itis.
(13:11):
So the question is does italienate your current audience
where they say I'm not goingback or I don't care as much
about this place, or is thenegative ramification that the
people who still love it trustit continue to go back?
But now they just created alogo that blends in with
anything else, that it doesn'tstand out from anything else.
(13:31):
Moving forward to get newpeople, those are kind of two
different negatives.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, you're, you're aging out and you got to get new
people in.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So that's a risk they're they're willing to take.
But again, it's the trustyou've built.
So is there a better way theycould have rebranded?
Sometimes people think you gotto rebrand all at once and have
like a big show and hey, it hascreated a ton of publicity, yep,
so maybe it has worked for themright, like we talked about
(14:06):
with, sydney, sweeney and uh,american eagle.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yes, I'm sure cracker barrel is up in the google
trends.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, I don't know if their store visits are up, I
don't know if their sales are up, but a lot of the new audience.
This is what's tricky aboutrebrands they might be targeting
millennials, because Gen Z kindof likes the noisy stuff and
like the retro stuff.
So it's millennials who are,all you know, white houses and
(14:34):
minimalistic minimalistic iswhat you mean by that.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, yeah, but you know what I?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
mean by that.
Yeah, yeah, but you know what Imean.
A millennial house is thewhitewashed house that's open
White cabinets light coloredfloors when there's a big
movement now in housing, whereit's going back to greens or
different colored rooms.
And a lot more pictures on thewalls, or more cozy is what I'd
(14:58):
say.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yes, this episode of the Unstoppable Marketer is
brought to you by BFF Creative.
Let's be real hiring designersand video editors can get super
expensive, and that's why I'mexcited about what BFF Creative
has done.
They've built a subscriptiondesign service that gives you
the feel of an in-house creativeteam, but at a fraction of the
cost, which I'm sure we allcould use right now From ad
(15:18):
creatives to social media posts,video edits to full website
designs.
Bff gives you unlimited designsand unlimited requests,
starting at just $1,000 a month.
The best part about this theircustom app makes it super easy
to submit projects, givefeedback, review, work and store
all of your creative in oneplace.
As a listener of the podcast,you get 25% off your first two
(15:39):
months with code unstoppable 25.
That means unlimited creativefor as little as $750 a month.
Go check them out right now atbffcreativeco.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So there's probably a targeted approach here.
But like obviously CrackerBarrel didn't just do this
without any kind of marketresearch, I'm sure they did.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, but they did do the generally.
The no-no to a rebrand is likenot doing it in a phase like you
talked about, like just doingit all at once.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah they did it all at once and maybe they didn't
think it would be that big of achange.
They're just getting rid of oldUncle Herschel.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
But anyways, they're probably trying, but lo and
behold, they're definitelygetting kicked now and it might
be for the better.
Yeah, so brands, just always beaware of that.
Like, yes, you might offendsome people, but then you also
have to remember brands likePepsi.
And what was it Aunt Jemima's?
(16:37):
Was it syrup or something?
And remember, they rebrandedand everyone.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
They took her out of it.
I feel like I remember this,but I don't remember the details
.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
There's been a few of these that people have had
outrages about.
One was the Butter brand.
They removed a Native American.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Okay, the Land O'Lakes Land.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
O'Lakes, one about like one was the uh butter brand
they removed, like a nativeamerican.
Okay, the land of lakes, oneand so, but these types of
products are just part ofpeople's habits and like habits
die hard and, like some peoplemight like, I don't think it
really affects them that muchhere's my thought, because
they're not changing everythingabout the product, it's just.
They change a slight variationof it, they make it more minimal
(17:22):
.
Well, I'll tell you where I'd bemore worried which probably
saves on printing costs whenyou're printing millions of
items.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, maybe I mean where I would start to worry
more about is what they do tothe design of the stores,
because I know that that's a biglike a big.
People want that, thatexperience is like it's.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Have you ever been to one?
Have you ever been to a crackerbarrel before?
If I remember right, it's likeit was like very.
It's like wooden yeah, you shipplanks.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
The redesign is the opposite of that.
It's like white and likemillennial.
See this.
See, that's the problem.
White, millennial.
See to, that's the problemWhite millennial.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
See, to me that's the problem, Because the Cracker
Barrel experience feels likeyou're at grandma's house.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Millennials love everything white.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You know how grandma's house is just always
cluttered Like I know this forgrandma Peggy.
We haven't shouted grandmaPeggy out for a while Like she's
moving.
She's got stuff on the wallsand she's got like she's texting
, like she's texting us, likethere's this text saying, hey,
who wants this?
And it's like a 1950 milk jugand I've never seen that before.
I've been to her house dozensof times.
(18:25):
Where's that been?
That's just been in herbasement, but she's just kept it
probably for the last 70 years.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
But a Cracker Barrel would have an old milk jug in
the corner.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, you feel like you're at grandma's house.
You know, an old milk jug inthe corner.
Yeah, you feel like you're atgrandma's house.
You know, in fact there was abig trend that was going on with
Cracker Barrel.
That was so funny.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Oh, but see, there is a trend with grandmas man,
these new grandmas don't evenlike to be called grandma.
Have you heard about that.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I think it's the boomer grandmas are like
we're memos and moomoos and allthis other stuff, papas, and
yeah, stop it.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Stop it.
That's a hot take.
It's ridiculous.
That's a really hot take.
