Critical Branding Mistakes That Could Sink Your Business

You probably don't need me to remind you that Cracker Barrel made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Not too long ago, they ditched their iconic logo and it created a huge mess. Lost nearly$100 million in value overnight, and they became a laughing stock on the internet. Branding is vital for businesses, and as Cracker Barrel showed us, getting it wrong can cost you big time. That's why this video is all about

About the right way to build a trustworthy brand. Today, John Felkins from Autre Leadership is sitting down with our senior creative officer. Tim Newton, who will show you what it takes to develop a brand that customers love, and more importantly, how to avoid making a nine-figure mistake like Cracker Barrel. We're here to talk about Something really interesting that's happened and that is this whole cracker barrel rebrand thing.

Why was that such a disaster? You could pretty much just boil it down to these changes look like they forgot their values. You know, and that that's basically what happened, you know? Yeah. And so uh th there are certain things that we that we've grown to expect about Cracker Barrel that people love and and have known about Cracker Barrel for decades.

And then all of a sudden, bam, like that, the design says something completely different. Yeah. You know, after they've been building this thing for decades, is forgot who they are. Right. When it comes down to it, it's the craziest thing. There's a lot of emotional connection with Cracker Barrel, obviously. Yeah. Which was something pretty cool for them to see of of how

how meaningful that brand is for people. So don't completely drop what you've been doing with the brand. What are the biggest lessons we should learn from this? I I think the biggest lesson is know who you are and understand how your brand is reflecting who you are. And then just stay consistent with that. You build a brand over time. You know, it's consistency over time that builds a a brand. Because

All that trust comes down to is time and consistency. Like that's what we trust people who are consistent over time, you know? I've also heard you say brands are like people or like a person. How's that work in this mix? Yeah, I mean honestly, I look at how humans interact.

And then I say that's how a brand should interact. The way that we walk, talk, and dress is all an outward expression of what we believe. And so the same with a brand. The logo, the colors, the experiences, all that is an outward expression of inward values. When it comes to things like like Cracker Brass, don't make drastic changes. You can make some small changes. That's because as people, our style matures over time. It slowly changes over time, but our values rarely change. As styles mature,

That's just happening as time goes by, but but still the style is connecting back to the values that are underneath, you know? And so what's interesting about Cracker Bell is it's like if if I were to put it in people turns, it's like Cracker Bell was dressing like an old man and then they showed up the next day and dressed like they were at a fashion show.

Y you n you know what we call people in real life that do that? Crazy people. Because we trust what's predictable. We don't trust uh what's unpredictable. And they did something unpredictable. They did something out of the ordinary. When we see our friend show up completely different the next day, the first question we ask is, are they okay? Yeah, what's going on? You know, and that's what happened with that brand is all of a sudden trust broken.

Because they came looking completely different. What can people do day in and day out? What are the little things that establish that trust? You know, something we talk about here is everybody on the team is responsible for the brand. Because every interaction that customers have. is is an opportunity for the brand to come through. You know? And so it's the same with small businesses, you know, like if if a business is saying, take a plumbing business or something like that, if they say,

that uh we c we're gonna care about your home as much as you do. When one of their team members comes to the house and puts booties on their feet, that is indicating to me that they're gonna care about my house in as much as I care about my house. Like that means a lot to me. I was thinking about this the other day. Where a few years ago I was I was moving, right?

And the the m the moving company came up to my house and the driver was just smoking a cigarette, you know, with his arm out the window like that. And I was watching and I noticed immediately I was like

I'm not sure he's gonna take care of my stuff very well. And and I just recognized like that was the feeling that that came over, right? Yeah. And and they ended up doing a really great job, you know. And so then I pulled I pulled that guy aside and I said, Hey, can I give you some feedback? And he said, sure. I said, look, man.

When you first drove up, I assumed that you weren't gonna really take care of my stuff very well because of the way that you came to my house. I said, if you come to people's houses,

looking professional and coming I say you could smoke somewhere else, you know, where the customer doesn't see. But if you come and you you look ready to go, the customer's gonna see you and say, They're gonna take care of my stuff. And that's gonna do much better for your brand in the long run. And he said, Oh man, thanks for the feedback.

Any of those small interactions like that says something about the brand. The way that your team member is interacting with a customer, it says something about the brand. It indicates something. And so if your if your brand is saying, we are friendly, uh, we're reliable, we're uh we're gonna take care of your stuff. Make sure your team member knows how to do actions that prove that that is true. Yeah. You know.

So for Cracker Barrel, a whole lot of zeros associated with this change, right? I mean, they they got millions and millions of dollars.

Yeah. How does it translate? Why is it important for the small business, you think? One of the most important things about branding is consistency. If you're consistent, then when someone has a problem, you're the first brand that comes to mind. There's stats out there that say it takes twenty-one times. to see your brain in a consistent way before it's imprinted in my mind.

So if you're showing up inconsistently, you're restarting that twenty-one every time. And so how are you ever gonna be the first brand that comes to people's mind when you have a problem? There's always Some brand that's the first to come to mind. Yeah. You want it to be yours. And you do that by being extremely consistent, you know, and and a good brand is going to be extremely consistent.

Uh and it's so key for the future, you know, branding is all about creating future demand. Sales is closing current d demand. So if you want sales to go better in the future, just be extremely consistent, you know. And that's that's where that's where Cracker Bell missed up is they they lost that consistency. And, you know, we're watching that from a distance, seeing how much money is being lost.

But on the day to day, it's harder to track how much money you're losing or how much opportunity you're losing just by not being consistent. There's a stat out there that says twenty three percent of revenue can be attributed to consistency alone. And that's because of brand recall. People inevitably are gonna have a problem.

And if you're the first one they think of, boom, you got the say. There you go. But it takes being consistent to do that. Where should somebody start? Say, what do we want people to expect from our brand? And then ask yourself, what actions will create that expectation? And then last one is just how do I hold my team accountable to doing those actions?

If you just do those three things, you're gonna look up and see, wow, we got a pretty consistent brand going on here. But uh but something that leaders don't do a lot of is understand how they want to come across to people. And then and observe to see if that's happening. There's a stat out there that says 90% of companies are inconsistent with their brand. 90%.

So how much opportunity is there? Yeah. Ninety percent are inconsistent and all you gotta do is be consistent. Yeah, just be consistent and do what you say you're gonna do and stick to it and you're gonna win. That's true. Love it. Hundred percent. Very helpful. Thanks, Tim. Yeah, no problem. The strongest brands are more than just a logo and they aren't an accident. They're the result of clear, consistent choices. And if you're ready to really take your business branding to the next level.

you need to hear Tim's full talk on transcendent branding from Entre Leadership Master Series. He'll walk you through a step by step process for creating a brand That truly connects with customers, and you can watch it for free by clicking the link in the show notes. Thanks for joining us. See you next time.