
IHOP Becomes IHOb, the International House of  Burgers - DoreenMichele
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618844977/ihop-becomes-ihob-the-international-house-of-burgers
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jaysonelliot
As a temporary marketing campaign, this is brilliant.

Everyone says they care about the IHOP brand, and "threatening" is has brought
out a viral storm of news stories and discussions. Everyone claims to care
about IHOP, but how many people actually eat there anymore?

This reminds me of when Radio Shack decided to call themselves "The Shack," or
when Toys'R'Us closed down, or Sears began to disappear from the American
landscape. Each big change triggered a wave of nostalgia, but it was too late,
the brands were on the way out, and nothing was going to save them.

In this case, though, IHOP is alive and well, and suggesting that the brand
might change could make people who haven't set foot in an IHOP in years think
about going back, just to revisit the experience.

Actually having a value proposition to offer, in this case upmarket(?)
burgers, means IHOP won't just be banking on nostalgia, but really trying to
woo consumers. Of course, if the burgers aren't any good, this will be a
debacle. There's a saying on Madison Avenue, "nothing kills a bad product
faster than good advertising."

~~~
chomp
>Everyone claims to care about IHOP, but how many people actually eat there
anymore?

At least around where I live (Houston), I hardly ever am able to eat at an
IHOP because it's always packed at breakfast time. I imagine it's a ghost town
for dinner.

>Of course, if the burgers aren't any good, this will be a debacle.

Yeah. It's hard to build a loyal breakfast following, but in my experience
they are doing fine there. Lunch and dinner is a whole different ball game-
there is way more selection (but I guess you could say there's more people
looking for food too.) All I can say is that these better be some dang good
burgers for all this commotion. Especially if I can't grab a beer with my
burger.

~~~
kodablah
Similar in Dallas area. It is very accommodating to families with very young
children, something that's otherwise hard to find for parents who don't want
to feel like they're inconveniencing other patrons.

~~~
core-questions
Yup. You want to take kids out politely, you gotta go to the madhouse places
full of other folks doing the same thing.

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coryfklein
From a financial perspective this makes sense to me. With "pancakes" in the
name you're practically guiding customers to your $7 entree. Change the name
to "burgers" and you're prompting the $12 entree instead, with a potential 70%
improvement in revenue.

~~~
TillE
It's just a short-term marketing stunt to promote their burgers, they'll be
back to IHOP soon enough. I'm surprised this got so much traction with people
I follow on Twitter. A successful stunt, certainly.

~~~
dawnerd
I had to block it on twitter. So freaking obvious what it is yet everyone is
eating it up.

~~~
jasonkostempski
What's worse is this is a link to NPR, on the front page of HN. There are no
sanctuaries.

~~~
ddtaylor
"Native advertising"

~~~
dawnerd
Oddly enough you don't have to even pay for this kind of content as long as
you can make it go viral enough. Media outlets LOVE jumping on popular topics.
None of the articles ever contain anything of substance either. Always a
couple twitter posts and a rehash of what people said along with a line or two
from a pr or some other outlet.

~~~
ddtaylor
It used to be that these kinds of things came from the Associated Press (AP)
does that play a role anymore? We are considering doing a press release (PR)
and I have little understanding of the entire process.

~~~
dawnerd
Depends on the publication. PRnewswire is probably a good starting point. I've
been more on the pr receiving side and most of my prs come from there or via
direct access to a companies pr distribution list.

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ddtaylor
If they would have went with IHOd they could just flip their "p" into a "d"
and save millions on rebranding those signs! Then if it fails they can add an
"L" later and pivot into the crypto-currency space.

~~~
geekrax
With "b" also it's a vertical flip.

~~~
cjhopman
But it requires reversing back and front.

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fencepost
The CNN Money article including quotes from the CEO indicates that it's
temporary and that a few locations may change signage temporarily but most
will remain as they've always been.

[http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/11/investing/ihob-ihop-
burgers-...](http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/11/investing/ihob-ihop-burgers-name-
change/index.html)

~~~
coryfklein
> "We are definitely going to be IHOP," Darren Rebelez, president of IHOP,
> told CNNMoney. "But we want to convey that we are taking our burgers as
> seriously as our pancakes."

> An IHOP in Hollywood is getting new IHOb signs, and some others might get
> the treatment.

> But Rebelez said the vast majority of the nearly 1,800 other locations will
> still go by IHOP.

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parliament32
Looks like ihob.com was transfered (or at least the whois updated)
yesterday... the owner is going to make a tidy profit if this name change is
permanent.

~~~
giarc
I heard that @IHOB was created and verified by twitter a number of years ago.
Perhaps they had been planning a burger release for quite some time.

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_bxg1
I was going to call this the dumbest marketing stunt I've ever seen, but then
I saw the Domino's one.

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Tomte
Too bad they don't have ihob.com…

~~~
newman8r
It looks like the current owner has put up an ihop-looking logo and has listed
the site for $50,000

~~~
ddtaylor
Smart domain squater!

~~~
lzy
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but that is the literally the worst thing
the ihob.com domain owner can do and will no doubt give IHob an edge if/when
they file a UDRP complaint.

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fredsanford
When they're done with their publicity grab they can continue as IHOB --
International Hall Of Bullshit.

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grillvogel
this world gets shittier every day

~~~
RIMR
If this is what keeps you up at night, you live a blessed life.

~~~
craftyguy
To be fair, passing off a blatant advertising PR stunt as 'news' further blurs
the line between actual news/facts, opinions, and bullshit for people who have
a hard time determining which is which.