You guys are grandmas andgrandpas, okay, yeah, there's my
hot take.
Stop with this nonsense.
If you're Italian or Spanishand you want to go by that
language's word for grandma, dothat.
That's fine.
Yeah, don't be making stuff up.
(19:18):
It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I would agree with you, but there are so many
people like I've gotten so manyheated arguments about that one.
People get like really upsetwhen you defy that.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Such a boomer thing, stop it.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Well, it's a millennial thing.
I don't think it's a boomerthing as much as I think it's
millennials too.
I think millennials want it aswell.
Millennials want it too.
Yeah, like they want to push,let's call you that's stupid GG
or whatever.
But there was a big trend atCracker Barrel where, because of
how cluttered it was, peoplewould take pictures of
(19:52):
themselves and put it in awooden frame and they just go
set it on a shelf.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I've seen that and that would not be possible with
their new design anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It's way funny.
And they'll just see how longit'll last and they'll come back
like six months later and it'sstill there.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
That was like a social thing, like a trend, yeah
, oh, and they just got rid ofit, so they just killed the
trend.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So that makes me a lot more worried than the logo
side of things.
You know, like I am a big, I'ma like you and me are big
believers that the logo is likemost brands don't really create
a love mark the way Jordan did,the way Nike did, Right Love
marks are the way Apple did,Like, like most people don't
(20:38):
create logos.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
When I I look at a love mark, you gotta zoom.
You gotta zoom out a little bit, though, like when you're
talking about love marks you'retalking about brands that have
entered into the everydayecosystem, like they are part of
american life in of itself yeah, what I was going to say, which
aligns with what you're saying,is I want to represent that
(21:00):
when I walk out.
Most brands are not even closeto that.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I mean, can you think of?
Can you think of any brandsbesides?
There's a few like there'sLevi's, there's vans.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
No, but no, no like.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Levi's not, is not one.
Nobody cares to wear the brand.
I know you get it.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
There are.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
It's not on the level of a Jordan or Nike.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I would totally disagree that Levi's is a love
mark.
I don't think it is at all.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Oh it is, I think it is.
I do not think so.
See, it is.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
It is All right, he's with me.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
If he doesn't know, he's with me Levi's is Wranglers
is once you get out into thetrue working class.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
It's a niched one.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I have a Levi's t-shirt.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Listen, I get it.
People buy, obviously, it'sjust not on the.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I'm just saying there's different levels to this
.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But everyone knows who Levi's is, but your main
ones are like people would wearan apple shirt, because they're
apples, nuts.
Obviously Nike, obviouslyJordan I know they're under the
same kind of umbrella Adidas,adidas, kind of.
You know, I think you've gotlike Louis Vuitton and you, you
can say some of their name markis for sure yeah, you can say
(22:13):
some of the uh like uh, you knowthe.
What am I trying to the highfashion brands?
you know the louis vuitton's,the chanels, the diors, the yeah
, because people just want to beseen as yes even though it's on
an accessory, not necessarily ashirt yes, kind of mixing up
like apparel though, becausemcdonald's is for sure one
(22:33):
burger.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Burger King yes, their logo isn't as important,
but like Wendy's Cracker Barrelyeah, you do have logos that
have permeated into thesubconscious is what I'm trying
to say.
Yes, cracker Barrel, I don'tknow why it was.
(22:55):
It's one of those.
I think most people would knowwhat the logo is.
I think I've been there once inmy entire life Literally I have
a faint memory of going thereas a kid one time.
But I know what Cracker Barrelis.
I know what the logo is, right.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I don't know why.
The point that I'm trying tomake is there's so much
competition right now withwithin every product category
restaurants to clothing, towhatever that it's hard to make
mistakes because cracker barrelstyle restaurants from a food
(23:31):
quality are a dime a dozen, froman experience probably not as
much.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, food quality you can get it anywhere,
probably.
Well, that's really all youhave to differentiate unless you
want to move your price pointsup.
Yeah, Is based off of you know,obviously your production and
everything as a restaurant isthe experience, and Cracker
Barrel clearly had some kind ofunique positioning.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
So it's hard when you alienate an audience like that,
because now all of a suddenyou're like brands just do not
have.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Now everyone's just going to a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
We don't have the luxury of offending, alienating
or disappointing our currentaudience.
Jaguar is experiencing thisright now.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Right, I think Cracker Barrel is going to
experience this.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
There's just so much competition that I think, unless
yeah, I think they can get awaywith a logo, but if they keep
the interior design andexperience going, then that's
going to really hurt.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
I think by changing the interior they're changing
the whole experience you get attheir restaurant, which loses
everything they are.
And I was looking up UncleHerschel and he is the founder's
actual uncle and he would helppromote Cracker Barrel by like
walking through the streets andtelling people to come.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Oh so Uncle.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Hersch is real.
Uncle Herschel has a spot inthe lore.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
They took his breakfast off the menu.
People were pissed about it andthey put it back on.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Okay, they took it off.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah.
Recently and then put it backon as part of the rebrand and
people were so mad about it.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Oh yeah, See, they're just kind of butchering the
entire unique selling pointsthat they had as a company.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
I think this is a good point, right Like I'm glad
I like where we're going at withthis, because it's like a logo
loan causes some controversy.
Changing a menu like thatstarts to dive into the
experience Changing the physicallocation.
They're not the physicallocation, but the physical
experience.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
You know You're not in grandma's house anymore.
