Over the summer one of the most talked about marketing campaigns was the IHOb campaign. The International House of Pancakes announced they were changing from IHOP to IHOb and later announced that the “b” stood for “burgers”. Shortly afterward they admitted it was all a publicity stunt to help build awareness of their line of burgers. This campaign has potential for a couple of class discussions. First, was it successful? Clearly they succeeded in getting people talking about their company but whether it drove sales is more ambiguous. This article from the USA Today suggests it did not drive a material increase in sales. Another article from geomarketing.com indicates that there was an increase in male traffic but the net result was negative due to lower traffic by females.
Another angle to discuss is the ethicality of the campaign. Is it ethical for a company to say “we’re changing our name” when they have no intention to do so? Does this create a bad precedent or does it cause other companies to push the boundaries of deceptive marketing? How far is too far when trying to gain publicity?
Social media is great but the platforms have to find some way of generating revenue. The primary mechanism has been advertising revenue but those platforms are always on the lookout for additional opportunities. According to USA Today article, “
Many of my students have an interest in a career in sports marketing. The draw isn’t terribly surprising considering how much time and money devotes to athletics but most of these students have no idea what a “sports marketing” job actually entails. This article from the American Marketing Association, “
The measure of your impact in social media is often the number of followers or views that you have. The theory being that better, more interesting, or more popular individuals and content will naturally draw a larger follower base than those of lesser interest. However, it seems that everywhere you turn there are individuals willing to venture into ethical grey areas to get ahead. The New York Times wrote this lengthy but fascinating article titled 
Social media marketing added a new and significant channel for businesses to reach customers. However, when that channel is controlled by another entity it can create challenges. In this