Cracker Barrel and The Democrats Chose To Cater To The Affluent Niche...And Failed
They aren’t thinking about you anymore. You’re not of their ilk.
The marketing shift made by Cracker Barrel was motivated by the same reason the Democratic Party wanted to change their voter base target.
Both wanted to cater to a more affluent audience and were willing to gamble losing their traditionally working-class base for this gain.
It was an active devaluing of the average working-class American as a consumer or voting class and an elevation of the wealthy suburbanite and college-educated urbanite hipster who is connected to an excess pool of money.
Over the past few decades, we have dissuaded people from working with their hands in favor of sitting in a cubicle getting paid for your supposed industry knowledge.
Now, people perceive you as a failure if you don’t have a degree attached to your resume. But even more so, you’re not of a particular status that is favorable.
See, all of this is about perceived class and status. Elite colleges are social networks and signifiers of a social circle you’ll permanently be attached to.
Graduating from Harvard carries a prestige that tells the world your value, intelligence, and class. But even the non-Ivy League graduates have this same attitude.
Spending four years in school is a social status climb for many of them. It doesn’t even matter how much it costs them to get their degree because they care more about the social perception they’ll carry than the debt that holds them back.
The reason all of this matters is because these are the people who become the heads of marketing departments, human resources, and government. Most people see the faces of politicians, but these people are figureheads for the work done by their college-educated staff.
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The Democratic political consultants they hire are of the same ilk, and the advice they give is fueled by the desire to cater to the niche they belong to. Everyone is attracted to “premium,” and no one wants what is common, including people.
The common man and woman are boring, and why would someone who has worked their entire life to stay away from that social status care to appeal to the majority of Americans?
In an 2016 interview with the Associated Press, Senator Chuck Schumer stated, “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”
The Democrats knew exactly what they were doing by shifting strategies and they didn’t care if they lost the blue-collar vote. Yet, today, they are scratching their heads wondering why they are sitting at a 63% unfavorability rating (the lowest rating in more than three decades).
While everyone was talking about Bud Light going “woke,” what they missed was the key motivator: appealing to a new and more sophisticated base.
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The former VP of Marketing at Bud Light, Alissa Heinerscheid, stated in an interview, “Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach.”
They don’t want the irreverent class of individual who says offensive things in a joking manner or enjoys watching football.
They want a consumer base that enjoys brunch, like they do, and enjoys a smooth alcoholic beverage while hosting dinner parties, like they do. When they talk about inclusivity, they’re including themselves. They want what their social circle wants.
When the CEO of Cracker Barrel, Julie Felss Masino, was asked what people thought about the logo and redesign, she confidently said that people around her loved the changes. Well, who do you think the people around her are?
Cracker Barrel is far from being alone in this ambition to cater to the niche. Stellantis, the automaker of brands like Jeep, Dodge, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, and more, felt what happens when you forget about your loyal base.
Brands like Jeep and Dodge were always seen as working-class consumer vehicles that were affordable, and their buyers were loyal as well. Stellantis decided to keep their pandemic-inflated pricing to attract a more affluent buyer, but by doing this, they completely priced out their loyal buyers.
The cost was detrimental as Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares resigned, and their company is now in a tailspin, and Stellantis-partnered dealerships deal with trying to rid themselves of massively overpriced Jeeps, Rams, and Dodges.
They chose to make their Ram pickup trucks electric even though no consumer base exists for this type of vehicle.
But I’m willing to bet that many of the people making the decisions driver electric cars and love the idea of having an electric truck to possibly appeal to people like them.
What we are witnessing is a massive disconnect on a political and corporate scale. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Why would they do that?” this should be a considered answer:
They aren’t thinking about you anymore. You’re not of their ilk.
As usual, nothing is new under the sun, and Orwell already said it better than I can:
"What sickens me about left-wing people, especially the intellectuals, is their utter ignorance of the way things actually happen."
"So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot."
"It's frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence."
"When they talk about inclusivity, they’re including themselves. They want what their social circle wants."
This is pretty much every compulsory DEI training I've ever endured. It's always sanctimonious, never humble and open-minded.
And now it's driving corporate decisions.