“Hey mommy, you’re funny…funny wooking.” That was the joke my then four-year-old loved to tell anytime she heard the word “funny.” (And yes, her mispronunciation of “looking” is as cute as it sounds.) While I have to admit the kid was pretty good in her execution of the joke, it still got pretty old pretty fast.
IHOP, similarly, is at risk of repeating a joke that is getting old or by some accounts, already was.
Last year, when it changed its name to IHOB to bring attention to its burger offering, the joke felt old from the start. Consumers and competitors alike were either making fun of the brand or expressing frustration with it. And while Twitter sentiment made it seem like the joke was on IHOP, sales of its burgers reportedly increased after the campaign. Now the joke is back, with IHOP announcing a big reveal of what the “P” stands for.
Once again, reactions aren’t positive. My personal favorite is from Twitter user Grace Giulini:
So, when does a marketing campaign or gimmick go too far or get too old?
Certainly, campaigns that are offensive or unethical fall into the “too far” category. But many other campaigns, like this one, aren’t offensive or unethical; they’re just annoying.
If we zero-in on campaigns that are annoying, how does a brand know when it’s gone too far?
While I don’t believe there is a concrete answer for this, there are definite metrics that can be measured to help the brand itself determine when it’s time to kill a campaign or gimmick. The most concrete measures are sales and ROI. If both are positive and met expectations, then the campaign may try again. Using Facebook’s store visits metric could help as well as it ties back to a specific post. Transaction counts could help as well in measuring whether the added awareness of the brand led to more diners.
And maybe it’s just that simple – driving awareness especially for a brand that might not be at the top of everyone’s radars. In IHOP’s case, they got the attention – and the sales – they were looking for last year, which is impressive for a brand with a third the Twitter followers of Wendy’s and McDonald’s, and three-fourths the followers of its closest competitor, Denny’s. The brand is certainly generating buzz this year as well, even though not all of it is positive (much like last year). I suppose only time will tell whether this campaign continues to have legs. I’m sure we’ll read about the success of it (although I doubt we’ll hear about it again if it failed), and if so, we might be talking about this again in May and June next year. While I hope not, I now feel committed to see this through and find out what the “P” stands for.
How about you? Do you think IHOP has let the joke go on too long? Are you tuning in to find out the big reveal? And more importantly, if you do tune in, what do you think?!
References:
Doland, D. (2019, May). Wednesday wake-up call: IHOP again. AdAge. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/digital/secret-life-iphones-plus-johnson-johnsons-opioids-trial-wednesday-wake-call/2174346
Flager, M. (2019, May). IHOP is changing its name yet again and people are already trolling them. delish. Retrieved from https://www.delish.com/food-news/a27630165/ihop-second-name-change-reactions/
Schultz, E.J., Pasquarelli, A., Wohl, J., & Sloane, G. (2019, May). Marketing brief: What is IHOP up to now? AdAge. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/ikeas-digital-upgrade-and-sweetgreens-first-big-campaign-marketers-brief/2174436
Wohl, J. (2018, June). That ‘b’ in ‘IHOB’ stands for a dish that IHOP already sold. AdAge. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/b-ihob-food-ihop-sold-burgers/313800 Wohl, J. (2018, June). Yes, IHOP’s selling many more burgers (thanks, marketing). AdAge. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/ihop-s-selling-burgers-marketing-ploy/313872
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