A Branding Horror Story: What happened to Cracker Barrel?

If you’ve scrolled through Facebook or X lately, you’ve likely come across a post about Cracker Barrel. Everyone from your next-door neighbor to the president of the United States seems to have an opinion on the new Cracker Barrel logo—and the consensus isn’t good.

The visceral reaction to the new Cracker Barrel logo is one of several recent examples of public outcry over a rebrand. The City of Austin also faced criticism last month after introducing its first-ever brand, a green and blue “A” designed to reflect the “hills, rivers, and bridges that serve to connect us to one another.”

At this point, you may be asking yourself: Why care so much about a brand? After all, people don’t come to Cracker Barrel or the City of Austin for their logos—they come to experience comfort food and a rustic atmosphere, or in Austin’s case, the food, nightlife, and world-famous music scene. So, what’s the deal?

Why Brands Matter

We care about brands because brands mean something to us. They are part of our culture, and their thoughtful designs bring up feelings and memories unique to our experiences with the brand.

Take Cracker Barrel, for example. With its quirky gift shop, rocking chairs, and peg games, the beloved brand represents something to millions of American families. Individual experiences will differ, but the idea is the same: our encounters with brands in everyday life shape how we see the world.

Redesigning a brand without a clear purpose, audience, and impact can hurt that connection, causing lasting reputational damage to an organization.

Getting It Right

Over the past several weeks, the City of Austin and Cracker Barrel’s seemingly harmless brand launches have sent keyboard warriors into a frenzy. Yet, Austin is in a far better position to defend its brand design.

The City of Austin brand launch dates back nearly eight years. In 2018, the Austin City Council voted “to make developing a cohesive brand for the City a strategic priority.” The goal, according to the Council, was to help Austin residents more easily identify city officials and trust their services.

Along with having a clear objective, City officials conducted surveys and focus groups to ensure the brand design was consistent with how Austinites felt about their city and reflected the community’s values.

With Cracker Barrel, the need for a rebrand was less clear. With customer traffic down 16% since 2019, Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino made the executive decision to rebrand in an effort to appeal to new audiences, rather than exploring other potential causes of the decline.

This decision has had a disastrous effect. Sales have plunged 8%, and Cracker Barrel has been doing damage control ever since, backtracking on the new logo and offering $5, all-you-can-eat pancakes on National Pancake Day in what appears to have been an effort to win back customers.

Our Approach

When the San Antonio International Airport asked us to design a new logo for them, we opted for a collaborative, purpose-oriented approach. Over a period of several months, we conducted focus groups with airport leaders and employees from different departments, securing buy-in from stakeholders inside and outside the organization.

In addition to gathering this feedback, we designed every element of the logo with intention. For example, the “A” in SAT resembles a runaway, symbolizing taking off to new adventures. The pink and purple gradient inside SAT, meanwhile, signifies the promise and potential held by a sunrise. We also created a simple logo “narrative” that explained its meaning and was easy to remember, increasing the odds of it being shared and understood.

By keeping the audience in mind, we ensured that our design was not only aesthetically pleasing but also true to the SAT experience, respecting the feelings and memories of those who work and travel through SAT.

Final Thoughts

In their efforts to appear hip, modern, and appeal to Gen Z, many companies today are evolving their iconic brands. But as we’ve seen over the last several weeks, not all change is welcome. Sometimes, a radical brand redesign can drastically hurt a company’s reputation, and in extreme cases, encourage audiences to “cancel” a brand.

Successful rebrands have a few things in common. Whether it be to align more closely with the company’s values or help audiences better understand its services, there is a strong rationale for the rebrand. The new brand design has also gone through a careful vetting process to ensure all parties are on board. Above all, the rebrand maintains the company’s originality and authenticity. A rebrand with purpose is more likely to stand out in a good way, keeping your company’s brand reputation intact for years to come.