If you’ve had your head in the news this past week or so, you know Cracker Barrel found itself in a storm of backlash after unveiling a refreshed logo. Out went Uncle Hershel, posted up next to his iconic barrel, and in came a modernized design that many loyal customers didn’t co-sign. 

The response was dramatic and loud. TikTok critics piled on. Politicians got their comments in. One customer even declared, “I’m feeling like this new logo is ruining my life.” (Dramatic, remember?) But the outrage was real enough that Cracker Barrel executives pulled the plug on the redesign and reverted to the old logo within days.

Cracker Barrel has issues. 
Its customer base is aging.
Sales have been slipping.
Stock prices have been shaky.

The company is likely still trying to move past bad PR from a DOJ investigation that found discriminatory practices against Black customers in the 2000s.

So, Cracker Barrel took a risk.

They tried to refresh their interiors, their menu, and now their brand identity.

But … were they courage-ready when they made that move?

Let’s run their decision through three filters from my Courage-Ready Model. 

1. What is the risk?

Every act of courage starts with risk. Cracker Barrel recognized the stakes. They could stick with business as usual and watch their core customers (quite literally) age out, or try to attract a new generation of diners. That’s a legitimate strategic risk.

By most accounts, they did their homework. They conducted focus groups, market research and brand analysis. They likely anticipated some pushback from die-hard regulars who loved Uncle Hershel and everything he symbolized. What they didn’t anticipate was the volume and velocity of the backlash. Still, Cracker Barrel gets credit here for at least recognizing both sides of the risk coin: evolve and risk alienation, or stay stagnant and fade. Point awarded.

2. What is your reason for taking the risk?

Here’s where it gets tricky. Cracker Barrel’s reason for updating its logo seemed straightforward. They wanted to attract younger customers. But, courage requires a values-aligned reason for taking action. It can’t just be about revenue.

The new logo sprinted toward modernity and the hope of capturing a new generation. But in that hard pivot, it failed to capture what had defined Cracker Barrel for nearly half a century. For 48 years, Uncle Hershel and his barrel were shorthand for the brand’s values of hard work, family, and scratch-cooked food. Customers saw themselves in that imagery, and when it was stripped away, many felt they were being stripped away too. (This is loss aversion in the flesh.)

Imagine if the company had said: “We’re redesigning our logo to better connect with a new generation, and our design will still honor hard work, family, and scratch cooking, because that’s who we are.”  That would have been a values-aligned decision. It would have created more space for Cracker Barrel to incorporate its values into a modern, meaningful design. No point here.

3. What are your resources for persevering through the risk?

Finally, perseverance. When you act courageously, success is not guaranteed. The question is whether you have competence and confidence as resources to weather the storm.

Cracker Barrel stumbled, then started to recover. They didn’t appear to have a proactive playbook for the backlash. They could have partnered with influencers ahead of time to evangelize the new look, rolled out a stronger storytelling campaign, or armed their PR team with sharper crisis messaging. Instead, they retreated quickly, reverting to the old logo in a few days.

This often happens when decisions requiring courage are made with primarily external motivations (see point 2). 

But, let’s not dismiss that choice outright. Sometimes perseverance looks like doubling down, but other times it looks like pausing, regrouping, and returning stronger (Think: Sha’carri Richardson after the 2020 Olympic trials). Cracker Barrel essentially admitted: “We didn’t get it right the first time, but we’re not done.” That commitment to getting it right will build both competence and confidence for the next round. Point awarded.

So, was Cracker Barrel courage-ready?

Almost. But in the words of music artist Brandy, “almost doesn’t count.” They saw the risk clearly. They regrouped instead of completely collapsing. But they failed to anchor their decision in their values — values that both loyal and new customers could rally around. And, when decisions calling for courage aren’t values-aligned, they fracture …

AND … they invite a lot of drama, as Cracker Barrel found out.