Cracker Barrel Old Country Store CMO Sarah Moore has a delicate task ahead of her.
Moore, who joined the family-dining chain about seven months ago, is responsible for helping to usher the 55-year-old (and proudly old-timey) brand into the future.
It is part of a $700 million rejuvenation effort at Cracker Barrel under CEO Julie Felss Masino, who came to the chain in 2023 after more than five years as president at Taco Bell.
The three-year plan will focus on updating the chain’s menu, operations, pricing and stores, and is intended to reverse severe traffic declines at the 660-unit chain. That will depend heavily on Cracker Barrel’s ability to attract a new generation of customers without alienating loyal fans. And that’s where Moore comes in.
“It’s not about a new Cracker Barrel,” she said in an interview. “It’s about, how do we take what makes this brand so special, and how do we open the aperture for more customers?”
Moore joined Lebanon, Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel after spending almost 17 years in the hotels and resorts industry. As SVP of global marketing for MGM Resorts International, she oversaw marketing for 32 brands, from the swanky Bellagio to the castle-themed Excalibur, with a variety of demographic profiles.
She believes that experience will serve her well at Cracker Barrel. The chain serves 200 million people a year in its locations, which house both full-service restaurants and retail shops selling knick-knacks, candy, clothing and more.
“I have the luxury of really understanding a really wide spectrum of customers and really what motivates different customer segments,” she said.
Sarah Moore. | Photo courtesy of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
When it comes to motivating longtime fans of Cracker Barrel, Moore wants to focus on improving what the chain already does best.
For instance, recent menu innovations have included reworkings of some of Cracker Barrel’s most popular items. There’s the new Hash Brown Casserole Shepherd’s Pie, which takes the chain’s beloved hash brown casserole and puts it over pot roast and mashed potatoes for an entirely new dish. The item has been a hit. And, notably, it has a higher price point than the chain’s $14 average ticket.
And yet, even as Cracker Barrel has shifted to a barbell-type pricing strategy, with items on both the low and high ends of the scale, Moore said it will continue to emphasize value. Masino, the CEO, has previously called value Cracker Barrel’s “superpower.”
It’s flexing that power with things like $8.99 early dining deals from 4 to 6 p.m., all-day breakfast starting at $7.99, and $5 take-home meals with the purchase of any regular-priced entree.
“Maintaining that average entry point is really important to us because that’s our core guest,” Moore said.
Cracker Barrel has also been catering to loyal customers with its first loyalty program, Cracker Barrel Rewards, which launched just over a year ago.
Asked what marketing initiative she was most excited about, Moore cited this program. Members can earn “Pegs” with every visit that they can later exchange for rewards. The Pegs are a reference to the peg puzzle game that sits on every Cracker Barrel table.
“This is already proving to be just an incredible tool for us,” Moore said of the program, which now has more than 6 million members. Members visit more often and spend more when they do. And Cracker Barrel is now exploring ways to make its messaging more personalized by using data collected from members.
“Because of what we’re seeing coming out of loyalty, we know that we have an opportunity to accelerate that work,” Moore said.
While those efforts are aimed at customers both new and old, Moore is also working to raise Cracker Barrel’s profile among young people specifically.
That work will play out in large part on social media, where Moore has directed the Cracker Barrel marketing team to listen more closely and react more quickly. She said that while the brand had a social strategy in place before, “what we’ve done recently is really accelerated that social strategy.”
Part of that will be inserting itself into online conversations about Cracker Barrel. For instance, when the chain’s vintage embroidered sweatshirts featuring images of black labs and wildlife went viral on TikTok last fall, the chain leaned in, engaging with TikTok creators and encouraging them to visit.
“We were able to jump in and kind of help fuel that,” Moore said. The sweatshirts quickly sold out.
The viral Cracker Barrel sweatshirt. | Photo courtesy of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
The chain’s retail shops are a unique advantage and offer a place where it can engage with younger customers beyond its restaurants. And it is working to get the customers who come in just to shop to also stay and eat. But brands have to use a light touch when interacting with Gen Z, Moore said.
“They’re one of those customer segments that you can’t go and yell at them and tell them what to do,” she said. “They really choose where they want to engage.”
Overall, Moore wants to take a balanced but fluid approach to the chain’s marketing mix. Cracker Barrel will continue to run TV ads throughout the year. But it will also look at digital channels and social media.
“The success is really in how you balance that mix,” Moore said. “It’s also not linear. … You have to talk to guests at the right time and the right channels, but also know they want different things at different points and different journeys.”
Cracker Barrel executives have described 2025 as an investment year, with the real payoffs not expected until the second half of fiscal 2026. Nonetheless, there are signs that some of management’s turnaround efforts are working. In the quarter ended Nov. 1, same-store sales rose 2.9%. It was the chain’s best performance since the first quarter of 2023.
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