Cracker Barrel stock is little changed today as investors appear to shrug off its logo redesign apology

Shares in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (Nasdaq: CBRL) aren’t reacting as much as the company had probably hoped on Tuesday after the beloved country-style restaurant chain apologized over a logo redesign it rolled out last week.

The backlash highlights the level of emotional attachment that customers have to a brand’s identity. Here’s what you need to know about the Cracker Barrel logo redesign, apology, and the effect on CBRL stock.

What happened?

On August 19, Cracker Barrel announced that it was launching a redesigned logo. Gone was the old-timey “Cracker Barrel Old Country Store” logo, which featured the laid-back “old timer” Uncle Herschel sitting in a chair, resting his arm over a wooden barrel.

It was replaced with a more modern, minimalistic logo that consisted of nothing more than the name Cracker Barrel set on top of a rough outline of a two-dimensional shape resembling a barrel.

In a press release announcing the change, Cracker Barrel said that the new logo “is now rooted even more closely to the iconic barrel shape and word mark that started it all.”

But that wasn’t how some Cracker Barrel fans saw things.

Stock price drops after backlash

After the new Cracker Barrel logo was unveiled, fans of the restaurant chain, which currently operates over 600 locations across America, took to social media to vent their frustrations. 

“Generic,” “soulless,” and ”bland” were some of the most common words used to describe the redesigned logo, notes CNBC.

From a financial standpoint, things got worse for Cracker Barrel. As noted by CBS, last Thursday, after public blowback to the logo went viral, Cracker Barrel saw almost $100 million wiped from its market cap as investors sold the stock. It ended up down about 7.2% for the day to $54.80. 

Before the logo discourse began, Cracker Barrel shares had been on an upswing. In March, the company increased its financial outlook for the year, projecting revenue of $3.45 billion to $3.50 billion, up from an earlier outlook of $3.4 billion to $3.5 billion.

Cracker Barrel apologizes for logo redesign

Since the redesign-induced stock slump, CBRL shares have remained depressed, which is likely one of the reasons that the company has decided to publicly apologize for the logo change.

Yesterday, the company put out a statement saying that it “could’ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be.”

It also reiterated that despite the redesign, “the things people love most about our stores aren’t going anywhere.”

Those things include “rocking chairs on the porch, a warm fire in the hearth, peg games on the table, unique treasures in our gift shop, and vintage Americana with antiques pulled straight from our warehouse in Lebanon.”

The chain also clarified that while Uncle Herschel is no longer on the new logo, the character will remain in other places in the company’s branding.

“We love seeing how much you care about our ‘old timer.’ We love him too,” the company wrote. “Uncle Herschel will still be on our menu (welcome back Uncle Herschel’s Favorite Breakfast Platter), on our road signs and featured in our country store. He’s not going anywhere—he’s family.”

Still, while Cracker Barrel may quell some of the backlash, the statement has so far done little to reverse the company’s decline in stock price. As of the time of this writing, CBRL shares are virtually unchanged in premarket trading. Currently, shares are down about half a percent to $54.01 per share.

Over the past five days, CBRL shares have lost nearly 11% of their value.