IHOP Changes Its Name to 'IHOb' and Reveals What the 'B' Stands for The restaurant chain announced seven new menu items as part of its campaign.
By Matthew McCreary •
Twitter went wild last week with IHOP's announcement that it was changing its name to IHOb.
For 60 pancakin' years, we've been IHOP. Now, we're flippin' our name to IHOb. Find out what it could b on 6.11.18. #IHOb pic.twitter.com/evSxKV3QmT
— IHOb (@IHOB) June 4, 2018
Entrepreneur speculated what the "b" might stand for -- whether it might represent bacon, breakfast or might just be an upside-down "P." We even made IHOP's rebranding efforts one of the three things you should know for June 7:
However, the truth behind IHOP's name change was still a surprise. The company announced that the "B" stands for burgers, as it plans to release a line of seven "Ultimate Steakburgers," starting today.
"Everyone knows that IHOP makes world-famous pancakes so we felt like the best way to convince them that we are as serious about our new line of Ultimate Steakburgers as we are about our pancakes, was to change our name to IHOb," Brad Haley, chief marketing officer for IHOP, said in an press release today. "We've pancaked pancakes for 60 years now so it's the perfect time to start burgerin' burgers, and we're kicking it off by flipping the "p' in IHOP to a "b' for burgers. And, when you try them, I think you'll agree with me that IHOb's new line of Ultimate Steakburgers are so good that I'd put them up against anyone's … just like our pancakes."
Related: The 5 Best Burger Franchises You Can Buy (and How Much They Cost)
The only questions left are whether this will represent a long-term branding change -- and whether IHOP is taking its new-found love of burgers too far. Here's how the company concluded another press release:
"Lastly, burgers burgers #burgers. Reburgered burgers burgers burgered burgers burgered burger burgers. Burgers burgers burgers?"
Are you doing OK, IHOP?
Sorry, we mean IHOb.
