With all of the hoopla around the Cracker Barrel rebrand recently, I reference a chapter in my most recent book, “The Why of Graphic Design,” concerning logo strategy and consistency.
A few years ago, Signs.com did a study called “Branded from Memory,” where consumers were asked to redraw popular logos completely from memory. You can see the interesting results on their website.
Long story short, brands like Apple, Dominos and Target had near perfect logo recognition from memory due to their simplicity and consistency. Brands such as Foot Locker, Burger King and Starbucks had very good recognition due to their memorable iconography.
If you look at Dominos and Starbucks (images below), they have actually made a number of gradual changes to their marks over the years without suffering any disconnect to consumers. Dominos has slowly updated, eventually removing “pizza” from their logo. Starbucks went so far as to remove their name entirely from the mark, but no public outcry occurred.
So, it begs the question(s)…
Did Cracker Barrel do the right thing by making a major overhaul?
This is tough to quantify. You can argue things like market share, profits or “rears in seats” and they may all tell a different story. This where branding as an overall concept comes into play. A logo is just a logo. A brand is what people say about you when you’re not around.
Would they have been better suited by a gradual, more strategic change?
Possibly. Cracker Barrel is one of those brands with a very consistent and vocal customer bases. A gradual rebrand over years could have been more palatable to their base than a major change. One thing is for certain…they have received a ton of publicity from this (warranted or not).
Do you think their old or new logo will eventually have better brand recognition?
Again, this is a tough question to answer. I think their ages old logo had great brand recognition visually. But would consumers be able to recreate the mark from memory? Probably not. The new logo is much easier to recreate and could possibly (over time) create a more memorable experience.
Time will only tell the answer to these questions.
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Read about the Signs From Memory project: https://www.signs.com/branded-in-memory
Pick up a copy of “The Why of Graphic Design”: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D63S5XF1