Issue #3: In (to Idaho)-N-Out

What does In-N-Out’s expansion mean for the brand?

Welcome back to Brand Baby! Hope everyone is gearing up for the holidays and winding down at work. This week, we’re talking about In-N-Out Burger and what its recent expansion to Idaho means for the brand.

I’ve spent the last few days in Idaho with my family, and the recent opening of Idaho’s very first In-N-Out Burger has been the talk of the town. So what better milestone to explore in this week’s issue?

Having grown up in California, In-N-Out was a core childhood experience. Basketball team is going to lunch after a game? In-N-Out. In need of a post-prom snack? In-N-Out. When friends and family from out of state would visit, a trip to In-N-Out would inevitably be on the itinerary. In the past few years, the franchise has expanded beyond California into a few western states, including Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Colorado, and Oregon. Last week, they opened their 400th store location in Boise, Idaho, resulting in wait times of over eight hours throughout opening day. Loyal fans even camped out overnight awaiting the opening.

All the local media outlets had the cringiest social captions to announce the opening, like: ‘Idaho Goes Animal Style for first In-N-Out Burger.’

So, it got me thinking, for a brand that was largely built around the experience of exclusivity – I mean, In-N-Out was akin to a tourist attraction in California while growing up – is its expansion to its detriment? 

It’s not news that many luxury brands succeed due, in part, to their exclusivity. Gucci, Chanel, and Bottega actually don’t want everyone to buy their products; they want the most affluent and influential members of society to, which in turn allows them to keep their retail prices high while still creating a deep sense of desire among the masses. But In-N-Out isn’t a luxury brand – it’s a fast food chain. Yet still, I’m convinced that much of their popularity and success over the years can be attributed to the fact that they only operated in California. Their brand is built around this ethos, a lore of California culture. Surfer boys, Hollywood, highways, palm trees… it all fits within the In-N-Out brand. And before everyone comes at me, yes, their burgers and shakes are great (their fries leave much to be desired, and I will die on that hill). They initially saw success because the products are good, no doubt about it. But as with all great brands, they quickly became more than just their products. In-N-Out became an icon of California culture, a tourist destination, and a highly anticipated experience, particularly for non-Californians.

Growth is bound to happen over time, of course. Just as Starbucks originated in Seattle (my parents tell me that visitors would plan entire trips around a visit to the flagship) and now exists on every block in every city everywhere, franchises expand geographically. It’s just what they do. In-N-Out has already expanded from a solely Californian empire to a Western United States empire, and they even have plans to open a corporate headquarters in Tennessee and expand east of the Mississippi River soon. But as a result, do they risk losing some of the brand love and loyalty that was built around their initial exclusivity? When something becomes so common that you can consume it whenever and wherever, it becomes mundane. It’s no longer cool. Shake Shack is an example of this. They started as a literal shack in Madison Square Park, where people would line up to grab a hotdog on their lunch break, and then eventually turned into a franchise with locations all over the country. While they’re good, and still somewhat popular, they just don’t have the same brand ethos that In-N-Out has. 

The aforementioned shack in its current form.

Some would argue that Starbucks expanded beyond that original Seattle shop and still maintains tremendous success and brand love. But I think that it’s important to remember that Starbucks was really one of the first direct-to-consumer coffee shops in the world. It made coffee consumption into the experience that we now know it to be. No one else was serving to-go cups of coffee that you could pick up on your way to work. I mean, just watch this scene in You’ve Got Mail to see the early days of Starbucks in action. So of course Starbucks has maintained majority market share. 

So what’s next for In-N-Out? The system of capitalism will inevitably lead them to continue their expansion efforts, but I would advise them to maintain some elements of exclusivity. Maybe that could look like creating secret menu items that are only available at select California locations, or opening a few experiential locations in California, where customers could taste test new secret menu items, purchase exclusive merch, and try out one of those surfing simulators, (idk, what would you put in an In-N-Out theme park?!). The elements of exclusivity should tie back to the tenets of California culture that made the original locations so compelling to residents and visitors alike. 

This is what I’m envisioning!!

P.S. In my last issue, I mentioned that Beli should do a personalized annual recap of your top restaurants, the number of restaurants you ranked on the app, etc. Well, as it turns out, they did just that!! To the lovely subscriber who works for Beli and pitched this idea to your team: I promise I’m not mad, but I do deserve to be fairly compensated for this meaningful contribution (jk).

Hope everyone has a lovely holiday and takes some time off! I’ll see you next week :)