IHOP restaurants across the U.S. are on the lookout for a customer with a black hat and a black notebook. He always orders the pancake of the month and a spicy poblano omelette. And he’s constantly checking the time on his phone.
This character is IHOP President Lawrence Kim, and if he’s eating in your restaurant, it had better be on point.
“What I want to know is, first, how's the service? Number two, how's the quality of the food? And number three, how fast is it coming out?” Kim said in an interview during the Restaurant Leadership Conference this week.
Kim joined IHOP in January after more than 10 years with Yum Brands, including the past three as its chief innovation officer. His unannounced restaurant visits are part of how he’s gotten to know his new charge. He actually spent the entire first month of his tenure in restaurants, he said, cooking alongside staff and talking to customers. He’s learned a lot about IHOP in a short period of time.
Most importantly, he said, he’s learned that people love the brand. During one of his visits, he met a customer named Jessica who said she goes to IHOP 30 times a year. Kim was blown away. At the end of their conversation, he asked what else the brand could do for her.
“She said, ‘I would rock an IHOP beanie or a sweater,’” Kim said. “And then I knew, because of my previous experience, when you request brand merch, you have brand fandom and you have brand love. And then I go, OK, game on, let's bring a new energy.”
Lawrence Kim. | Photo courtesy of IHOP
It’s a brand that could use some energy. Though it remains the largest family-dining chain in the country, with more than $3.3 billion in sales and nearly 1,700 locations last year, IHOP has struggled recently. Systemwide sales declined 1.5% in 2024, and it closed more restaurants than it opened, according to Technomic data. It was one of a number of legacy family-dining brands like Denny's and Bob Evans that lost sales last year.
Kim's tenure marks the start of a new chapter for IHOP. His plan boils down to three areas of focus: good food, good service and good value. “If you have those three winning formulas, you will drive not just traffic, but you'll get them coming back for more and more,” Kim said.
Maybe the most noticeable change at IHOP has been its menu and its marketing. In the past, the chain has done a lot of limited-time offers, including more than 20 last year. Kim wants to narrow its focus and talk more about value.
Enter IHOP’s House Faves. The new offering features four breakfast combos priced at $6 in most places. It’s the chain’s first proper value menu and it has now been in the market since October, much longer than IHOP’s typical promotional window.
The strategy has been effective so far. “We're driving more awareness, and we're bringing in new consumers into the brand, which is exhilarating,” Kim said. (He was not able to share specific results because the chain is in a pre-earnings quiet period.)
With more new customers coming to IHOP, the restaurants need to be on their game to leave a good impression. That’s where the second piece of Kim’s plan comes in, about improving service.
During his month working in the restaurants, one of Kim’s goals was to identify pain points that slow down operations. “I'm cooking, and I go, why is this not simpler?” he said. “Why am I cutting a pineapple in the morning?” The company is considering switching to pre-cut pineapple to make things easier on staff.
He’s also made it a habit to ask employees what they’d do if they had a magic wand and could change one thing at IHOP. Their answers so far have filled an entire notebook. “The range of responses is just massive,” he said.
For example, one employee complained that the waffle press was positioned too high, making it difficult to know whether they were pouring in the right amount of batter. So Kim worked with the company’s engineering team to find a better place for it. “We wanted to make sure from a speed standpoint, that could be addressed, and that was a quick fix in many of the restaurants,” he said.
Kim has another plan to bring new energy to IHOP. And this part is happening largely on social media. He has revamped the chain’s marketing department to make it more “culture-centric,” which has included building a “social mining” team that keeps tabs on what people are talking about online and identifies where IHOP might be able to participate.
“We'll have a social mining meeting in the morning. and we'll look at what is trending on X or TikTok or Instagram,” he said. “Do you participate in this, is one question, and how fast do you do it?”
In a recent example, the team decided to join the conversation around a viral marketing stunt by language app Duolingo in which it announced the death of its owl mascot.
IHOP responded with a TikTok that showed chicken tenders being fried. “When the owl has pissed you off for the last time,” the caption said. The post got more than 400,000 views and more than 1,000 comments.
“It became part of the conversation saying, ‘IHOP is a vibrant brand. They're speaking to me,’” Kim said.
Engagement like this isn’t necessarily aimed at driving sales. But it can help keep the brand “top of mind” for customers, so when they’re hungry, they’ll think of IHOP. It also helps introduce the 66-year-old brand to younger consumers who may not be familiar with it.
But Kim doesn’t want IHOP to think of itself as an old brand. He’s taken to calling it 66 years young, and the team and franchisees have rallied around that.
“We have to have this dynamic and youth and energy to really drive the next evolution of the brand,” he said. “It's just super exciting.”
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