Today is the official birthday of The International House of Pancakes, founded in Southern California in 1958 (Al Lapin launched the first in Taluca Lake, CA) and name-shortened to IHOP in 1973. Some stats to put IHOP's Come Hungry, Leave Happy slogan in perspective: nearly 16 billion pancakes topped with more than 32 million gallons of syrup have been served over the past half century, and fans of IHOP's popular 'Never Empty' coffee pots have washed down enough Joe to require 74 million pounds of coffee beans.
IHOP has been in full marketing blitz mode this year to make the most of hitting the big Five-O. It launched IHOPstuff.com to offer limited edition, vintage t-shirts and hats. A consumer-generated contest that kicked off in May prompted thousands of IHOP fans to share their favorite restaurant memories from the past 50 years, showcasing the role IHOP played in special ocassions and life events. The winner of the national "It Happens at IHOP" contest - I believe this is just being announced today - is Scott Reader of Maple Shade, New Jersey, who shared his story of teaching a weekly "life skills" class at IHOP to his special needs class, where the students learn to engage in conversation with adults, order from the menu, and pay on their own. Scott won a lifetime supply of free pancakes and a free trip for two to New York City to celebrate IHOP's birthday today.
IHOP also launched the Discover America Road Tour earlier this summer, crossing the country to "celebrate two American classics -- pancakes and baseball". An IHOP-branded RV is traveling more than 8,500 miles to visit Minor League Baseball parks in 27 cities. The IHOP marketing team, with mascot, is in Indianapolis, Indiana today at Victory Field for an Indianapolis Indians AAA game. There's an interactive map on the website where you can check to see if the RV is coming to your city and minor league ballpark. It'll be travelling through the end of August, capping things off in Sacramento, CA.
Now, my wife and I are huge IHOP fans. We ate at our local restaurant yesterday (I had a pancake combo), and always look forward to an IHOP visit. Great food, bang for the buck and service. My best friends daughter, age six, considers IHOP a 'fine dining' (5 stars). As a social media enthusiast, I'm glad to see IHOP diving into the Web 2.0 waters with consumer generated contests and interactive digital content. But here's my BIG GRIPE: A prehistoric, 'old media' defensive attitude on the website. IHOP requires you to fill out a media form to access simple items like images and logos, which are for 'working journalists only'. As if my using a picture of yummy pancakes in a blog post praising IHOP will somehow infringe on their command and control structure. The entire site is defensively built so you can't copy/paste something as minimal as the IHOP logo. And the wording is such as to instill fear that if you even use information from the site (a press release???) without their permission, you are violating their terms. So I'm off to Google Image Search to locate a logo to use in this post.
Attention IHOP, some friendly advice from a fan ... get with the program. Stop trying to control the conversation. Be a part of it, encourage it, respond to it whether it's good or bad. And using social media is much more than implementing social media tools. It's about conversation, transparency, openness and trust. Follow the lead of numerous brands and make your media page friendly, with rich and accessible digital content at the ready - with welcome mat out - so anyone (yes, even bloggers) can quickly and easily access high quality logos, pictures and information to include in our posts. One last suggestion - again, from a fan - you need a consumer feedback portal as well, one that's transparent, that enables commenting and rating and collaboration and 'co-creation', so we Passionate Consumers (and employees too) can make suggestions, offer feedback, and share innovative ideas. Remember, this is 2008. The consumer is in control, and he/she just happens to be a reporter as well. So next time we visit your website and are Hungry, enable us to Leave Happy!
16 billion pancakes seems a little hard to fathom. Last time I visted an IHOP the place was packed... I was just amazed at how much breakfast business this place did.
Posted by: NJ Guy | November 14, 2008 at 11:22 PM