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Advertising Question: IHOb

2,677 Views | 27 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by Zemira
Zemira
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So IHOP announced they were temporarily changing their name to IHOb. Today they announced the b stands for burgers for a summer promotion.

Of course they announced this all through social media on Twitter. Many fast food and breakfast restaurants took time to troll the change.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2018/06/11/ihop-becomes-ihob-burgers/691380002/

I guess I get the marketing behind this as everyone is talking about IHOP and their hamburgers. It's all over social media and you have Whataburger, Wendy's and Burger King making fun of their brand. I mean this sort of thing seems like a social media director's wet dream. But does it work? Will it work?

My real question is with this sort of ad campaign does this actually translate to increased customers? Increased sales? Increased burger sales?

I'm an accountant and marketing like this just seems out there. I realize the campaign probably isn't as expensive as I imagine, but seems like an ad campaign that had a longer term goal of more repeat sales and customers would be more cost effective. Again I look at dollars and so I should never be in charge of advertising or marketing.

Premium
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It has already worked. I had no idea and now it sounds intriguing. The only thing is they need to back it up big time (good product) and I doubt they do. Any other burger chain making fun of it needs to stop - any publicity is good publicity right now. IHOP just marketed to Whataburger's follows... guess what, they all eat burgers!

All just my opinion
tommyjohn
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The campaign was fantastic and cost them little to nothing I imagine however, final success will be determined by the quality of the burgers.

The Original AG 76
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All of the local and 3 of the national networks that I follow all had pretty good stories about the change. They were fluff pieces but they all showed iHop interior scenes provided by the company with wonderful food happy customers etc. They also showed the company provided scenes of their various hamburgers and the "new" exciting burger options....right out of the marketing dept.
They got millions of free national prime time coverage. IF they actually follow up with decent burgers it will be a killer campaign. Hell...I haven't been in an iHop in YEARS and I am sure that I will be trying one out soon for lunch and a burger.
gougler08
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If the burgers are good, they have a great price point at $6.99 for burger fries and a drink, so you would think they could compete...I'd be concerned if I was the fast food burger chains
Lone Stranger
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Current ad campaign has generated lots of people thinking about IHOP that had forgotten it (for various reasons). They will get more people through the door this summer. It is now up to the franchisees and operations people to see if they can turn those additional people through the door this summer into additional marginal sales revenue and return customers and that isn't about advertising. That is about operations, quality, customer experience, etc. They seem to be a very hit and miss franchise regarding food and customer experience in their restaurants across their footprint. That will be what ultimately deems the bean counters evaluation at the end a success or failure.
AggieMainland
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"Any other burger chain making fun of it needs to stop"

Honestly, what Burger King and all the others are doing on social media is genius. They are "making fun" of it so that people will retweet their tweets and create a bigger buzz for their own company. Wendys does a great job with this. Its a win for everyone....expect your waistline. IHOP has a successful campaign that was talked about on every radio show I listened to on the way home...and on tv/internet. It probably didn't cost them much for all this buzz. (even if only temporary). Burger King and Wendys of the world paid zero to troll them and also get some buzz out of it. Only thing it cost them was the salary of the social media team that would have been paid either way. Its a win-win.
The Wonderer
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gougler08 said:

If the burgers are good, they have a great price point at $6.99 for burger fries and a drink, so you would think they could compete...I'd be concerned if I was the fast food burger chains
The main part of fast food burger chains is not taking 15+ mins to get your food.
bmks270
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IHOP wins....
TennAg
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Brilliant campaign but I think their focus is different than i've seen mentioned.

IHOP has a very high veto factor. It only takes one person in a group or family to torpedo a trip there because the perception of the menu is one dimensional (the extremely high margin breakfasts/pancakes). Now, that holdout will just say "that's fine, they do have burgers there."

They've pigeonholed themselves, this is an effort to undo that and the longer term benefit i believe.
Bocephus
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Wendy's and Burger King played off it brilliantly. IHOP burgers are mediocre so unless they changed their recipe (and quality of meat) they will struggle. They're niche is as a 24-hour breakfast restaurant. I would focus on that rather than on trying to compete at burgers.
IrishTxAggie
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And they still will be. They haven't changed the menu. This is also not a permanent rebranding as of now. Personally I think it's probably one of the smartest marketing campaigns I've seen in the past 10 or so years. The free ad time and exposure they're getting on social media, radio, and news is worth 10s if millions.
Nagler
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I never think of burgers at IHOP and honestly didn't realize they had burgers. So now I know.

I won't be going there to eat their burgers but I'm sure some people will.
Guitarsoup
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Fantastic marketing all around. They will go back to being IHOP with a campaign about keeping the new fantastic burger menu and everyone will be happy.

Just like how Coke fooled everyone with the new Coke thing. It was a longer term play to get hfcs in the ingredients to save them what probably amounts to billions in the 30 years since.
Ulrich
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IrishTxAggie said:

And they still will be. They haven't changed the menu. This is also not a permanent rebranding as of now. Personally I think it's probably one of the smartest marketing campaigns I've seen in the past 10 or so years. The free ad time and exposure they're getting on social media, radio, and news is worth 10s if millions.