You're in, like Ikea CrackerBarrel Museum.
Yeah, interesting, very, veryexperience.
You know, not in grandma'shouse anymore you're in like
ikea cracker barrel museum.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, interesting, very, very interesting sanitized
, I know red lobster has kind ofgone through something similar
to this.
Um, like when they got rid oftheir was all you can eat what
was it?
Shrimp or a lot it was.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I don't think it was all you can eat lobster yeah,
but they were losing tons ofmoney on that is true, that is
true, but I don't know ifthey'll recover.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I never went to Red Lobster so I don't know my
sister loved it Really, yeah, sowe would go there a couple
times a year.
They do have awesome cheeserolls Do they.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, I just hate lobster and I know they had like
crab and stuff, but I'm not abig seafood guy.
This rebrand, don't lose sightof your customers and what makes
you unique in their life.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, we talked about this on our last episode
actually.
Yeah, Didn't we?
Retention, aka customersreturning to you, especially the
e-commerce space, is like lowerthan it's ever been for a lot
of brands.
Every brand we look at seems tobe down at some capacity
compared to when they firststarted not every, but yeah but
(26:50):
a lot of them, yeah, yeah.
And the question is why?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
right?
Well, a lot of it is just, youknow, we've already talked about
it in the last episode, butit's continuing to build that
trust, but also like, likedelighting, I think.
I think brands overthink things.
It's always easy just to likezoom out and then like go to a
personal relationship.
Like you can pleasantlysurprise your loved one with a
(27:17):
haircut, for example.
It might be surprising, theymight be in a little bit of
shock, but they'll be happy withit, right?
Okay, I say that personallybecause, like, I tend to let my
hair get kind of out of controlokay and sometimes it's fun with
this as a brand.
You can get haircuts.
You can't like just change theway.
But if I showed up and was justlike talking completely
(27:38):
different and just I'm liketalking like a gen z kid, yeah,
I think my wife would be likewhat is going on?
Like this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
This is a new person.
Yeah, like you're trying to bewife would be like what is going
on, like this is crazy.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
This is a new person yeah, like you're trying to be
something totally different,like what are you?
But you can change your style alittle bit, you can change your
haircut, you can do things.
So like we're not saying youcan't ever change your logo yeah
although there are just logos,they're so like logos just get
worse over time.
I don't know what's going on inthe logo game.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
But the minimalist thing, I hate it.
I do too, but anyways.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I would love for them to just like double down even
deeper.
So instead of like cleaning itup like, how do you go even
deeper into, like grandma'shouse, you know?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
You just have to bring in some sofas.
Yeah, mismatched chairs aroundthe tables.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You're playing only a certain style of music, you
know mismatched chairs aroundtables would be hilarious.
That would be like differentheight of chairs.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
There's like a stool.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Like somebody has to get the stool.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, yeah, A hundred percent.
Your, your, your tableclothsare like that, like binoly
plastic you know style?
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah, see, that's what they should have asked us.
Cracker Barrel, that would havebeen viral.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Higher, like your servers are like 70 and above.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Can we do a quick pivot really fast and just talk
about?
Apparently a Utah brand wasgoing viral for the bed rot
challenge?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
no, let's talk about this next week.
We can create like a littleyeah, we'll talk about it next
week.
That's not a bad idea let's dosome research.
Let's see what happened.
I know a lot about it.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Let's dust off the old particle, do a little
spising yeah see how it did forhim.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, I like it, uh, so okay.
So final notes just uh, we'llsee what happens.
The cracker barrel it's okay tochange.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Be careful.
Okay, to evolve, don't, butdon't change what makes you
unique for those people.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yes, and be unique and others.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
And be unique.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, like the change should be in defining and
doubling down on your uniqueness, not your blending in, because
that's all that this seems liketo me.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
They're just trying to blend in more, and with all
these boomers not even wantingto be a grandma, you could have
been grandma's house.
Come on, yeah, cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Back to this right the servers.
It's like it should say, liketheir name tag.
You know how to get a name tag.
It's like Trevor.
It's like.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
They should hire like super, super chatty old people
just like talk about their livesit's like grandma Kathy, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Like it's not Kathy, it's grandma Kathy they only
hire 55 and older that's what Imean.
No, it's gotta be like 65 andolder, you know that would be a
cool like that would be awesomethat would be awesome, that
would blow up.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
And if their workers are like younger, they can be
like oh, I'm like here helpingmy grandma like make dinner.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Those are the bus boys.
Only the bus boys can be, canbe like young and they have to
like refer to a grandma.
What can I help you with?
That would be awesome.
That'd be incredible.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Somebody from cracker barrel, please listen to this.
We'd be incredible.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Somebody from Cracker Barrel, please listen to this.
We'd be awesome on yourmarketing team, wouldn't we?
All right, okay.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Okay, until next week .
Speaker 1 (31:13):
We'll see you guys later.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Unstoppable Marketer
Podcast.
Please go rate and subscribethe podcast, whether it's good
or bad.
We want to hear from youbecause we always want to make
this podcast better.
If you want to get in touchwith me or give me any direct
feedback, please go follow meand get in touch with me.
I am at the Trevor Crump onboth Instagram and TikTok.
(31:36):
Thank you, and we will see younext week.
Yo, what's going on everybody?
Welcome to the UnstoppableMarketer podcast.
