Is it okay to speak about Cracker Barrel once more? Nicely, right here goes. No matter you consider the American restaurant chain’s spectacular volte-face earlier this yr, it received me considering…
And one factor stood out greater than something: the $100M to $200M wiped off the corporate’s inventory instantly after the brand new model was revealed. This wasn’t only a PR catastrophe—it was a uncommon, brutal perception into the tangible worth of “model”.
Sure, technically, it was a failure on a number of fronts. However this one was a masterclass.
On the subject of promoting what we do, it may be difficult. After all, there is a emblem and a color palette (there’s much more to it than that, by the best way)—however once we speak about a model’s long-term worth, cultural resonance and, certainly, fairness, very often we’re requested “However what’s it truly gonna be price?”. We will reference sentiment metrics and consciousness scores, however typically, it is extremely tough to qualify as a result of model worth would not match neatly right into a spreadsheet.
Till it does.
Cracker Barrel gave us one thing most manufacturers by no means do: a managed experiment in model worth. The identical firm, identical fundamentals, completely different visible identification—immediate market response. The inventory market, that cold-blooded arbiter of worth, put a price ticket on model notion in actual time. And it was eye-watering.
The factor is, model worth is notoriously tough to quantify. It is not outlined by monetary fireworks alone, however by the energy of the place that model occupies in essentially the most coveted actual property on the planet: individuals’s minds. It is outlined by the renown. The celebrity. The emotion (within the case of Cracker Barrel, the nostalgia). It is the fairy mud that makes clients select you over a competitor even once you’re costlier. Assume Heinz. Assume Aesop. That is the place the actual worth lives.
Think about this: The Economist studies that manufacturers account for greater than 30% of inventory market worth for S&P 500 firms. The World Financial Discussion board discovered that three-fifths of CEOs consider model and popularity characterize over 40% of their market cap. McKinsey revealed that strong-reputation manufacturers generate 32% extra shareholder return than common, and 56% larger complete returns.
These aren’t self-importance metrics. That is chilly, exhausting money.
What the corporate received fallacious wasn’t modernisation—they desperately wanted it. Their internet earnings had plummeted from $99 million in 2023 to $40.9 million in 2024. The error was forgetting that Uncle Herschel wasn’t only a doddery outdated man leaning on a barrel. He was many years of gathered which means, reminiscence, and cultural shorthand. He was fairness you could not manufacture in a single day, irrespective of what number of focus teams you ran.
After they airbrushed him away, the market instantly priced in that loss. $100 million. Gone. That is your model worth, quantified.
However here is the place it will get extra complicated. That $100 million drop wasn’t nearly destroying model fairness within the conventional sense—it was about stepping right into a cultural minefield. The rebrand grew to become immediately politicised with the White Home immediately speaking with the corporate in regards to the reversal. What regarded like a easy design replace grew to become a proxy battle in America’s tradition wars.
This provides one other layer to model worth that is even tougher to measure: cultural positioning. Cracker Barrel’s total model is steeped in Southern Americana and early-1900s nostalgia, which made it significantly weak to being weaponised in political discourse. The market did not simply react to a design change; it responded to the perceived menace of a model abandoning its cultural territory in an intensely polarised second.
The irony? In attempting to flee irrelevance, they destroyed the very factor that made them related. The lesson for all of us is not “by no means change”—it is that evolution requires understanding what you are truly price. Not simply financially, however emotionally and culturally—and sure, politically, whether or not we prefer it or not.
So now that the mud has settled, I see this: Cracker Barrel gave each CMO and CFO a case examine price its weight in Southern-style biscuits. Typically it’s worthwhile to break one thing useful to grasp what it was price.
