A few years ago, my then-preteen daughter became obsessed with eating at Cracker Barrel. If she had eaten at one before, she did not remember. That isn’t because her parents have anything against Cracker Barrel, we do not – we are both 100 percent Southern, and I won’t speak for my wife and her family, but I am at least half country.
I tell you this to make sure it is understood that as far as we are concerned, restaurants don’t get any better than a good Southern “meat-and-three.” We were not keeping our daughter away from Cracker Barrel on purpose; there just isn’t one convenient to us, and we would drive by two or three local meat-and-threes to get to one of the chain’s locations. So, we promised that the next time we were on a family road trip, we would skip the usual drive-thrus and have lunch or dinner at a Cracker Barrel.
We found one off Interstate 85 in South Carolina. Both our son and daughter understand my feelings on how to judge a good meat-and-three. There may be many options on the menu, but the test is one of two things: Option one is country fried steak with collard greens and mashed potatoes. (Pro tip, in Texas they would refer to it as chicken fried steak; don’t ask why, obviously steak doesn’t come from a chicken, but this only scratches the surface of things that don’t make sense in Texas.) Option two would be the vegetable plates, and yes, macaroni and cheese is considered a vegetable in any respectable meat-and-three. Also, don’t worry about being healthy…if cooked correctly, Southern vegetables are vegetables in name only.
I don’t remember what my children chose on that evening, but I went with the country fried steak, and it was not good. My children now swear they will never eat in a Cracker Barrel again. I know what you are going to say, “The one by us is good.” I have heard that before, and that is the problem with Cracker Barrel and many other restaurant chains: One location is good, but another one isn’t. I even spoke to one Cracker Barrel regular whose daughter has worked at the one near her. Her daughter gave her the inside scoop: there were basically two teams of cooks. The A team was great, but the B team was meh. This is a lack of consistency caused by a failure of training and management.
Enter Julie Masino, the CEO brought in to turn Cracker Barrel around. She came from Taco Bell. The teens love Taco Bell, and I don’t believe it degrades my status as a meat-and-three connoisseur to admit to having made the “run to the border” on multiple occasions. I’m not sure if Masino came up with that catch phrase, but her degree is in communications, not restaurant services or hospitality…which may explain why the most-noted move in her attempted turnaround of Cracker Barrel was to change the logo. What Cracker Barrel needed, in her view, was to refresh the branding.
Branding is not what made my country fried steak taste like cardboard or caused the collard greens to taste like lawn clippings, and branding didn’t put the lumps in my mashed potatoes. Branding did get my young daughter to want to give Cracker Barrel a try, but the poor quality of the location we visited is what assured that she won’t be back.
In fairness to Masino, she is certainly not alone. We live in a branding world. Everything today is branding, right down to the individual who promotes his/her brand on social media. Our world has become so fake that even our intelligence is artificial.
This brings us to Anthony Fauci, the face of our response to the Covid pandemic. He refused to answer any questions in the Senate hearing, but his diary release speaks volumes. He is the government official most responsible for pandemic response, and what was on his mind? January 6, 2020: “I got invited to a ‘Super A list’ party.” March 8: “Nice profiles of me in Politico and The New York Times today.” March 26: “Donuts are being named after me; T-shirts have my picture on them.” April 7: “Press still hot and heavy about me.” People were dying, and his deepest thoughts were about his brand.
Fauci isn’t alone. Congress has turned into one big performative circus wherein our elected leaders are far more concerned with going viral than with doing the hard work of leading. What would have been gained by that hearing if Fauci had talked? A few viral moments of him and his nemesis, Senator Rand Paul, going at it for clicks and likes.
If the pandemic proved anything, it is that our leadership lacks the maturity and substance to truly lead in times of crisis when leadership is most needed. This explains in a large part why so many young people have fallen under the sway of extremists on both the right and the left; those extremists have principles, they have substance. It may be evil, but at least it is real and not just branding. No wonder young people who support the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are not worried about the party’s desire to eliminate the Senate, if the biggest thing actually happening in the Senate is a hearing about a pandemic that ended six years ago.
Cracker Barrel is not just a brand, it is a restaurant chain. If they want to improve business, then improve the consistency of the food quality and the service – the actual core of what you are – first, then get the message out. I don’t want to seem too harsh on branding, because one could have the greatest store in the world and it won’t matter if no one knows about it. We need marketing, we need to build brands, yes; however, we cannot forget that it is the substance that counts. The best brands are authentic; they reflect the actual substance of their core business. If you want to be a good meat-and-three, then you better know how to fry a steak; one bite and no one will care what your logo looks like. At least that is my perspective.
Warm regards,
Chuck Osborne, CFA
