There are fewer stronger word associations in the food business than “IHOP” and pancakes. But the International House of Pancakes brand had let the core strength of its relationship with the beloved breakfast food slip a bit lately.
So one of his first orders of business after joining IHOP as Chief Marketing Officer last August, Brad Haley commissioned research that led to a new campaign that highlights the importance of pancakes as a passion and delight to the iconic blue-roofed brand—and to its fans—without getting syrupy.
A new U.S. spot titled “Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancakes” shows the joy of pancakes with two pilots who are so obsessed about getting to IHOP that they, amusingly, end up making an unscheduled detour for a stack.
“The idea was a rallying cry for us and our guests,” Haley, who was hired by IHOP parent company DineEquity as the brand’s CMO in August from CKE Restaurants, told brandchannel. “We haven’t reflected that fun as directly as we are now.”
IHOP also just announced the return of all-you-can eat pancakes for $3.99 (through Feb. 11) to kick off the brand’s 60th anniversary celebrations this year.
“Our top priority at IHOP is to rebuild sales and traffic momentum by executing against a broad four-pronged strategy, which includes significantly enhancing the guest experience; running great restaurants; building and driving traffic; and being where the guest is,” CEO Stephen Joyce (who was also named to the position last August) told investors recently.
So as part of its brand-refresh efforts, IHOP is expanding its delivery platform as part of an emphasis on building “off-premises” business, to generate revenue in new areas including airports, universities, casinos and travel centers. It’s joining with franchisees to remodel 300 restaurants this year, and tweaking its menu to introduce more non-pancake choices such as French-toasted donuts. And while it never has been truly “international” since being founded in Los Angeles in 1958, the chain is working to expand abroad, where IHOP currently enjoys less than 3 percent of consolidated revenues.
Brad, what led you to take the IHOP role?
My first exposure in the restaurant industry was Jack in the Box and then I spent 17 years with CKE, which owns Carl’s Jr. and Hardees. CKE had been based in California and moved to Franklin, Tenn., recently and got a new CEO. So I started looking for other opportunities. I kind of grew up with IHOP and it was a great, iconic American brand and I reached out to them and they happened to be looking for marketing resources.
It’s a brand that has just a huge amount of latent love. Usually it’s a family occasion to go to IHOP and more often than not you’re getting pancakes—under an iconic blue-pointed roof—and people invariably smile. But this wasn’t being tapped into or communicated very effectively through marketing communications. To me that was a huge opportunity.
How did those customer insights lead to the new campaign?
Everyone loves IHOP and if anyone can own not only the physical stack of pancakes but also the emotional reaction you get from being served them, that’s IHOP. That was a huge opportunity. We’ve done a lot of work with our guests to understand how to dimensionalize that. The idea of “Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancakes” was putting all of those insights together. It’s a rallying cry for people who love IHOP and love our pancakes. This brand is fun and the experience is fun and we make people happy—a rare thing in the marketing world.
Pancakes Pancakes Pancakes. And more Pancakes Pancakes Pancakes. Oh, and some Pancakes as well. Also pancakes. pic.twitter.com/K4q0y71VgL
— IHOP (@IHOP) January 8, 2018
How are you improving the customer experience?
People view us as another home. We’re in the midst of a major remodel, which will be complete by 2020. We’re moving along so the in-restaurant experience and physical environment will be looking as good as we can possibly make it for all of our guests, and we’re also expanding our points of contact where you can experience the brand, such as our first airport location, at DFW. We’re at universities, and moving into more urban and rural locations.
How are you addressing consumers’ food and nutrition demands such as low-carb and gluten-free?
We have a variety of healthy options such as egg-white omelets and items that are gluten-friendly. And people can customize any entry. But ultimately it’s about serving great tasting food that people love.
What else are you doing around the 60th anniversary this year?
We kicked off the year with the perfect promotion, $3.99 all-you-can-eat pancakes, as a birthday present to our guests. It’s a great offer for America’s favorite pancakes. After that there will be a variety of other things we’ll be doing. You’ll see different things from us this year than you may have seen in recent years, and some of that is just the fact that it’s our 60th anniversary and we’re revisiting how we’re doing things for the next 60 years.
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