On Saturday, former President Barack Obama stood onstage in Cleveland and said the White House looked like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
By Monday night, President Donald Trump was telling voters at a rally in Mississippi that The Cheesecake Factory is “a very successful company,” and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ate a meal there the same day.
Within days, the brand was featured on CNN, CNBC, and was covered by the Associated Press, USA Today, Fortune, and major media outlets. Google searches for The Cheesecake Factory also jumped 70% over the prior week, per Google Trends, and 130% compared to the same week a year earlier.
That’s the type of attention every CMO dreams of getting, so long as it’s positive. Many wouldn’t be able to resist seizing on being thrust into the national conversation. But The Cheesecake Factory said nothing.
The brand didn’t respond to requests for comment. When it reported earnings on Tuesday, nobody on the call mentioned Obama, Trump, or the White House. CEO David Overton stated, about younger guests, that the brand “has always had broad appeal.” Simple, and sufficient.
Both sides wanted a seat at the brand’s table
The financial results the company reported to investors this week, and the timing, could make this recent attention look like an immediate payoff. After all, the chain’s revenue topped $1 billion for a second straight record quarter, and comparable sales rose 15.2%. But none of that came from this recent interest from politicians and media.
A week of headlines might lead to earned attention. But business growth comes from years of people choosing you for dinner.
What’s far more telling than short-term share price fluctuation is the fact that both sides tried to claim a relationship with the brand.
Trump defended it as a success story. Obama, at a Georgia rally on Wednesday, said that it was his “jam for about a decade” with his daughters. Politicians can project whatever meaning they like onto a brand. Customers ultimately vote with their wallets. And they are the ones whose views matter most.
Just like the map of voters in America, Cheesecake Factory’s growth doesn’t follow clear party lines. Its newest restaurants are in Wichita and suburban Atlanta, but its biggest markets are California, Florida, and Texas. When two sides of America are fighting to own you, the only way to lose is to pick one.
Silence is an earned strategy
Staying quiet can work, but only when your brand is strong enough to exercise restraint. The Cheesecake Factory’s was, thanks to work that took place long before any politicians ever joked about it.
Most brands can’t do this. If your customers skew hard toward one side of the aisle, silence can read as hiding, but a response can read as pandering. Identifying which of these two risks is greater requires first knowing who your customers are and how they see you.
One of the hardest moments a CMO can face is making a clear-headed decision at the very same moment when the CEO is forwarding screenshots, investors are stressed, and agencies and employees are drafting clever memes and tempting witticisms. But the people who are loud on social media are not always the ones who matter most. The opinion poll that really matters is that of the family splitting avocado egg rolls on a Tuesday night.
From my experience looking at large volumes of brand health data, the brands that know when to join the conversation and when to hold back have something in common: They know their brand, and understand what every segment of consumers think of it deeply. They track and care about awareness, consideration, and sentiment. That’s what enables them to walk into a viral media week knowing whether their brand equity can absorb it or not.
The case for a wink
But even if your brand has strong brand equity, silence isn’t always the best move. There are times when humor works well, and can still be apolitical. A quip such as “Every table’s open. Even for former presidents” could have grabbed more attention, without taking sides.
But timing also matters. With only days remaining before a midterm election, The Cheesecake Factory didn’t need more attention around politics at this exact moment.
That said, when a controversy relates to how the company treats staff or guests, or makes a brand look bad, silence can read as indifference. Knowing your customers tells you whether a moment is just noise, or if it carries real risk.
Then there’s the global risk mitigation that Americans tend to forget, but global CMOs cannot. The Cheesecake Factory has licensed restaurants in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Mexico, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Thailand. The Saddam Hussein joke might land well in Cleveland, but perhaps not in Kuwait City. Any commentary has to be crafted carefully, to ensure it can reflect well on a brand in every market it cares about, all at once.
Every marketer wants to build a brand that culture has something to say about, so that you can decide whether or not you want to say anything back. But the goal is not only having the ability to choose. In fact, when a viral moment pulls your brand into a fight it didn’t start, the very first question to ask isn’t how, or if, to respond.
Instead, you should ask whether you know—from real data, and not just a hunch—how consumers actually see your brand. If you don’t, even the best wink-and-nod social post on the planet won’t save you.
