Recently I took a road trip from Nashville, TN to Little Rock, Arkansas twice within a two week period! Is there some sort of an award for that? (LOL)

Of course one of the activities that go hand-in-hand with a road trip is making food stops. Even though I knew this would be a fairly long drive, I really had no plans on where to eat on this double trek trip except I did plan on getting some killer BBQ in Memphis which turned out to be a HUGE disappointment! But that’s another story.

I really ended up relying on roadside billboards and state highway signs to help me choose my eating stops.

[Sidenote] Speaking of these important influencers, as a marketer, I believe so many of the eating and dining places that rely on highway traffic are missing out on an incredible opportunity to capture hungry travelers by not using exciting creativity and strategy to ensure those signs really reach out and grab travelers emotions and imaginations to make them WANT to slam on the brakes and come on in. Those billboards are like their own personal roadside theaters! If they would only spend the time and money on them this could bring them a great big fat return on their investment.

Back to my story…
Working with the guides (highway signs) I had to help me make my decision on where and what to eat I found I had to decide on either fast food; and you know that is not going to be very exciting and in most cases very unhealthy for you or I had the option of a ‘toss of the coin type of experience’ pulling into a roadside dive…or lastly a chain restaurant; which is a bit safer of all the choices but takes more time and can certainly be more expensive than my other choices.

I chose fast food most of time out of necessity and what I got was just that…it was the usual experience…nothing special…just some grub. However, I did opt to have a good hot breakfast every time I had the chance on those two trips. To me a good breakfast just adds that bit of excitement one needs to endure those long tedious hours you spend in the car trying to get from point A to point B ya know?

My choice for all four times I stopped to eat breakfast was the Cracker Barrel chain restaurants. I ate twice in Tennessee and twice in Arkansas. Oh, I also made one stop for dinner too to get a hot bowl of soup on a cold night!

I love their breakfasts and I feel no one on the road does it better than Cracker Barrel. Truth be told I really love the Cracker Barrel concept, good ole home style cooking, yum yum!

With all that said though, I was somewhat disappointed with all 5 of my visit experiences for several reasons which led me down the path to ponder while I continued driving down the road…what I would do if I were the one in charge of marketing for Cracker Barrel restaurants.

Let me state my disappointments came not from the food, although I did have two separate incidences with my food preparation. No, it came from what I call the ‘Ditto Effect’ and from the lack of vision to reach the ‘21^st century connected economy’.

So the first thing I would address would be the ‘Ditto Effect’.

Consistency and uniformity are important factors for chains of any size to ensure the customer gets that same ‘chain experience’ no matter what location they patronize.

The best darn example I have seen of this is the chain In-N-Out Burger (please come to Tennessee!) in California. They are the best chain experience hands down in that no matter what location you go to, you get everything exactly the same as the last place and it is always over the top in quality and service.

However, in some cases the Ditto Effect’ is not a good strategy. It really depends on your customer and your type of business model. When it comes to Cracker Barrel Restaurants …yes I like the fact I can get the same wild blueberry pancakes in Arkansas I got while in Tennessee and that goes for the rest of their menu.

What I am disappointed in is the fact is there is so much ‘SAMENESS’ it really does not intrigue me to stop in as often as they should want me to or think about my local Barrel as an eating out option when I’m not traveling.

Their country store is in the same boat. I see almost ditto what I see in one store and the next. This makes for boring shopping in my books.

If I were in charge of the marketing for Cracker Barrel Restaurants one of the first things I would change is eliminate the ‘Ditto Effect’ by changing every store into a Cracker Barrel Presents production where each store is master story teller of their area, region and state it is located in. These could be stories of the history of early settlers and folks of the area, local legends, points of interests, the local famous from the area, local progress, challenges, and contributions, geography, the children and much more would be incorporated in creative entertaining ways as well as a special insert menu featuring local culinary delights. Special events would be scheduled throughout the year such as store tastings of products carried, live entertainment events in the back parking lot (which I have never seen full) guest appearances of entertainers, chefs, and so on.

Bottom-line I would seek to transform this chain into an organization that understood the value of creating customer experiences and emotional moments through story telling theater experiences and delivering dining entertainment and shopping. No longer just a chain where you can expect a good meal and a quaint country store to shop at.

Another major positioning move I would make if I were in charge of the marketing for Cracker Barrel restaurants would be to ensure Cracker Barrel will thrive within all generational cohorts instead of possibly being a long lost memory with the upcoming generations. If you visit any Cracker Barrel you will find the ‘mature’ crowd (baby boomer generations) are the main customer demographics… not many young people or young families are there. Nothing wrong with that except you need to insure you are getting your entire possible market share in this 21^st century economy and to me the younger crowd needs to be wooed into the Cracker Barrel experience so they will take their rightful place in enjoying a unique rural dining and shopping experience.

In order for this to happen I would…

• Start with creating marketing campaigns that would be geared directly to the younger crowd
• Update the Cracker Barrel logo to be more relevant and brand dominate in the minds of their customers
• Create mouth dropping, clever roadside signage that shows “FUN” at Cracker Barrel and delicious food photos and exciting shopping (not ads like ‘Fireside Dining’ BORING!)
• Add family portion meal options (enough for a family of four) and expand kids menu (you know, putting the FAMILY back in your tagline of being a Family Restaurant)
• Create a Cracker Barrel  kids character and entertain and market to the young patron
• Transform the restrooms for the ladies and make them more lounge and pampering friendly and ensure they are super clean at all times (and put the hand lotions BACK please)
• Add a ‘this week’s sale’ insert on all tables featuring a few specials and some clearance (don’t forget the kids) from the store so customers interest can be peaked while dining.
• Setup digital kiosk with hotspots so folks can recharge their cell or use their laptops. This just encourages them to linger and spend more money.
• Create a fenced pet friendly station area outside to let pets stretch their legs and get refreshed. Also sell some unique pet goodies and supplies because lots of folks take their pets with them.
• Take Cracker Barrel to the digital masses by incorporating social marketing and networking into their strategies, creating mobile and GPS widgets, develop a killer website where you can continue on with the Cracker Barrel experience and also shop online year round (their current website is just horrible), email marketing campaigns, and much more digital.
• Believe me…I could go on and on but I won’t

As I said before…I love Cracker Barrel Restaurants and want to see it flourish in the new digital business era we now live in. But they are like many of the ‘old model’ companies out there today that are responding to an entirely new marketplace and an entirely new type of consumer the way they have always done and/or the way their industry does it. That is just not going to get it anymore. Most of today’s upper management, leaders and shareholders don’t understand the new era we are in so they resist it or they feel threatened by it and threatened by those who do know how to transform old model to new models. What they need is to embrace fresh, creative, strategic entrepreneurial experienced (A degree in trench marketing which you can’t get in any of today’s schools, should be the prerequisite you look for) marketing professionals that know how to serve, lead, and appeal to today’s ‘connected society’ and yet still keep true to Dan Evins vision that started the Cracker Barrel Restaurants back in the 60′s.

Their mission is pleasing people and today’s customer really wants to experience that.  If I were in charge of the marketing for Cracker Barrel…

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