You know what IHOP stands for. But dollars to flapjacks you don’t know what IHOb stands for (note the lower-case “b”), and the chain wouldn’t have it any other way.
The announcement that the 60-year-old pancake house planned to change its name came by way of a tweet, which also clarifies that the name change will become official next Monday, June11:
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
— IHOP (@IHOP) June 4, 2018
The cry for attention from IHOP, which is owned by Dine Brands Global Inc. …, isn’t unprecedented but the results of consumer brands changing their monikers have a mixed track record of success. A company or product name can be one of the “most valuable assets a company possesses,” according to a Nielsen study.
Yet, as the article goes on to mention, some companies have rallied after ditching their original handles for something catchier. Among the outfits that have done this are Quantum Computer Services, BackRub, Computing Tabulating Recording Corp., Brad’s Drink, and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web. If those are not familiar, you may know them better by their replacement names — America Online, Google, IBM, Pepsi, and Yahoo!, respectively.
So what will the “b” stand for? I invite readers to offer their speculations in the Comments section below. Remember to keep it clean. This is a family blog.
