The marketing stunt by ihop to “rebrand” as ihob, wasn’t exactly well planned.
The establishment known for its pancakes, decided to change its web site and social media accounts, proclaiming a name change – but it was all a marketing ploy.
ihop becomes ihob: Unbelievable indeed.
ihop is introducing burgers to its menu, and they aren’t really rebranding, but the hype of the campaign worked rather well on social media, that stirred numerous conversations.
Not only that, but someone spent most likely $15,000 dollars to acquire ihob.com – a domain that ihop didn’t touch to begin with. That, should have been a hint from the beginning.
Now, the buyer is most likely stuck with a hot pancake, and despite initial attempts to list it for $50,000 dollars on Afternic, the current lander falsely indicates some relationship with ihop, via the use of a similar logo.
That, can be risky, as the domain ADO.com was sent to the UDRP process, and was lost due to a similar looking logo. That case, is still pending due to a lawsuit filed at the federal level by the Respondent.
In the case of ihob.com, the buyer, Axiom Assets, most likely believed that ihop would pay big bucks for the domain. While the pancake / burger establishment might still buy the domain, they would have done so already if the rebranding was real.
As a side effect of this ordeal, Pancake King, operating in Singapore from the domain PancakeKing.com, is definitely experiencing increased traffic: Burger King “rebranded” its social media accounts to Pancake King, in jest. 😀
Well this could be an opportunity for the wildcat domainer? As you state ihop never touched the domain and was a temporary marketing ploy. come and gone. What would happen if the domain owner put up a website for burgers and sandwiches after ihop stops its advertising?
The domainer capitalizes of a lost opportunity from a corp mishap. Better ck federal tm registration. not use ihop similar logos or any reference to ihop. Just leave a billion dollar corps lawyers scratching there heads over a marketing misstep!