HOW TO AVOID BEING CRACKER BARREL, OR BUD LIGHT, OR TARGET…
Over and Over, These Brands Mess Up By Ignoring What Matters Most.
When Cracker Barrel unveiled their new logo and a full interior redesign, people lost it. Why? Because brands with history become part of how people see themselves. The minute you mess with that, without honoring what holds it all together, you risk breaking the bond. But they aren’t the first to make a mistake that upset their customers. For reasons other than a rebrand, Target and Bud Light come to mind as other recent examples of corporations not reading the room.
What do they all have in common? They launched without understanding What Matters Most to their audiences.
Why That Hurts More Than You Think
We don’t fall in love with logos. We fall in love with how brands make us feel: seen, safe, included. When brands ignore the values their audience holds dear, they’re erasing a long history rife with meaning.
Shared Values: The Compass You Need
Here’s the part that’s hopeful. This kind of brand backlash is completely avoidable. We’ve reached a moment where shared values can be measured and mapped with valuegraphic data. You don’t have to guess what your people care about. You can know.
And when you take the time to figure that out, you can make a change that feels like a positive step forward instead of a betrayal.
The Foggy Mirror of Focus Groups
Traditional tools like surveys and focus groups are useful to a point. But they’re also noisy, because people say what they think you want to hear. Or what they think they should say to impress the other people in the room.
Valuegraphic data cuts through that noise because it's built on a deeper truth: WHAT MATTERS MOST— our values – guide our decisions more than anything else.
A Better Way to Transform
Before making any changes, understand the values your audience shares. Then ask yourself: how will this change honor those? The answer is your blueprint.
A Quick-Start Guide: The Values Compass for Rebrands
Here’s a tool you can use to ground your next big move:
The Values Compass: 5 Questions to Ask Before You Transform Anything
What shared values connect our audience?
Which of these values are at risk in this change?
What aspects of our heritage embody these values?
How can we evolve while still honoring those core emotional anchors?
What visible signals can we include that say: We still see you.
Final Thought
If you want to change that is energizing instead of alienating, you need to start with values. They’re the ground your brand stands on.
WHAT MATTERS MOST to the people you need to inspire?
Values are the answer. Let’s put them to work.
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Want to know What Matters Most to the people you need to inspire?
Download free guides and resources.
Use the free Valueprint Finder to see how your values compare.
Find out why people call David “The Values Guy.”
Search the blog library for ways to put values to work for you.