In terms of cleverly utilizing social media to generate huge exposure relative to investment, i put it up there with Coke's names on the cans and the Old Spice commercials.
Max Power
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It worked in the sense that people are talking about it, but will it translate into increased revenues is the bigger question. I didn't eat at IHOP before and I don't plan eating there while temporarily calling themselves IHOB either. I salute them for trying, I think it's dumb, but if it works then good for them.

This ploy is to get people into IHOP at more times of the day than just breakfast, in all honestly their focus should be a complete rebranding if that is indeed the case. They've said this is a temporary thing, perhaps this is the first step to something more drastic.

I live in a land of chain restaurants, the same idiots that fill the Applebee's parking lot might consider trying the IHOB instead.

_lefraud_
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Funny because IHOP and Applebee's are under the same parent company, Dine Brands Golbal.
TennAg
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_lefraud_ said:

Funny because IHOP and Applebee's are under the same parent company, Dine Brands Golbal.


yeah that sounds about right
gig em 02
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In the words of Wendy's "We aren't too worried about a place that found pancakes too hard."

I'm sure people will go to ihop for a burger, but they are competing with Chilis and Applebees, youcan go to any fast or fast casual burger place and get a faster product with superior quality.
The Collective
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Wendy's has a great twitter account that I follow, but it has zero impact on my food decision-making process. Their food sucks.
JSKolache
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tommyjohn said:

The campaign was fantastic and cost them little to nothing I imagine however, final success will be determined by the quality of the burgers. Q3 revenue & results.


DIN up 15% since the announcement.
Max Power
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Well in that case it sounds like this is just IHOP selling Applebee's burgers, that I can't see as a good decision.
IrishTxAggie
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Max Power said:

Well in that case it sounds like this is just IHOP selling Applebee's burgers, that I can't see as a good decision.
It's still two completely different restaurant styles. People go to Applebee's because it's an American grill with a variety of food. Burgers are afterthoughts for most, but they're there. This won't go after market share of Applebee's. It will go after Red Robin, Fuddruckers, Steak n' Shake, etc.. Places that specialize in burgers.
ATM9000
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IrishTxAggie said:

Max Power said:

Well in that case it sounds like this is just IHOP selling Applebee's burgers, that I can't see as a good decision.
It's still two completely different restaurant styles. People go to Applebee's because it's an American grill with a variety of food. Burgers are afterthoughts for most, but they're there. This won't go after market share of Applebee's. It will go after Red Robin, Fuddruckers, Steak n' Shake, etc.. Places that specialize in burgers.

They don't give a damn about selling burgers and aren't directly competing with burger places. They care about having more customers at lunch and dinner. This is all just a way for them to say 'hey we are a diner and not just a breakfast joint'.

People saying this is gonna kill them are hilarious.
Bocephus
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ATM9000 said:

IrishTxAggie said:

Max Power said:

Well in that case it sounds like this is just IHOP selling Applebee's burgers, that I can't see as a good decision.
It's still two completely different restaurant styles. People go to Applebee's because it's an American grill with a variety of food. Burgers are afterthoughts for most, but they're there. This won't go after market share of Applebee's. It will go after Red Robin, Fuddruckers, Steak n' Shake, etc.. Places that specialize in burgers.

They don't give a damn about selling burgers and aren't directly competing with burger places. They care about having more customers at lunch and dinner. This is all just a way for them to say 'hey we are a diner and not just a breakfast joint'.

People saying this is gonna kill them are hilarious.

I don't think it is gonna kill them. I just do not see this increasing market share unless they changed their burgers.
ATM9000
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I think they intend to.

Even if it is a temporary spike in traffic at lunch and dinner, it was a successful campaign.
mavsfan4ever
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Haven't been to ihop in years but I'd go try a burger there if they introduce some new burgers.
Picard
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IrishTxAggie said:

People go to Applebee's because it's an American grill with a variety of food.


No. People go to Applebee's because they're either old, not bright, or both.
Zemira
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I guess I'm not the target audience for the advertising campaign which is why I was scratching my head and asked the question. To me they would need to show a big percent increase in sales, revenue, and profit in Q2, and Q3 for me to consider it successful.

Most of the places mentioned in the thread I don't frequent. I guess I'm a food snob? I mean I do eat fast food Whataburger and Chick-fil-A.

I guess it's the diner/fast casual segment I'm snobby? After I got out of college I don't really frequent any of the chains listed anymore. I probably haven't been to an IHOP or Denny's in years. I tried a Waffle House last year as it was new and decided you had to be drunk to consider it good. I mean if I want a "fast-casual" type burger I'm probably going to Smash Burger or Five Guys.

If I want a local burger place in Houston I'll go to Hubcap Grill (bit of a drive) or if local to me Ron's Hamburgers or Country Bumpkins (Tomball).

None of those other places show up on my radar, much less IHOP. Honestly much rather make a burger at home than go to IHOP. So I just have to assume I'm no where near the target audience of IHOP or this marketing campaign.

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