With me, as always, is MarkGoldheart.
Mark, how are you Doing?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
just fine.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah, yeah, how are you?
I'm good.
Another Tuesday morning, Iwould say.
The clouds have rolled in, therain has begun.
The fall colors have alreadystarted changing here in Utah.
Have you noticed this?
I haven't noticed that at allIf you drive over Suncrest right
(00:32):
now, you'll see that the leavesare changing a little bit.
We had a dry summer, and thatusually happens.
When you have a drier summer,the leaves change a little
quicker, do they, which is alittle unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I have no idea, but I do know it is fall fishing,
which is great, nice.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Why is that any different?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
um, the fish get a little more colorful oh, they
change with the leaves.
Yeah, interesting I think ithas more to do with spawning and
stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
But oh yeah, you've got like the uh like the
coconuts have gone.
Yeah, the coconuts are starting, not yet.
Oh.
They're red, oh, but but whendo they start?
Uh, spawning?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
oh, I don't know when the whole.
I think it's like mid-september.
I don't know when the whole.
I think it's like mid-September.
I don't know when the rushhappens, but it's in the fall At
.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Strawberry right.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, but they're all turning colors.
They're turning nice and brightand then it's easier to fish at
night in the fall, because it'sdarker, faster.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I like to fish near dusk.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I have a random question for you.
That's just something wehaven't talked about or I've
ever asked on this podcastbefore.
Yeah, you are somebody wholikes to investigate and read up
on peculiar things.
Is that fair?
It's probably fair, fromconspiracy theories to real
(02:07):
things to political Things thatare just interesting to me.
Right now.
What is the most interestinglyweird thing you are reading or
thinking about?
Interestingly weird thing, justthe thing that people would just
be like what the oh man, if youcould say one thing like what's
(02:29):
one thing on your mind thatyou're just like, this is
interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, I read Annie Jacobson's book Area 51.
Okay, book area 51, okay.
And what's interesting in thatbook is how she talks about it's
not aliens, it's really justmore of their secret weapon
development and air.
You know aerospace developmentthat they did there, but also
(02:58):
all the nuclear testing, andmost people don't know this.
But we brought over a bunch ofNazi scientists to develop our
nuclear program or help with ournuclear program.
Okay, and one of thosescientists who was like the head
of NASA at one point and thenyou know whatever, but one of
them, basically they didn't wantto go out to the South Pacific
(03:20):
to drop bombs anymore, so theystarted dropping bombs in Nevada
without telling anybody.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Which is where Area 51 is.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Which is where Area 51 is.
Now they weren't doing it onArea 51.
They do it up in thesemountains, but what's weird
about that is you would thinkthat the fallout from that is in
the air.
But one thing that they did notaccount for is all the
earthworms that becameradioactive and all the bugs,
and then birds were eating themand then dropping them off into
(03:51):
fields in Utah, and so theradioactive waste actually went
further, and if you go to wheremy wife grew up, they have an
incredibly high cancer rateInteresting, and she lives on
the west side of Utah insouthern Utah, near the Nevada
(04:12):
border.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Where they were dropping bombs.
And then on the other side ofUtah, which is like the Four
Corners area, my uncle had ahouse that had radioactive
bricks Interesting.
So there's some conspiraciescoming out about, like our
certain, like Chupacabrasightings or something like that
(04:36):
, just like mutated monstersfrom all the radioactive waste
Hills have eyes down there.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
That's what that show is based off of right, that
kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I can't remember if it's radioactive or if it's just
like inbreeding in that show isit more?
No, no, it's radioactive it'snot like Appalachia inbreeding.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I don't think so.
That's a messed up show.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Hey, I love Appalachia, though I'm not
saying anything, that's just thehorror stereotype of it.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I live near the Appalachian Trail.
That's cool.
Apparently it's haunted.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Oh yeah, Big time.
People say you hear things?
Yeah it's pretty freaky, whichI'd love to go check it out.
I got.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I like haunted stuff.
There's so much poison ivy andpoison oak everywhere in those
mountains.
It's like on all the trails,like if you go off that trail.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So if you forget some toilet paper, you're in.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
If you go off that trail like at all you are dead.
I got so much poison ivy ReallyRashes there and the first time
I'd never had it before and soI just like it was like on my
arm and I had no idea what wasgoing on.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I thought I had like leprosy yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And it like oozes it oozes oh really, and whatever in
the.
That's disgusting.
Not the venom, the poison orwhatever.
The oils, yes, it spreadsbecause it's oil.
So they say not to issue,because if I, if I were to do
this and then like do?
This and then it spreads yourchest.
It spreads because it's the oilfrom the leaves.
(06:11):
Oh and so I had it likeeverywhere for days before I
decided to go see a doctor see,doesn't it just make sense that
people wore long sleeveeverything?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
oh yeah, for sure, because people were doing stuff
like that all the time, likethat was like a normal day.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Well, yeah, they had to create their own trails
Bushwhack yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, so crazy man men used to cross oceans on
wooden ships.
Isn't that nuts?
Speaker 1 (06:37):
All right, what are we talking about today?
We got another marketingblunder.
We're talking about todayBlunders.
Okay, so the biggest, thebigger.
