The Crack In Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel’s brief logo change sparked major backlash, highlighting the risks of abandoning loyal customers and legacy branding in pursuit of relevance. America's favourite spot for Sunday breakfast and brunch, the amazing Cracker Barrel, recently “changed” its logo. Now this could have been for one of three things,

• Their attempt to bring conversion and awareness, aka, popularity, back to their brand,

• The first step in rolling out more changes to “make them more relevant and with the changing/growing generation or younger millennials and older Gen Zs

• A genuine mistake in an attempt to be relevant to everyone once again.

Either way, they're being talked about now, which should make CEO Julie Felss Masino happy, seeing as she mentioned last year that the company is “not as relevant as we once were.” This came following her announcement to update the restaurant's menu.

For a few years now, the popularity of Cracker Barrel has, in fact, seen a bit of a decline, but that's the only decline the company has seen. In the last 15 years, the southern restaurant chain has consistently not only had fantastic sales, but has also had steady growth, its only low point being in 202 during the Global Pandemic. So why upset something that has been working so well when there was no need for a change? Why upset your customers right when you're on track to make record sales once more?

The company rolled out their new logo on August 19th, 2025 and retracted it exactly a week later. This all came from the immediate backlash they faced from their customers. The first step in building a brand is knowing your demographic and sticking to what works for them. Yes, you're building your company; however, it's to service a certain demo. Because of the changes, the company began to look like they didn't care about their existing demo anymore, or care about the people who have helped to build their company into what it is today.

Sticking to what's been making you billions will always be the key to creating a legacy brand, and this seems to be a factor that Cracker Barrel forgot about. Thankfully, though, it didn't take them long to figure this out and reverse the damages done. Listening to your customers is always key; the customers are always right after all, and boy, were they right with this one.

It's seldom in this day and age that we see great logos, recognizable AND thoroughly, beautifully designed logos. 

Everyone has been on a minimalist kick, and this doesn't stop at new, upcoming brands; legacy brands are joining this trend more and more. Take, for instance, the luxury car company, Jaguar. Their already sleek, recognizable and iconic logo was swapped out for something that resembled a class project from a first-year graphic design student whose prof was Chat GPT. Cracker Barrel, for some reason, saw the backlash of that company and thought to follow the army of minimalists anyway and ended up suffering a drop of 7.2% equating to about $94 million according to CBS News.

Some have stated that the reaction to the new logo was “overdoing it”, but if you take into account the promised changes of the past years as well as the psychology behind the this all, you will see that the perception is that the consumers will immediately associate bad changes (new logos, new menu, new looks, etc) as a decline in quality you’ll see this is no overaction. This most definitely reflected the company's stock.

Change from a brand as beloved as this one will never be taken lightly. So, to Cracker Barrel, should you think about even changing those rocking chairs, removing the peg game or upsetting the sweet tea ratio? Think long and hard, because your stock may not recover quite as well next time.

Jaguar's backlash didn't seem sufficient to scare legacy brands; however, maybe, just maybe, Cracker Barrel's found press will serve as a more prominent lesson to others considering a “brand refresh” where one isn't needed. At a minimum, make it less abrupt, take a page out from legacy brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks or even Ford Motor Vehicles. 

Should Cracker Barrel attempt another redesign, whether it's in the near future or in a few years, I implore you to do some exploring on TikTok. I promise you there are some talented and thoughtful designers and Cracker Barrel enthusiasts who have actual good redesigns just sitting and ready. Work with people who have a good insight, or at least do a focus group! You could go as far as to create a burner account and “pretend” to redesign things and then see the general public's reaction to these changes. It is too easy nowadays to get ahead of the PR crisis for these kinds of mistakes to happen.

If you must change, change with your fans, not away from them. Legacy isn’t a logo; it’s trust, guard it accordingly.