{"id":22609,"date":"2025-08-31T18:35:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=22609"},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:35:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:35:49","slug":"how-the-rebrand-became-part-of-the-culture-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=22609","title":{"rendered":"How the rebrand became part of the culture wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rebrands aren\u2019t just rebrands anymore. No, silly\u2014they\u2019re a moment for public discourse about where brands stand politically and an opportunity for onlookers to declare what design overhauls say about those stances.<\/p>\n

Consider the case of Cracker Barrel. Last week, the chain eatery known for its kitschy Southern aesthetic introduced a new brandmark that removed its titular barrel as well as the character known as Uncle Herschel or Old Timer as part of a $700 million rebrand and restaurant experience refresh. After the move was announced, Cracker Barrel\u2019s stock took a 12% dip amid public criticism, which quickly turned political as right-wing commentators accused the brand of \u201cgoing woke\u201d instead of simply opting for a re-blanding.<\/p>\n

The company released a statement on Monday that it \u201ccould\u2019ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we\u2019ll always be,\u201d before President Donald Trump weighed in on Tuesday and urged the company to return to its previous logo. Later that day, Cracker Barrel reversed course, releasing another statement announcing that \u201c\u2018Old Timer\u2019 will remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cracker Barrel isn\u2019t alone in managing backlash to a rebrand. MSNBC\u2019s rebrand to MS NOW caught ire and scorn in equal measure last week, and HBO Max\u2019s short-lived there-and-back-again rebrand to Max was the internet\u2019s favorite punchline earlier this year. But increasingly, rebrands are getting dragged into the culture wars. Late last year, Jaguar faced a round of backlash for its new logo that opted for a sleek new design over its beloved heritage mark to signal its move into the electric vehicle market; one ad from the new look was recently derided by the president as being \u201cwoke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rolling out a rebrand is no longer a simple act of changing typefaces, logos, or taglines, and brands are faced with evaluating rebrands from all angles and determining how best to communicate them. While there have been many controversial rebrands over the years (remember Tropicana, Gap, or Pepsi?), the current cultural climate makes it all the more likely that a rebrand could draw the wrong kind of attention, and there are few ways for brands to prepare for the possibility, according to branding experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrands need [to] start getting comfortable with the [fact that the] culture wars may pull you in,\u201d Douglas Brundage, founder and CEO of brand studio Kingsland, told Marketing Brew.<\/p>\n

Cancel culture<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Anticipating responses to a rebrand is par for the course for marketers, and rebrands of any kind can often attract loud feedback from naysayers, experts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, I\u2019ve yet to see a brand do a significant identity shift that didn\u2019t get people hating it,\u201d Nathan Jun Poekert, a CMO advisor and marketing consultant, wrote in a text.<\/p>\n

In a moment where political tensions are high, a shift of any scale can draw negative attention or projections about company reasoning, which is something marketers have little control over. While marketers could do more focus groups, testing, and spend more time talking to their core customers, there\u2019s no guarantee that will help mitigate that risk, especially from high-profile individuals intent on inflaming political tensions.<\/p>\n

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Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read<\/h5>\n

Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not sure how much testing is even valuable anymore in an era where people are getting millions of views [when they] have thousands of followers for a single post targeting brands,\u201d Jun Poekert said. \u201cFocus groups have zero defense against cancel culture in a politically charged environment where a majority of the country is angry right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that said, there are some ways marketers might look to communicate to well-intentioned consumers about the reason behind the change. Sadie Dyer, strategy director at brand consultancy Siegel+Gale, suggested that if Cracker Barrel had found a way to give \u201cpeople reassurance that this was not a strategic move to appeal to a different audience,\u201d that could have helped it get ahead of any backlash.<\/p>\n

Is the branding the problem?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In many cases, though, rebrands are still necessary, and Dyer said brand marketers are more careful and thoughtful about making a change.<\/p>\n

The types of questions marketers ask when embarking on a rebrand \u201chaven\u2019t actually changed that much, because it\u2019s always been about distinctiveness and authenticity,\u201d Dyer said. \u201cWhat makes you distinctively you, and what does this [make] you look like in the future? What do we want to be for the future, and then how do we evolve to meet that?\u201d<\/p>\n

As marketers consider those questions, they\u2019re doing so at a time when people seem to be paying more attention to how brands are communicating with customers, how they show up, and the moves they make in the market.\u201cWe\u2019re in an era where brand is becoming valued in the way it should be by a lot of these companies,\u201d Brundage said.<\/p>\n

Fixing a brand\u2019s challenges in the marketplace often doesn\u2019t start\u2014or end\u2014with a brand logo, and rebrands can be costly as well as time-consuming: Dyer said it can take anywhere from six months to a number of years, depending on the number of stakeholders involved and the extent of the changes. Before making that investment, marketers may consider evaluating whether brands need to change their product offerings to reflect the needs of today\u2019s consumer, Brundage noted.<\/p>\n

Once they\u2019ve done that, marketers also recommend considering if their approach to advertising could use a shift first. \u201cIn my opinion, before approaching a rebrand, ask yourself, \u2018Do I actually need the rebrand or are we just bad at awareness and upper-funnel marketing?\u2019\u201d Jun Poekert said.<\/p>\n

For marketers who are looking at a rebrand to change how a brand is showing up in the market, the problem could instead be their media mix, Jun Poekert noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may not need a rebrand,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just may need a better upper-funnel marketing strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

If all of that still brings brands to the conclusion that a rebrand is necessary, Brundage advised reaching an understanding about what customer feedback really matters\u2014and which opinions don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnow who you are, know who your customer is, don\u2019t piss off your customer,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you [piss off] someone that\u2019s not your customer, you shouldn\u2019t really care.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebrands aren\u2019t just rebrands anymore. No, silly\u2014they\u2019re a moment for public discourse about where brands stand politically and an opportunity for onlookers to declare what design overhauls say about those stances. Consider the case of Cracker Barrel. Last week, the chain eatery known for its kitschy Southern aesthetic introduced a new brandmark that removed its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\nHow the rebrand became part of the culture wars | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rebrands aren\u2019t just rebrands anymore. 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