Ben & Jerry’s Marketing Ben & Jerry’s Marketing Essay, Research Paper email: ben & jerry’s marketing Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. , a Vermont corporation, manufacturers and markets Ben & Jerry’s super premium ice cream, low fat and non fat frozen yogurt, ice cream novelties, and sorbets. The Company’s products are available in unique and traditional flavors and are marketed in supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, and other venues. The company also franchises Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops, including seven shops in Canada. The company is also a joint partner in a production and scoop shop venture in Karelia, Russia; has a licensing agreement with an ice cream manufacturing and marketing company in Israel; and sells its products to customers in the United Kingdom and France. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield had the dream of producing super premium quality ice cream while keeping the essence of their own ideas.
With a $12, 000 investment, they began the realization of their dream in a small converted gas station in Burlington, Vermont in 1978. They began this venture with a mission that is the overall objective of their company today. The first franchise followed in 1981, and the company went public in 1984. In 1994, with profits falling due to stiff competition, Ben & Jerry’s suffered its first ever loss. Cohen stepped down as CEO and Robert Holland became the new CEO and president. Holland’s stay was rather short, however; he resigned in 1996 and was replaced by Perry Oak, former CEO of Winchester rifle maker U.
S. Repeating Arms, in early 1997. Mission Statement Ben & Jerry’s is dedicated to the creation & demonstration of a new corporate concept of linked prosperity. Our mission consists of three interrelated parts: Product, Economic and Social. Product is to make, distribute and sell the finest quality all natural ice cream and related products in a wide variety of innovative flavors made from Vermont dairy products. Social is to operate the company in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in the structure of society by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life of a broad community: local, national and international.
Economic is to operate the company on a sound financial basis of profitable growth, increasing value for our shareholders and creating career opportunities and financial rewards for our employees. Underlying the mission of Ben & Jerry’s is the determination to seek new and creative ways of addressing all three parts, while holding a deep respect for the individuals, inside and outside the company, and for the communities of which they are a part. The company works to employ its Mission Statement in as many day to day business decisions as possible so that the company so profitable and the community can profit by the way Ben & Jerry’s does business. Company & Industry Environment Ben & Jerry’s is not only concerned with profit, but also with social issues.
They have been purchasing milk from Vermont farms for more then market price for its products. Part of the company’s profits go to the company’s Foundation. Since the company does not want an excessive spread between executive and workers’ compensations, many executives’ pay is limited relative to the lowest-paid full time worker. The company strives to give the best products and services to its customers. With many people conscientious about health and fat-free, they recognize this demand by offering a product line that includes sorbets and yogurt, as well as premium ice cream. With the different tastes and preferences in regions of the world, Ben & Jerry’s create flavors that their diverse customers request.
Since Ben & Jerry’s is expanding its market all over the world, it realizes that different countries / consumers have different preferences in its ice cream tastes, and different cultural traditions and values. The company listens to market demands, such as opening stores in small areas, and putting its products in most supermarkets. This is also proof that it has a strong relationship with customers. There are many competitors that Ben and Jerry’s has to face in the ice cream market. The old competitors, such as Haagen-Days, and Freindly’s, and new competitors are trying to compete with their product lines. Ben & Jerry’s tries to create its own differential advantages among these products by combining its products with the social mission, and also by creating unique flavors in order to be different in the ice cream world.
The company is considered environmentally oriented since most of its products deal with the nature. In its social mission, it states that we want to be concerned with the environment, especially nature itself. The super premium frozen dessert market is highly competitive with the distinctions between the super premium category, and the “adjoining’ premium category less marked than in the past and with the domestic premium frozen dessert category showing a recent decline in industry sales, except for sorbet. The ability to successfully introduce innovative flavors on a periodic basis that are accepted by the marketplace is a significant competitive factor. The product is seasonal and generates most sales during the spring and summer months.
In addition, the company’s principle competitors are large, diversified companies with resources significantly greater than Ben & Jerry’s. The company’s major competitor is Haagen Daz, who controls 50 % of the total market. Ben & Jerry’s commitment to the environment could have adverse effects because of the resource it devotes to its products. Consequently, the company is concerned with recycling, reusing, reducing conserving energy, and ways to reduce the negative environmental impacts within the company.
It believes that it has responsibility for the environment and, therefore, conducts all aspects of its business responsibly in regard to the environment. The company has contributed to some of the environmentalist programs. An example of such a program is the car-pooling promoted by the company in order for its employees to conserve energy. They are looking toward organic sources to avoid pesticides, herbicides, and other toxins. The company is also in the process of researching non-chlorine bleached paper for their containers, since the effects of chlorine creates dioxins in water supplies. Marketing Plan Pricing: Ben & Jerry’s is a producer of super premium ice cream, low fat and non fat frozen yogurt, ice cream novelties, and sorbets.
