The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2018
IHOP renamed itself IHOb for a burger push — fans assumed the pancakes were gone
June 2018 IHOP renamed itself IHOb to push burgers — fans feared the pancakes were gone, until IHOP admitted a month later it was a stunt.
IHOP · Dine Brands Global · 2018-06
What happened
On June 11 2018, IHOP — the International House of Pancakes — announced it was becoming IHOb, 'the International House of Burgers', to promote a new line of Black Angus beef burgers. The change appeared on its logo, website and in-store material, and came after a week of teasers that even had the brand tweeting 'ASAB' (as soon as burgers) in place of 'ASAP'.
The reaction was immediate and hostile. Fans read it as IHOP abandoning the pancakes that defined the chain, asking what the 'b' stood for and why the brand had touched its identity at all. Wendy's, which had the most to gain, piled on with a clapback — 'Not really afraid of the burgers from a place that decided pancakes were too hard' — that drew more than 96,000 likes in half the time IHOP's own announcement tweet took to reach 21,000.
A month later, on July 9 2018, IHOP admitted it. In a tweet promoting a 60th-birthday pancake deal, it wrote: 'We'd never turn our back on pancakes (except for that time we faked it to promote our new burgers)'. The name change had been a stunt, walked back the moment the brand's core identity was seen to be at risk.
Why it happened
- IHOP staked its entire brand identity — pancakes, in the name itself — on a burger promotion.
- The teaser campaign let the market read the change as permanent before IHOP clarified.
- Fans reacted to loss of the flagship product, not to the new burgers.
The lesson
Renaming the brand for a side product reads as a threat to what customers came for — the recoil was so strong IHOP had to admit the stunt was fake to get the pancakes back.
Aftermath
IHOP disclaimed the change in a July 9 2018 pancake-promotion tweet. The chain kept its name and continued to lead with breakfast; the burger line remained on the menu but the 'IHOb' branding was dropped.
Sources
- NPR — IHOP Becomes IHOb, The International House Of ... Burgers
- CBS News — Shocking! IHOP admits it faked IHOb name change
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