One of the most divisive stories recently in the world of marketing is the story about Cracker Barrel’s new rebrand. What people don’t realize is that it’s a story far deeper than they realize. A new trend that we’ve seen in the last 5-10 years is what I like to call “Marketing Minimalization”. It’s a marketing practice that I find can be good for certain aspects of a rebranding, but then there are others where it doesn’t work… and that’s where the story of Cracker Barrel comes in.
In this blog, I will explain what marketing minimalization is using the Cracker Barrel example and how it affects brands in both positive and negative ways.
What is Marketing Minimalization?
Minimalization can mean reducing something to its essential components or to the point of seeming less important than it is. It could also be a term used to describe when a brand or corporation makes changes to how they promote their products/services to appeal to people whom the brand believes wouldn’t be able to understand what they do.
As I noted in the beginning, this is something that has become much more common over the last 5-10 years, especially with the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, with how brands find new ways to promote their products. Social media has also seen a massive change amongst several different platforms like Twitter (now X), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
The public reaction to this kind of marketing trend is usually not a positive one. Aside from a negative public reaction, the brands that do this also see a loss in market value, which then leads them to either reverse course on the marketing rebrand or stay true to what they wanted to do with it originally.
Changing Your Brand’s Logo and Understanding Nostalgia
One of the many decisions that comes from this marketing minimalization trend is when brands change their logos. There’s a common misconception out there about this that I feel needs clarification. People are not opposed to logos and other various brand images being changed; they are only opposed to it when the personality and character are taken away for a far more simplistic-looking version.
Cracker Barrel and several other big-name brands have fallen into this trap. Cracker Barrel is a brand that has never done anything major with a logo change. They’ve had several iterations, but the only changes they’ve made are either changing the color or adding more brightness to the barrel to make it shine more. They had an opportunity to upgrade the logo this time around with their new marketing campaign, but they went with the more simplified approach.
They removed the barrel, the bean-looking object where the text is, and the man. For the new logo, they kept the text and text font, but instead put it inside a barrel-shaped outline.
This reminds me of when one of my favorite brands, HBO, had a moment where its logo and whole brand were also changed in the same fashion. Back in 2023, they and Warner Bros. chose to simplify their streaming service branding from HBO Max to just Max, along with a new purple color. While the service continued to be highly used for the next several years before they changed it back, some people were confused as to where the name “HBO” went, and they lost track of finding the service.
With that context and added examples in mind for what Cracker Barrel did, what are the right and wrong decisions for changing brand logos in general?
A great decision for a new logo relaunch is to find a prominent artist who can design an effective idea to elevate the personality of said logo. Lots of your favorite brands have logos that were designed by professional artists, and they understand more than anyone what needs to be done with the design if you give them some helpful pointers on what to include.
An incorrect decision for a new logo relaunch is substituting personality for simplicity. The official statement from the company and CEO Julie Felss Masino included a point that one of their main goals with this new marketing rebrand was to “appeal more to the Gen Z crowd”. That’s the right incentive to have! Most brands will want to appeal more to a group of people they think aren’t consuming their product enough, and it has to be done with a proper analysis in mind.
If you already have an established group of customers or fans that buy your products and services, then the most likely outcome of where a new generation will find their way to you is through organic word of mouth/social media marketing. Cracker Barrel has been around for a very long time, which means that they do have an older demographic that still loves their look and restaurant aesthetic (and of course… their food too, we can’t forget that).
You’ve probably heard the word get thrown around a lot lately, but this relates to a little something called nostalgia. Certain brands carry weight with nostalgic forms of branding that make them who they are. If you see a certain logo that has sat with you your whole life, you’ll immediately think, “Oh, I know them, they’re great!”. Cracker Barrel gives off that feeling for many who still visit it.
Sports are another great example of this! For many teams in major American sports, some fans find their teams’ old retro logo more appealing than their original or new, more modernized version. Take the Buffalo Sabres as an example; it’s not hard to find a fan out there nowadays who prefers the retro black, white, and red buffalo head to the gold and blue design that the team uses today, which is based on their original logo, featuring the swords added on. This is why, in the last few years, you have seen the team host 15 home games with the players wearing those retro jerseys to evoke that old, nostalgic feeling of a past logo that people love now, but perhaps at the time weren’t so fond of because they preferred the original.
I look at it like this: innovate with the retro (nostalgia) for the older generation and upgrade with the modern look to make a NEW form of retro for the next generation.
Changing the Look as Opposed to the Quality
And that’s a perfect way to transition into talking about this next section of the blog. It doesn’t help a brand to start a new marketing campaign if the campaign isn’t also directly going to benefit the customer when it comes to improving the quality of the products/services that you sell to them.
One of the other changes that Cracker Barrel made for this new marketing campaign was updating its restaurant designs to fit a more modern-looking, minimized aesthetic (see below).
This also received major pushback as people felt it was an odd choice to remove the personality of the unique interior design that the restaurants are known for. A comparison that you see people point to online is that these new designs look like your typical fast-food joint.
None of these changes is made with the intent to improve on any potential issues, if there were any, and it doesn’t seem like there really are. It is where you’ve probably heard the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. I have read online that one thing they could’ve changed was the chair design in the restaurants, with how uncomfortable they are, but instead, the whole restaurant is what ended up getting the makeover.
The Unnecessary Political Reaction
Nowadays, when stuff like this happens, there’s a good chance that there will be some kind of pushback for political reasons that has no merit to the conversation and only works to try and help one side who’s complaining about it the most. The reaction to this marketing rebrand, whether from the President of the United States himself or other various political commentators, doesn’t make any sense and is only done to help boost their following.
Being able to nail down why companies and brands make certain decisions takes a lot of research to understand. That’s what makes this story and breakdown of what marketing minimalization is so important.
Why Brands Make These Decisions
I think the best way to handle a marketing rebrand is perfectly outlined by this statement from an article in The Drum:
“When approaching change, leaders should map which assets are truly sacred, involve customers in the journey, frame a compelling story for why the shift matters, and be very clear on why they are going through with it. Too often, brands chase a new audience while alienating their loyal base. Heritage is not a hindrance – it’s an asset to reinterpret for relevance but bring people along with you.”
On top of this, the quality of the product comes first before anything else. Branding and marketing are heavily important to a successful company. Marketing minimalization is a tactic that needs a proper discussion before it is put into effect. Given the reaction to certain brands that committed to it, it’s recommended that everyone plan correctly before giving it the green light.
If you have any questions or would like to get in contact with us regarding branding for your company, reach out to us when you can, and we can’t wait to help!