Due to the specific requirements for the ingredients, Ben & Jerry’s prices are relatively high. Distribution: The Company’s products are available in supermarkets, mini-marts, convenience stores, and restaurants. They are also available in Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops, and Partner Shops. Promotion: Ben & Jerry’s famous for their fun, wild, elaborate, and innovative products. These promotional activities include their own Web site, factory tours, and festivals, which includes: the One World One Heart Festival, the Annual Scooper bowl, and Ben & Jerry’s Newport Folk Festival. Products: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Butter Pecan Ice Cream – K A rich buttery ice cream with roasted pecans.
Cappuccino Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream A rich coffee ice cream with cinnamon and chocolate chunks. Cherry Garcia Ice Cream – K Our sweet ice cream with bing cherries and dark chocolate chunks. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream – K Cookie dough flavored ice cream with gobs of raw (pasteurized) chocolate chip cookie dough. Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream – K Our chocolate ice cream with chunks of fudge brownies. Chubby Hubby Ice Cream – K Chocolate-covered peanut butter-filled pretzels in vanilla malt ice cream rippled with fudge and peanut butter.
Chunky Monkey Ice Cream – K Banana ice cream made from banana puree with walnuts and dark chocolate chunks. Coffee, Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz! TM Ice Cream Espresso roast coffee ice cream with espresso bean-flecked dark chocolate chunks. Coffee Ol TM Ice Cream Our rich coffee ice cream made with coffee from rural Mexico’s Aztec Harvests farmers. Coffee with Heath Toffee Crunch Ice Cream – K Our coffee ice cream with chunks of Heath Bar candy. Cool Britannia TM Ice Cream – K Our vanilla ice cream with strawberries and chocolate-covered shortbread. Deep Dark Chocolate Ice Cream – K Very chocolate, velvety ice cream made with Bens dorp Belgian Cocoa.
Holy Cannoli Ice Cream A blend of vanilla, ricotta & pistachio ice cream with pistachios and cocoa-coated cannoli pieces. Maple Walnut Ice Cream Maple ice cream with real maple syrup and walnuts. Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream Mint ice cream made with all natural (uncolored) peppermint extract and dark chocolate chunks. Mint Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream – K Mint ice cream made with all natural (uncolored) peppermint extract and whole and broken chocolate sandwich cookies. New York Super Fudge Chunk TM Ice Cream – K Our chocolate ice cream with pecans, walnuts, chocolate covered almonds, dark chocolate chunks, and white chocolate chunks. Peanut Butter & Jelly TM Ice Cream – K Peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter bits & a strawberry jelly swirl.
Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream – K Peanut butter ice cream with whole and broken peanut butter cups. Pistachio Pistachio Ice Cream Pistachio ice cream with lightly roasted, salted pistachios. Phish Food TM Ice Cream – K Chocolate ice cream with a marshmallow nougat and caramel swirl and fudge fish. Rainforest Crunch Ice Cream – K Our vanilla ice cream with chunks of Rainforest Crunch, a cashew and Brazil nut butter crunch. Strawberry Ice Cream Strawberry ice cream with fresh frozen strawberries. Sweet Cream with Cookies Ice Cream Sweet cream ice cream with whole and broken chocolate sandwich cookies.
Vanilla Caramel Fudge Ice Cream – K Vanilla ice cream with a swirl of caramel entwined with a swirl of chocolate fudge. Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream – K Our vanilla ice cream with pure dark chocolate chunks. Vanilla Fudge Brownie Ice Cream Our vanilla ice cream with chunks of fudge brownies. Vanilla with Heath Toffee Crunch Ice Cream – K Our vanilla ice cream with chunks of Heath Bar candy. Wavy Gravy TM Ice Cream – K Our caramel cashew Brazil nut ice cream with a chocolate hazelnut fudge swirl and roasted almonds. White Russian TM Ice Cream – K Sweet cream flavored with Kahl a and coffee liqueur.
World’s Best Vanilla TM Ice Cream – K Vanilla ice cream made with pure vanilla extract. Low Fat Ice Cream Blond Brownie Sundae Low Fat Ice Cream Creamy vanilla low fat ice cream with ribbons of real fudge & chewy chunks of blond brownies. Coffee & Biscotti Low Fat Ice Cream Chunks of crunchy chocolate biscotti dunked in full-flavored coffee low fat ice cream. Sweet Cream & Cookies Low Fat Ice Cream Sweet cream low fat ice cream laced with chunks of chocolate cookies. Vanilla & Chocolate Mint Patty Low Fat Ice Cream Swirls of thick chocolate mint and vanilla low fat ice cream spiced up with bits of mint patties Ben & Jerry’s Frozen Yogurt Cherry Garcia Low Fat Frozen Yogurt – K Bing cherries and chocolate flakes in a sweet cream super premium low fat frozen yogurt. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Low Fat Frozen Yogurt – K Vanilla frozen yogurt with gobs of raw (pasteurized) chocolate chip cookie dough.
