Cracker Barrel's CMO Sarah Moore on Reimagining Tradition

So, first, thank you. Thank you all. Honestly, out of home is kind of baked in our DNA at Cracker Barrel. What really started as a functional tool to navigate guests to our stores has really grown to be a part of our identity. It has really evolved to cue that emotional connection that you said along the way. And so when we think about out of home, it is such an important part of our mix. But just like any part of the mix, it's one that takes focus and attention and management. And we have really honed this program over decades, quite honestly, in partnership with your team and others. And I really feel that all of the optimization, everything we've done over the last few decades has really brought us to this point. We have been very public about our transformation. We are in year one of a three-year transformation. And the role that out of home will play in that, I'm excited about it for a couple of reasons. One is the first year of our transformation has really been about testing and development and understanding what we're going to do across this framework for all of our core guests and prospective customers. And so now you're going to start to see that we're going to signal some of that change and what's really come out of that first year. And what a great way to do it then through out of home with that reach. And so I'm really excited about that and how we will continue to innovate on this channel moving forward.

It's a fun line to walk. We're a roadside brand. We grew up off the highway. And so, we operate in 44 states, 650 plus stores, and the majority of them are off highways. And so, as a directional tool, it is very much a real one for us. It is not always intuitive as to how to get off the highway and find your Cracker Barrel. From exit ramps and access roads, we literally need to tell people how to get there. So, we can't lose that. But as Sue said, and as we've referenced, the emotional connectivity to this brand is unbelievable. I would challenge that 70% plus of the people in this room right now have a nostalgic origin story with Cracker Barrel. I know I did. And so to have that kind of deep-rooted connection and love is a really powerful tool. And so bringing them together in a channel like out of home is a really unique creative challenge for us. And so it's something that you will see us doing more of and being really precise with how we use out of home as our brand storytelling evolves.

Yeah. So 17 years in hospitality and we at MGM truly believed that you build the brand one guest at a time. It is about ensuring that every single touch point across the journey is delivering on that branded experience. Not only delivering on it, but that you're preempting what that guest's needs are at every step of the journey. And so when I think about transitioning to Cracker Barrel, I can confidently say there is no other brand within casual dining that can authentically live up to that spirit of service and hospitality the way Cracker Barrel does. We do it in our own way. We call it country hospitality. But when you walk into a Cracker Barrel, it is literally like a warm hug. Our 70,000 employees love us. They are very much in service of the guest. And so for us, it's taking that spirit of delivering on that at every one of our touch points. And we firmly believe that we are there to deliver more than a meal. We believe that our entire experience is built around that. And so we live and breathe it and it is hospitality at its core.

Everybody's talking about cultural relevance right now and how you show up. And I think the brands that aren't doing it right are the ones that are trying to be relevant for relevant's sake. We talked about how deeply people love Cracker Barrel and I think what is great for us is that we really have this kind of two-prong strategy right now, but it's built on a really strong foundation. You referenced Shabuzzi. Whether it's our retail store items going viral. If you haven't been to a Cracker Barrel retail store lately, you need to go. You will be so pleasantly surprised. But whether it's the retail store items going viral, whether it's Shabuzzi posting in front of us, the amount of celebrities that just organically love us, that call us and say, 'Don't take Catfish off the menu.' Like, they care deeply about their Cracker Barrel. I can't tell you who did that. But if it gets back to this person, crack catfish isn't going anywhere. But people love us. And so, on one hand, we have been pretty humble as a brand. We have been on the quieter side. And so it really is a defense and offense strategy. And so on the defense side, it's just being agile and paying attention to when those moments happen, okay? And engaging with them and thanking them for their deep-rooted love and that will create momentum for you. And so we're having a lot of luck with that, showing up where they're already talking about us. And then the other one is more of the offense strategy. And gone are the days where brands can think that they can only have a one-to-one relationship with their customers. Those days are gone. It is so critical that you are showing up where your guests are and proving to them how you can add value and amplify across multiple layers of their life. And so for us, it's identifying those opportunities. Where can we show up where our guests are? It is not about relevance for relevant's sake. It is deeply rooted in our authenticity and who we are and creating experiences and partnerships that again amplify that. A great example is our most recent announcement with our partnership with NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports. We have massive overlap in our audiences and we have a lot of like-minded values and so you'll start to see us playing in a way that is really amplifying who we are at our core.

So I think another mistake that brands make is that they don't bring the focus and precision to out of home that you do across all other channels. We scrutinize our TV spots. We scrutinize paid social campaigns. We scrutinize how we show up on every other channel. But yet oftentimes out of home is homogenized or it's just not given that same level of focus. And so coming into this brand I was unbelievably excited about the rigor we have around our out of home. The optimizations that we are constantly testing against and evaluating. It is not just a homogenized channel for us. Where we really have the ability is around innovating with you all, innovating on the product and just being incredibly precise with our creative strategy. As I said, we're going to start signaling some new things across our experience and across marketing. And so static classic boards are going to help us do that and it's going to be great. But when I think about again 44 states, what we can do on digital and programmatic around local store marketing, around day parting, around weather triggering, we can be clever in a way that reflects who the brand really is, but be much smarter about how we're utilizing this tool to actually drive traffic into our stores.

Oh, I mean, so much excites me about what we're doing at Cracker Barrel. We are in this really interesting place where we're driving consideration and reconsideration across a lot of new audiences and we're evolving in a way that is unbelievably thoughtful because we started off great. This isn't about changing who we are. It's just about stepping into the spotlight in a different way. And so I'm really excited about where we're leaning in, how we're getting smarter about how we're engaging our customers. Our core customer, our core guest who has been that core loyalist who loves us so deeply. They are at the center of everything that we're doing. You mentioned our country charm. None of that is really changing. Everything you love about the brand from the biscuits to the rocking chairs to everything is still very much there. It's really about just kind of opening that door wider. We like to say that there's this component of 'if you know, you know' with our brand. And more people need to know. Because when you do walk in, you kind of have a moment if you haven't been there in a really long time where you're like, 'Wow, I had no idea.' And so, again, just deeply rooted in who we are, and evolving in a way that more people love us the way so many already do.

Thank you. Thank you for being a great partner.