iHOP Changing Name?

Will it be International House of....

  • 1. Bacon?

    Votes: 5 15.6%

  • 2. Brandy?

    Votes: 2 6.3%

  • 3. Breakfast?

    Votes: 20 62.5%

  • 4. Baloney?

    Votes: 1 3.1%

  • 5. Other?

    Votes: 4 12.5%
  • Total voters
    32
'Breakfast', I would have totally bought as a name change. That's the only thing I really associate with the place. Our local restaurant is well run and occasionally my kids or my mother in law will make me go there. And yeah, their breakfast is more than pancakes, so changing the name would made some sense. But burgers ?
 
Well, they did succeed in generating a lot of buzz. That's often a win in marketing circles.

And Wendy's Tweet is, again, hilarious...
 
Airline I was at had two separate airlines and wanted to have a new name when they combined them. Big ceremony to announce the name at the big hangar, SureJet! Stunned silence from the crowd. PR type actually says "this is where you clap", idiot. After a lot of money researching the name, trinkets, etc, they bowed to the employees and let us vote on a new name, two company suggestions, my airline (ASA), and ExpressJet. They had more employees so ExpressJet won, but our call sign was kept, "Acey". Yay. :rolleyes:
 
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IBM learned a very painful and expensive lesson about re-branding a successful product. I invoke this one in particular because I was involved.
There are a myriad of other examples.
IHOP, don't screw the pooch.
 
Shepherd said:
IBM learned a very painful and expensive lesson about re-branding a successful product. I invoke this one in particular because I was involved.
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What did IBM mess up ?
 
jsstevens said:
Well, they did succeed in generating a lot of buzz. That's often a win in marketing circles...
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Until they change the signage, my money is on product launch marketing campaign.
 
TCABM said:
Until they change the signage, my money is on product launch marketing campaign.
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Yup.

On Monday, IHOP announced that it was changing its name to "IHOb," with the “b” denoting burgers. The change is not permanent, a company spokeswoman said, but rather is a move to promote its new burger line.
 
dmspilot said:
So not only did they lie because they aren't changing their name, but also there are a million other places to get burgers, why would I go there?
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Exactly. When I think breakfast I think IHOP. When I think burgers, I don't think IHOB.
 
When you're a know name that large and you're feeling like you need to change your name, that's never a good sign.
 
So, they're not actually changing their name. The cornerstone restaurant in California will change it for a short time as a kind of symbolic change, but all the other restaurants will remain iHop. You'll probably see iHob on the burger section of the menu.

The menu
Classic, with lettuce, tomato, onion and American cheese, as well as the brand's new "steak" burger sauce,
Classic with Bacon, with all of the above plus hickory-smoked bacon,
Big Brunch, with bacon, a fried egg, a potato pancake and cheese,
Cowboy BBQ, with bacon, onion rings and BBQ sauce
Jalapeno Kick, with jalapeno mayonnaise, bacon, Pepper-Jack cheese and sauteed jalapeno peppers, serranos chilies and onions,
Mushroom and Swiss, with sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions, Swiss cheese and mayo,
The Mega Monster, with two "steak"burger patties, two slices of cheese (American and white cheddar) and pickles.

I dunno, I don't see much international about them.
 
mscard88 said:
Not necessarily. Remember the New Coke boner?

View attachment 63993
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My Father In Law worked for Coke (not in marketing) during that era. He was quite perplexed that people reacted so strongly to the switch because they had done extensive taste testing comparing the two and folks pretty overwhelmingly preferred "New Coke" when they didn't know what they were drinking. He concluded people didn't want to be told...
 
iHope I never do something this stupid
 
weilke said:
What did IBM mess up ?
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Just one of MANY examples:
Lotus had a product called "Quickplace". It was an "instant gratification" Collaborative web tool. Easy to install, easy to administer, used the Lotus Notes back-end and the security was unbeatable.
I ran a server, physically located out in the "red zone", for more than 10 years, and no one, not the CIA, not the NSA, not the Russians, Chinese, or anyone else were able to hack it. In fact my biggest clients were the NSA, DIA and the CIA.
One day IBM decided to re-brand it to "Quickr". They also totally changed the "focus" of the product.
The problem was nothing, absolutely NOTHING changed internally in the product, but the customers assumed we no longer supported Quickplace, and were seriously perturbed that it appeared IBM totally shut off support for the installed inventory.
Sales disappeared overnight. By the time it all got sorted out and the customers "re-educated" the damage was done, and there was no bringing it back.
 
jordane93 said:
Burgers makes no sense. I thought for sure it’d be breakfast
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They've always had sandwiches, burgers, etc, guess they're just trying to get people in there in the evening for dinner. A lot of competition out there for burgers.
 
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Ihop falls roughly in the same category as Denny's to me. I'm sure their pancakes are fine, but I don't eat pancakes, and the remainder of the things they have that I will eat are mediocre at best.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Ihop falls roughly in the same category as Denny's to me. I'm sure their pancakes are fine, but I don't eat pancakes, and the remainder of the things they have that I will eat are mediocre at best.
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I like their omelets, although they are quite big.
 
mscard88 said:
They've always had sandwiches, burgers, etc, guess they're just trying to get people in there to n the evening for dinner. A lot of competition out there for burgers.
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Their best dinner meal is just an open-faced turkey sandwich with mashies, maybe a salad too or some mixed veggies. Tasty.

Why they'd push the nasty burgers, in a day where Red Robin, SmashBurger, and various other "gourmet burger" chains exist, I have no idea. They're not going to compete well with any of those.

They make stuff (for dinner) that nobody else makes... and SOME of it isn't bad... (you typically don't find pot roast on many menus, for example... and everyone likes a good pot roast dinner once in a while...). Why in the WORLD wouldn't they push (and expand) the foods they make that others DON'T?
 
FTFY

Sac Arrow said:
Ihop falls roughly in the same category as Lambert's to me. I'm sure their pure lard dishes are fine, but I don't eat pure lard, and the remainder of the things they have, that I might actually eat, are just as type 2 diabetes inducing.
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mscard88 said:
They've always had sandwiches, burgers, etc, guess they're just trying to get people in there in the evening for dinner. A lot of competition out there for burgers.
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Yea I know they’ve always had burgers and sandwiches but no one goes to IHOP for the burgers or sandwiches. It’s like Burger King changing their name to Chicken King.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Ihop falls roughly in the same category as Denny's to me. I'm sure their pancakes are fine, but I don't eat pancakes, and the remainder of the things they have that I will eat are mediocre at best.
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Mediocre food, higher than average prices...two good reasons to stay away.
 
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