Last week, the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel changed their logo to eliminate the longstanding barrel graphic next to their name. This week, they changed it back.

For many of us, this may seem like a mountain made from a mole hill: The restaurant itself didn’t change, the food offered didn’t change, even the color of the logo stayed the same. But for long-time Cracker Barrel aficionados, the change was upsetting enough to cause a major public backlash.

This is not the first time when changes to brand identity upset loyal consumers. The Gap, Tropicana, and Yahoo all had to rescind brand changes that didn’t resonate with their user base.

Then of course there was the most famous product rebrand failure: When Coca-Cola changed the formula of their flagship Coke brand, the new version fell totally flat. forcing them to bring back the old formulation, which they then renamed New Coke.

These are not small budget, tiny companies. How do these things happen?

I suspect some hot-shot marketing VP, branding company, and/or graphic design firm comes up with something they think is a major improvement. There’s only one problem: They don’t test the proposed new version with their #1 built-in research group: long standing loyal customers.

The result is something that proves you ignore your customer base at your peril. These people love you for who you are—and may not easily adapt to who you want to become. Those new concept-focused, expensive outside firms you bring in to make these changes may not be all they were cracked up to be.

Let us help your business rise to the top.

linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com