Cracker Barrel scraps its rebranding. Here are attempts by other firms that also didn't last.

Country-themed restaurant chain Cracker Barrel wasted little time reversing course after its new branding drew criticism from some customers, social media posters and even President Donald Trump. In doing so, it becomes just the latest company to scrap an attempt to remake its image.

On Aug. 19, Cracker Barrel said it would replace its gold-and-brown logo featuring a man leaning against a barrel with a simplified version of the chain's name. The reaction was swift, especially online, where thousands offered opinions. Some were negative, like Trump saying on his social media channel that the chain "should go back to the old logo."

On Tuesday, Cracker Barrel said that after hearing the concern, it would abandon that plan. "Our new logo is going away and our 'Old Timer' will remain," the Lebanon, Tennessee–based company said on Facebook.

The move by the chain, which operates almost 660 Cracker Barrel locations in 44 states, shows that rebranding can be harder than it looks.

"The goal is always to create a functional and flexible brand system that resonates with internal and external audiences," Jae Robbins, president at Atlanta-based real estate marketing and design firm Resource Branding, said in an email to CoStar News.

But that isn't always easy. As Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University, put it on LinkedIn: "The challenge for a brand is to be relevant and change without losing too many of its fans."

Here are some other companies that scrapped their rebranding efforts.

The clothing retail chain Gap ditched a new logo in 2010 after about a week. It followed backlash from consumers, who had formed an emotional attachment to the products, deciding the new lettering was too bland, the BBC reported.

In early 2019, coworking giant WeWork's attempt to remake itself as the We Co. drew criticism online. The company reverted to the more focused and descriptive WeWork in October 2020.

Investment company Aberdeen went back to its original name after removing the vowels to become Abrdn in 2021. The rebranded name was hard to read and "widely mocked," according to the BBC, leading the firm to restore the vowels.

In 2009, Tropicana launched a redesign of the packaging for its orange juice that eliminated the orange-and-straw image customers had embraced. The effort quickly soured its relationship with consumers, and the new design was scrapped in a matter of weeks.