Category: corporate tomfoolery

Target’s downfall: the perils of gaming the culture wars

Target’s sales are in freefall. Brian Cornell, the company’s longtime CEO, has fallen on his sword and stepped down.

There is no shortage of glee in the press about all this. Target was one of the companies that abandoned DEI policies in the wake of Trump’s election, and the general shift in the national mood.

But what really happened? We may have a chicken-and-egg conundrum here. Did Target ever really benefit from its carefully cultivated “woke” reputation? Or did its former notoriety lose more sales? Continue reading “Target’s downfall: the perils of gaming the culture wars”

Cracker Barrel’s management team proves that they can break what is not yet broken

There is one ironclad rule of business: turn an MBA loose on an otherwise healthy business model, and he or she will screw it up.

It took a Wharton and Harvard graduate, Alissa Heinerscheid, to concoct the transgender marketing plan that destroyed Bud Light’s position in the marketplace in 2023. Bud Light had been doing well since Anheuser-Busch introduced it in 1982. Then Heinerscheid (with the help of Dylan Mulvaney) decided to “rebrand” the beer.

Julie Felss Masino, the current CEO of Cracker Barrel, does not list an MBA among her credentials. But we can bet that she consulted with some, when coming up with Cracker Barrel’s new minimalist, me-too logo and interior redesign. Continue reading “Cracker Barrel’s management team proves that they can break what is not yet broken”