As dining rooms reopened after pandemic closures, Dine Brands and its Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill Bar and IHOP concepts reengaged their marketing teams to remind customers what they were missing.

When Walker Hayes was a kid growing up in Mobile, Ala., dinner at Applebee’s represented a splurge for his family — though not necessarily for every member of the family. “My dad could get fajitas, ...