The big blunder of the week ormaybe we'll just call it topic
of the week the biggest bummerblunder is, uh, the cracker
barrel rebrand cracker barrel,say it 10 times fast cracker,
barrel, cracker, barrel, cracker, barrel, cracker, barrel
(06:58):
cracker sounds like a parrot, um, I mean, so what Cracker Barrel
did was they, and we couldprobably we'll put this up, but
they rebranded, they did Right.
They went from, you know,having the old man and the
barrel, and then they went alittle bit more minimal, and so
(07:19):
what's happening right now isthere's a massive outrage on
TikTok and people are justlosing their minds and, as of
four days ago, their stockdropped 10.
It's a pretty big drop, whichis huge.
Yeah, I can't remember whatthat equates to.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I'm really curious what their uh stores are doing.
Yeah, is it a franchise?
Is it?
That's a good question?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I don't know if it it a franchise.
Is it?
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I don't know if it's a franchise or how that
McDonald's model, or is it all?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, I don't know.
Those are things that we couldprobably look up.
But people are not happy yeahpeople are not happy, In fact,
like it's gotten so muchattention that Trump we got to
read Trump's message on it.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
All the locations are company owned.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Oh, interesting.
Okay, so they're not afranchise Mad.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Dog Maddox in the house.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, maddox is hot on the mic here, so this is what
Trump says.
Cracker Barrel should go backto the old logo, admit a mistake
based on customer response inparentheses, he says the
ultimate pull.
And a mistake based on customerresponse in parentheses he says
the ultimate pull and managethe company better than ever.
They got a billion dollarsworth of free publicity,
(08:32):
referring to the fact thateveryone's talking about Cracker
Barrel for the first time inever.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, who knows how long has anyone ever talked
about it?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Well, on social media , has anyone ever talked about
Cracker Barrel?
Right, yeah.
So for those of you who don'tknow what Cracker Barrel is, by
the way, it's like a home-cookedmeal kind of restaurant.
You know we're talking likechicken fried steak pot roast
comfort food, yes, yeah, and Iwould say maybe like on the
slightly higher end.
(09:00):
I have like a faint memory ofgoing there once as a child.
We're not talking about likelike.
I think we were talking aboutlike, referring them to uh.
What was the buffet company?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
again chukarama.
You know higher end thanchukarama.
It's a restaurant.
Yes, it's a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You sit down right, yeah family style much more
prevalent in the south and onthe east than it is kind of on
the west coast.
Okay, you know, maybe midwest Idon't know much as much about
the midwest, but I used to livedown south and I used to live on
the east coast and they wereall over okay.
But uh, yeah, they got abillion dollars worth of free
(09:35):
publicity if they play theircards right.
Very tricky to do, but a greatopportunity.
Have major new, have a majornews conference today, make
crackerrel a winner again.
But essentially, the main thingthat people are really upset
about is there's like an old manand his name's Uncle, herschel,
and they got rid of him.
His name is Herschel.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Uncle Herschel, I didn't know it.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I didn't know.
He had a name.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Makes it a little more tragic now that he has a
name.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, that he's got like an avatar, like there's a
persona around him so so what isthe deal here?
Like um, we talk about this allthe time, but I'll tell you
what the deal is please.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
This is the deal.
We always talk about brands andwhat a brand is, and this is a
great example of what a brandactually a brand is just trust
yeah, a brand isn't a logo it'sthe trust that you've built.
Yeah, and by doing a rebrand youcan often fracture the trust.
(10:37):
Now there's a big differencebetween, like, if you're a brand
that nobody knows about andyou're like, you can always
rebrand young and it doesn'treally matter as much.
And it depends on your producttoo.
Like no one really cared thatslack changed their logo.
Sure, like people thought itwas kind of dumb.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
But totally just like oh, it looks kind of like
google now, but whatever.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, but cracker barrel, that's people are
sitting down, they're eating.
You probably have some prettylike weekly goers.
I don't know.
You know like restaurants aredifferent.
It's been around for a longtime so obviously people like it
.
Yeah, it's been around sincethe late 60s.
So they, they changed theirvibe.
I know that they changed someof their stores too.
Yeah, I think maddox was sayingthat they're doing some some
(11:16):
interior well, here's, here'sthe, so there's, there's design.
There's two different points.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
We're kind of making here one.
Well, let's talk about this one.
What you said is a brand isn'tnecessarily the logo, it's the
trust that you build so, but arobot logo represents that for
sure.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
So, especially if you've had the same logo for 70
years, I don't know how longhave they been around, maddox?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
1969 1969 yeah, I just looked that up.
That's why I know that, okay,not a huge cracker, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Okay, so they've been around for 55 years, 56 years
yeah, 55 years or 2025.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
It's a long time.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
So what will be really interesting is does
Cracker Barrel?
Because they've doubled down onit, right?
They're like like, hey, this iswho we are, this is what we're
doing.
Um, the big question is havethey built enough trust over the
last 55 years that, at the endof the day, people aren't really
going to do much about it?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
like you know, yeah, I don't know that's.
That's the question like it.
It clearly has made peopleangry.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I don't know if those people are going to stop going
to cracker barrel yeah, I mean Iwas even watching a news
article or like watching that,like somebody being interviewed
on the news and the guy evensaid I am upset about it all.
Who he said I'll hoot andholler about it, but I probably
go back like those were hiswords.
You know so, but but here's thedeal.
So, like whether it's going tohurt it enough that it alienates
(12:43):
their current audience, which,to be fair, cracker Barrel is on
the elder, like I think yourdemographic is older on that one
, yeah, I have no idea.
