Brand Missteps: Learning from the past before repeating it – Nov 2025

By Paul Friederichsen

A philosopher once said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Lately, there’s been plenty of brand history some companies would rather not relive. Many miscalculations began with good intentions-bold attempts to seize an opportunity, course-correct or push a category forward. They were led by smart people, backed by research and funded well. And yet, despite those advantages, they shared the same fate: failure in the marketplace.

THE CRACKER BARREL FIASCO

Cracker Barrel is the latest-and perhaps most publicized-example. Earlier this year, a new management team, eager to modernize and win younger diners, unveiled a minimalist rebrand that stripped away the nostalgic country imagery at the heart of the brand’s identity. Internally, it was celebrated as a refined refresh. Externally, it sparked outright rebellion.

Loyal customers flooded social channels with outrage. The CEO couldn’t sell the change, the branding firm was scapegoated, and even President Trump weighed in, first urging a reversal and later congratulating the company for restoring the classic logo. After the dust settled-and millions were lost in both value and credibility-93-year-old co-founder Tommy Lowe offered the clearest postmortem: leadership did not understand what the brand stood for or who its customers are.

BRANDS MUST CHANGE TO REMAIN CURRENT

Brands can and should change to stay relevant to a constantly evolving marketplace. It’s how they change that’s tricky. No amount of advertising or PR can overcome a bad brand strategy. It didn’t work for New Coke, Bud Light or Cracker Barrel. As the saying goes: if the dog doesn’t eat the dog food, what’s the point?

FAMOUS BRAND MISCALCULATIONS

Brand	Year	Miscalculation	Impact
New Coke	1985	Formula change	Tens of millions in R&D and marketing; reversal after backlash
Tropicana	2009	Packaging redesign	$30M in lost sales; ~20% decline in two months
J.C. Penney	2012	Pricing overhaul	$985M annual loss; ~25% decline in two months
Bud Light	2023	Marketing backlash	$1.4B drop in U.S. sales; 9.5% revenue decline
Jaguar	2024	Rebrand and EV pivot	97% EU sales decline; ~75% unit drop YTD
Cracker Barrel	2025	Logo change backlash	$100M market-cap loss; ~8% traffic decline

CAUTION AHEAD

As history shows, even the smartest, best-funded and best-staffed marketers can fail. It could happen to anyone. To avoid a costly mistake, proceed with caution and watch for these common pitfalls.

COMMON PITFALLS

Pitfall	What it Means	Symptom
Misalignment	Brand promise ≠ customer perception	“We thought they’d love it.”
Loss of emotional contract	A trusted identity was broken	Backlash, boycotts, ridicule
Echo-chamber strategy	Internal logic over external reality	“Everyone here was excited.”
Overspending without insight	Money reinforces bias	“We tested it-it should work.”
Timing failure	Too early or too late	“The market wasn’t ready.”

WHAT TO DO

Avoiding these pitfalls requires continuous research and monitoring-and a firm grasp of who your customer is and is not.

• Know the emotional contract. Document what customers depend on emotionally-not just what you sell but also what you symbolize. Before changing anything, ask: “Will this feel like breaking a promise?” If yes, keep working.

• Defuse the echo chamber. Don’t green-light strategy on internal confidence alone.

1. Bring outside voices (customers, dealers, and community) into testing.

2. Assign a devil’s advocate or split teams to challenge assumptions.

3. Write a pre-mortem: an honest “obituary” for the strategy if it fails-where, when and how it could go off the rails.

• Use storytelling to bridge continuity. Explain internally how the brand will evolve without alienating loyalists. Map the journey, highlight proof points and show what will-and won’t-change.

• Mind the timing. Introduce changes at a pace customers can accept. Don’t outrun your audience and don’t wait so long that you lose relevance.

• Don’t expect marketing to bail you out. A well-funded campaign can dig your hole faster and deeper if the strategy is wrong. Brand is who you are. Marketing tells me why I should care.

• On the other hand, inadequate marketing support is just as problematic. The brand strategy may be strong, but without good creative or media weight to support the launch, it may never reach cruising altitude.

When all else fails, reverse course immediately-as Cracker Barrel did-and regroup. Too often, brands imagine where they want to be and assume customers share that vision. As we’ve seen, that may not be the case.

THE COMMON THREAD

From Shaw’s retail experiment to Lumber Liquidators’ crisis, and from New Coke to Cracker Barrel, the pattern is consistent: brands rarely fail for lack of intelligence or resources. They fail when strategy outpaces empathy-when internal enthusiasm drowns out external reality.

Know who you are. Know who you serve. And never confuse reinvention with rejection.

LESSONS FROM THE INDUSTRY

As the flooring industry has become more brand-driven and marketing-savvy over the past 40 years, it has experienced notable missteps that offer lasting lessons.

The Home Depot Expo Design Centers (1991): At its peak, the chain operated 50 high-touch design centers. High operating costs and the Great Recession ultimately led to the closure of the remaining 34 stores in 2009.
Shaw Industries (1995): Shaw’s attempt to create a direct-to-consumer retail network through company-owned Carpet Showplace stores proved costly, prompting the company to refocus on manufacturing.
Lumber Liquidators (2015): A “60 Minutes” investigation into formaldehyde emissions triggered lawsuits and lost trust. The company rebranded as LL Flooring, then returned to its original name in 2025.

THE AUTHOR

Paul Friederichsen is a marketing and branding expert with a career spent in ad agencies as a creative director and strategist and with numerous clients over the years in the floorcovering industry. He is a partner in the international brand consultancy The Blake Project and is a contributor to Branding Strategy Insider.

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