LENEXA Kan. George Williams will leave his post as chief marketing officer of Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill on March 30, according to the chain’s new parent company, IHOP Corp.
IHOP announced his leaving in a securities filing on Tuesday and said a search is under way for his replacement.
Williams joined Lenexa-based Applebee’s International Inc. as chief marketing officer on Feb. 9, 2007. Glendale, Calif.-based IHOP recently acquired the company.
His departure comes as Applebee’s continues to suffer poor sales, despite the launch last fall of a rebranding campaign that marks a departure for the chain. The “Together is Good” campaign features TV spots with a talking apple, voiced by standup comic Wanda Sykes, to position the nearly 2,000-unit casual-dining chain as a special place where friends gather for meals.
But the campaign does not appear to be getting them in the door. Systemwide same-store sales fell 2.9 percent during the fourth quarter of 2007, IHOP reported.
The campaign is the first work for the chain by its new agency, McCann Erickson of New York, which won the estimated $180 million account last July.