To my anecdotal knowledge, itis.
(13:11):
So the question is does italienate your current audience
where they say I'm not goingback or I don't care as much
about this place, or is thenegative ramification that the
people who still love it trustit continue to go back?
But now they just created alogo that blends in with
anything else, that it doesn'tstand out from anything else.
(13:31):
Moving forward to get newpeople, those are kind of two
different negatives.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, you're, you're aging out and you got to get new
people in.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So that's a risk they're they're willing to take.
But again, it's the trustyou've built.
So is there a better way theycould have rebranded?
Sometimes people think you gotto rebrand all at once and have
like a big show and hey, it hascreated a ton of publicity, yep,
so maybe it has worked for themright, like we talked about
(14:06):
with, sydney, sweeney and uh,american eagle.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yes, I'm sure cracker barrel is up in the google
trends.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, I don't know if their store visits are up, I
don't know if their sales are up, but a lot of the new audience.
This is what's tricky aboutrebrands they might be targeting
millennials, because Gen Z kindof likes the noisy stuff and
like the retro stuff.
So it's millennials who are,all you know, white houses and
(14:34):
minimalistic minimalistic iswhat you mean by that.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, yeah, but you know what I?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
mean by that.
Yeah, yeah, but you know what Imean.
A millennial house is thewhitewashed house that's open
White cabinets light coloredfloors when there's a big
movement now in housing, whereit's going back to greens or
different colored rooms.
And a lot more pictures on thewalls, or more cozy is what I'd
(14:58):
say.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yes, this episode of the Unstoppable Marketer is
brought to you by BFF Creative.
Let's be real hiring designersand video editors can get super
expensive, and that's why I'mexcited about what BFF Creative
has done.
They've built a subscriptiondesign service that gives you
the feel of an in-house creativeteam, but at a fraction of the
cost, which I'm sure we allcould use right now From ad
(15:18):
creatives to social media posts,video edits to full website
designs.
Bff gives you unlimited designsand unlimited requests,
starting at just $1,000 a month.
The best part about this theircustom app makes it super easy
to submit projects, givefeedback, review, work and store
all of your creative in oneplace.
As a listener of the podcast,you get 25% off your first two
(15:39):
months with code unstoppable 25.
That means unlimited creativefor as little as $750 a month.
Go check them out right now atbffcreativeco.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So there's probably a targeted approach here.
But like obviously CrackerBarrel didn't just do this
without any kind of marketresearch, I'm sure they did.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, but they did do the generally.
The no-no to a rebrand is likenot doing it in a phase like you
talked about, like just doingit all at once.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah they did it all at once and maybe they didn't
think it would be that big of achange.
They're just getting rid of oldUncle Herschel.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
But anyways, they're probably trying, but lo and
behold, they're definitelygetting kicked now and it might
be for the better.
Yeah, so brands, just always beaware of that.
Like, yes, you might offendsome people, but then you also
have to remember brands likePepsi.
And what was it Aunt Jemima's?
(16:37):
Was it syrup or something?
And remember, they rebrandedand everyone.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
They took her out of it.
I feel like I remember this,but I don't remember the details
.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
There's been a few of these that people have had
outrages about.
One was the Butter brand.
They removed a Native American.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Okay, the Land O'Lakes Land.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
O'Lakes, one about like one was the uh butter brand
they removed, like a nativeamerican.
Okay, the land of lakes, oneand so, but these types of
products are just part ofpeople's habits and like habits
die hard and, like some peoplemight like, I don't think it
really affects them that muchhere's my thought, because
they're not changing everythingabout the product, it's just.
They change a slight variationof it, they make it more minimal
(17:22):
.
Well, I'll tell you where I'd bemore worried which probably
saves on printing costs whenyou're printing millions of
items.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, maybe I mean where I would start to worry
more about is what they do tothe design of the stores,
because I know that that's a biglike a big.
People want that, thatexperience is like it's.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Have you ever been to one?
Have you ever been to a crackerbarrel before?
If I remember right, it's likeit was like very.
It's like wooden yeah, you shipplanks.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
The redesign is the opposite of that.
It's like white and likemillennial.
See this.
See, that's the problem.
White, millennial.
See to, that's the problemWhite millennial.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
See, to me that's the problem, Because the Cracker
Barrel experience feels likeyou're at grandma's house.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Millennials love everything white.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You know how grandma's house is just always
cluttered Like I know this forgrandma Peggy.
We haven't shouted grandmaPeggy out for a while Like she's
moving.
She's got stuff on the wallsand she's got like she's texting
, like she's texting us, likethere's this text saying, hey,
who wants this?
And it's like a 1950 milk jugand I've never seen that before.
I've been to her house dozensof times.
(18:25):
Where's that been?
That's just been in herbasement, but she's just kept it
probably for the last 70 years.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
But a Cracker Barrel would have an old milk jug in
the corner.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, you feel like you're at grandma's house.
You know, an old milk jug inthe corner.
Yeah, you feel like you're atgrandma's house.
You know, in fact there was abig trend that was going on with
Cracker Barrel.
That was so funny.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Oh, but see, there is a trend with grandmas man,
these new grandmas don't evenlike to be called grandma.
Have you heard about that.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I think it's the boomer grandmas are like
we're memos and moomoos and allthis other stuff, papas, and
yeah, stop it.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Stop it.
That's a hot take.
It's ridiculous.
That's a really hot take.
You guys are grandmas andgrandpas, okay, yeah, there's my
hot take.
Stop with this nonsense.
If you're Italian or Spanishand you want to go by that
language's word for grandma, dothat.
That's fine.
Yeah, don't be making stuff up.
(19:18):
It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I would agree with you, but there are so many
people like I've gotten so manyheated arguments about that one.
People get like really upsetwhen you defy that.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Such a boomer thing, stop it.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Well, it's a millennial thing.
I don't think it's a boomerthing as much as I think it's
millennials too.
I think millennials want it aswell.
Millennials want it too.
Yeah, like they want to push,let's call you that's stupid GG
or whatever.
But there was a big trend atCracker Barrel where, because of
how cluttered it was, peoplewould take pictures of
(19:52):
themselves and put it in awooden frame and they just go
set it on a shelf.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I've seen that and that would not be possible with
their new design anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It's way funny.
And they'll just see how longit'll last and they'll come back
like six months later and it'sstill there.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
That was like a social thing, like a trend, yeah
, oh, and they just got rid ofit, so they just killed the
trend.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So that makes me a lot more worried than the logo
side of things.
You know, like I am a big, I'ma like you and me are big
believers that the logo is likemost brands don't really create
a love mark the way Jordan did,the way Nike did, Right Love
marks are the way Apple did,Like, like most people don't
(20:38):
create logos.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
When I I look at a love mark, you gotta zoom.
You gotta zoom out a little bit, though, like when you're
talking about love marks you'retalking about brands that have
entered into the everydayecosystem, like they are part of
american life in of itself yeah, what I was going to say, which
aligns with what you're saying,is I want to represent that
(21:00):
when I walk out.
Most brands are not even closeto that.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I mean, can you think of?
Can you think of any brandsbesides?
There's a few like there'sLevi's, there's vans.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
No, but no, no like.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Levi's not, is not one.
Nobody cares to wear the brand.
I know you get it.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
There are.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
It's not on the level of a Jordan or Nike.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I would totally disagree that Levi's is a love
mark.
I don't think it is at all.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Oh it is, I think it is.
I do not think so.
See, it is.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
It is All right, he's with me.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
If he doesn't know, he's with me Levi's is Wranglers
is once you get out into thetrue working class.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
It's a niched one.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I have a Levi's t-shirt.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Listen, I get it.
People buy, obviously, it'sjust not on the.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I'm just saying there's different levels to this
.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But everyone knows who Levi's is, but your main
ones are like people would wearan apple shirt, because they're
apples, nuts.
Obviously Nike, obviouslyJordan I know they're under the
same kind of umbrella Adidas,adidas, kind of.
You know, I think you've gotlike Louis Vuitton and you, you
can say some of their name markis for sure yeah, you can say
(22:13):
some of the uh like uh, you knowthe.
What am I trying to the highfashion brands?
you know the louis vuitton's,the chanels, the diors, the yeah
, because people just want to beseen as yes even though it's on
an accessory, not necessarily ashirt yes, kind of mixing up
like apparel though, becausemcdonald's is for sure one
(22:33):
burger.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Burger King yes, their logo isn't as important,
but like Wendy's Cracker Barrelyeah, you do have logos that
have permeated into thesubconscious is what I'm trying
to say.
Yes, cracker Barrel, I don'tknow why it was.
(22:55):
It's one of those.
I think most people would knowwhat the logo is.
I think I've been there once inmy entire life Literally I have
a faint memory of going thereas a kid one time.
But I know what Cracker Barrelis.
I know what the logo is, right.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I don't know why.
The point that I'm trying tomake is there's so much
competition right now withwithin every product category
restaurants to clothing, towhatever that it's hard to make
mistakes because cracker barrelstyle restaurants from a food
(23:31):
quality are a dime a dozen, froman experience probably not as
much.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, food quality you can get it anywhere,
probably.
Well, that's really all youhave to differentiate unless you
want to move your price pointsup.
Yeah, Is based off of you know,obviously your production and
everything as a restaurant isthe experience, and Cracker
Barrel clearly had some kind ofunique positioning.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
So it's hard when you alienate an audience like that,
because now all of a suddenyou're like brands just do not
have.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Now everyone's just going to a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
We don't have the luxury of offending, alienating
or disappointing our currentaudience.
Jaguar is experiencing thisright now.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Right, I think Cracker Barrel is going to
experience this.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
There's just so much competition that I think, unless
yeah, I think they can get awaywith a logo, but if they keep
the interior design andexperience going, then that's
going to really hurt.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
I think by changing the interior they're changing
the whole experience you get attheir restaurant, which loses
everything they are.
And I was looking up UncleHerschel and he is the founder's
actual uncle and he would helppromote Cracker Barrel by like
walking through the streets andtelling people to come.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Oh so Uncle.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Hersch is real.
Uncle Herschel has a spot inthe lore.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
They took his breakfast off the menu.
People were pissed about it andthey put it back on.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Okay, they took it off.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah.
Recently and then put it backon as part of the rebrand and
people were so mad about it.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Oh yeah, See, they're just kind of butchering the
entire unique selling pointsthat they had as a company.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
I think this is a good point, right Like I'm glad
I like where we're going at withthis, because it's like a logo
loan causes some controversy.
Changing a menu like thatstarts to dive into the
experience Changing the physicallocation.
They're not the physicallocation, but the physical
experience.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
You know You're not in grandma's house anymore.
You're in, like Ikea CrackerBarrel Museum.
Yeah, interesting, very, veryexperience.
You know, not in grandma'shouse anymore you're in like
ikea cracker barrel museum.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, interesting, very, very interesting sanitized
, I know red lobster has kind ofgone through something similar
to this.
Um, like when they got rid oftheir was all you can eat what
was it?
Shrimp or a lot it was.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
I don't think it was all you can eat lobster yeah,
but they were losing tons ofmoney on that is true, that is
true, but I don't know ifthey'll recover.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I never went to Red Lobster so I don't know my
sister loved it Really, yeah, sowe would go there a couple
times a year.
They do have awesome cheeserolls Do they.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, I just hate lobster and I know they had like
crab and stuff, but I'm not abig seafood guy.
This rebrand, don't lose sightof your customers and what makes
you unique in their life.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, we talked about this on our last episode
actually.
Yeah, Didn't we?
Retention, aka customersreturning to you, especially the
e-commerce space, is like lowerthan it's ever been for a lot
of brands.
Every brand we look at seems tobe down at some capacity
compared to when they firststarted not every, but yeah but
(26:50):
a lot of them, yeah, yeah.
And the question is why?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
right?
Well, a lot of it is just, youknow, we've already talked about
it in the last episode, butit's continuing to build that
trust, but also like, likedelighting, I think.
I think brands overthink things.
It's always easy just to likezoom out and then like go to a
personal relationship.
Like you can pleasantlysurprise your loved one with a
(27:17):
haircut, for example.
It might be surprising, theymight be in a little bit of
shock, but they'll be happy withit, right?
Okay, I say that personallybecause, like, I tend to let my
hair get kind of out of controlokay and sometimes it's fun with
this as a brand.
You can get haircuts.
You can't like just change theway.
But if I showed up and was justlike talking completely
(27:38):
different and just I'm liketalking like a gen z kid, yeah,
I think my wife would be likewhat is going on?
Like this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
This is a new person.
Yeah, like you're trying to bewife would be like what is going
on, like this is crazy.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
This is a new person yeah, like you're trying to be
something totally different,like what are you?
But you can change your style alittle bit, you can change your
haircut, you can do things.
So like we're not saying youcan't ever change your logo yeah
although there are just logos,they're so like logos just get
worse over time.
I don't know what's going on inthe logo game.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
But the minimalist thing, I hate it.
I do too, but anyways.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I would love for them to just like double down even
deeper.
So instead of like cleaning itup like, how do you go even
deeper into, like grandma'shouse, you know?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
You just have to bring in some sofas.
Yeah, mismatched chairs aroundthe tables.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You're playing only a certain style of music, you
know mismatched chairs aroundtables would be hilarious.
That would be like differentheight of chairs.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
There's like a stool.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Like somebody has to get the stool.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, yeah, A hundred percent.
Your, your, your tableclothsare like that, like binoly
plastic you know style?
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah, see, that's what they should have asked us.
Cracker Barrel, that would havebeen viral.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Higher, like your servers are like 70 and above.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Can we do a quick pivot really fast and just talk
about?
Apparently a Utah brand wasgoing viral for the bed rot
challenge?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
no, let's talk about this next week.
We can create like a littleyeah, we'll talk about it next
week.
That's not a bad idea let's dosome research.
Let's see what happened.
I know a lot about it.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Let's dust off the old particle, do a little
spising yeah see how it did forhim.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, I like it, uh, so okay.
So final notes just uh, we'llsee what happens.
The cracker barrel it's okay tochange.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Be careful.
Okay, to evolve, don't, butdon't change what makes you
unique for those people.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yes, and be unique and others.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
And be unique.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, like the change should be in defining and
doubling down on your uniqueness, not your blending in, because
that's all that this seems liketo me.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
They're just trying to blend in more, and with all
these boomers not even wantingto be a grandma, you could have
been grandma's house.
Come on, yeah, cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Back to this right the servers.
It's like it should say, liketheir name tag.
You know how to get a name tag.
It's like Trevor.
It's like.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
They should hire like super, super chatty old people
just like talk about their livesit's like grandma Kathy, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Like it's not Kathy, it's grandma Kathy they only
hire 55 and older that's what Imean.
No, it's gotta be like 65 andolder, you know that would be a
cool like that would be awesomethat would be awesome, that
would blow up.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
And if their workers are like younger, they can be
like oh, I'm like here helpingmy grandma like make dinner.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Those are the bus boys.
Only the bus boys can be, canbe like young and they have to
like refer to a grandma.
What can I help you with?
That would be awesome.
That'd be incredible.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Somebody from cracker barrel, please listen to this.
We'd be incredible.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Somebody from Cracker Barrel, please listen to this.
We'd be awesome on yourmarketing team, wouldn't we?
All right, okay.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Okay, until next week .
Speaker 1 (31:13):
We'll see you guys later.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Unstoppable Marketer
Podcast.
Please go rate and subscribethe podcast, whether it's good
or bad.
We want to hear from youbecause we always want to make
this podcast better.
If you want to get in touchwith me or give me any direct
feedback, please go follow meand get in touch with me.
I am at the Trevor Crump onboth Instagram and TikTok.
(31:36):
Thank you, and we will see younext week.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com