Chocolate Fudge Brownie Frozen Yogurt – K Chocolate super premium low fat frozen yogurt with fudge brownies. Peach Raspberry Trifle Frozen Yogurt Sweet peach chunks in peach frozen yogurt, raspberry puree swirls & morsels of raspberry pound cake. Vanilla with Heath Toffee Crunch Frozen Yogurt – K Vanilla super premium low fat frozen yogurt with chunks of Heath toffee candy. Ben & Jerry’s No Fat Frozen Yogurt NO FAT Black Raspberry Frozen Yogurt – K Black raspberry no fat frozen yogurt.
NO FAT Coffee Fudge Frozen Yogurt – K Coffee no fat frozen yogurt with a thick no fat fudge swirl. NO FAT Vanilla Frozen Yogurt (in pints only) – K Vanilla no fat frozen yogurt made with pure vanilla from Madagascar. NO FAT Vanilla Fudge Frozen Yogurt – K Vanilla no fat frozen yogurt with a no fat fudge swirl Ben & Jerry’s Sorbet Cranberry Orange Sorbet – KDE Cranberry and orange sorbets. Devil’s Food Chocolate Sorbet – KDE Swirls of light chocolate and dark chocolate sorbet. Doonesberry TM Sorbet – KDE Swirls of blueberry fruit sorbet and raspberry fruit sorbet. Mango Lime Sorbet – KDE Mango sorbet with a splash of lime.
Pi a Colada Sorbet – KDE Pineapple fruit sorbet with coconut and other natural flavors. Purple Passion Fruit Sorbet TM – KDE Swirls of raspberry, blackberry and passion fruit sorbets with other natural flavors. Strawberry Kiwi Sorbet – KDE Strawberry and kiwi fruit sorbet with other natural flavors Ben & Jerry’s Novelties Peace PopsTMCherry Garcia Yogurt – K Our Cherry Garcia low fat frozen yogurt covered with dark chocolate. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough – K Our Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream covered with milk chocolate. Chunky Monkey – K Banana ice cream with walnuts and dark chocolate chunks.
English Toffee Crunch – K Our English Toffee Crunch ice cream covered with milk chocolate. Vanilla – K Our rich vanilla ice cream covered with a thick chocolate coating. Brownie Bars Vanilla Brownie Bars – K Back by popular demand! Our euphoric vanilla ice cream surrounded by two fud gier, chewier, and more chocolate-y brownies. New Product for Current MarketBen & Jerry’s has used an unconventional or “un-business-like’ way of marketing. They do not use normal marketing techniques which most business are accustomed to. Advertisements for Ben & Jerry’s do not appear on radio, in magazines, or television.
Whereas other companies advertise to promote their products and brand name, Ben & Jerry’s uses other means. They promote their causes and campaigns, without using their name. There are posters promoting the efforts that the company is involved in, within each scoop shop. Ben & Jerry’s is a very unconventionally run company with little or no regard to the aggressive and cut throat nature of business in the 1990’s.
We would like to change some of their unconventional ways, as well as keep their own Advertising and Public Relations mixed campaign. Ben & Jerry’s have used ice cream to promote environmental well doing. The company already donates 7. 5% of its total revenue to the Ben and Jerry foundation, which supports various types of charities. Some of the charities that this organization supports are; Kids Conscious Acts of Peace, Children Defense Fund, Vermont Clear Water Project, Whisper Inc. , Brattleboro Aids Project, Green Corps, Center for Immigration Rights, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, and Communities for Accountable Reinvestment.
The foundation also contributes to many other charities not listed. The continues trend of this company is to promote environmental and societal well being through the use of their products. An example of this was their Rainforest Crunch ice cream. Rainforest Crunch was an instant hit that was made to protect the Brazilian Rainforest from being cut down. The company makes the ice cream from various nuts that are collected by gatherers in the Brazilian rainforests. The way they implemented this strategy and were able to keep the costs down were by cutting out the middlemen and buying the ingredients directly.
The fact that the company took an aggressive step at promoting a cause such as Rainforest Crunch made everyone realize that Ben & Jerry’s was a good-hearted organization. What we plan on doing is to continue this trend because it is a popular and profitable idea. Our plan for Ben & Jerry’s is to do more environmental promotional advertisements. Two products that we have come up with are Alphabet Java Chunk and Safari Chocolate Swirl.
Alphabet Java Chunk would be a new ice cream where 10% of all sales will go to kids who can not afford to go to college. Safari Chocolate Swirl is another environmental product where 10% of all profits will go to Animal Rights Groups. This is a spin off of the past campaigns but instead of the money being broken up and distributed to different charities the money will go to the assigned cause instead. This will make consumers feel as if they have a choice in which charity they are promoting. We feel that this type of advertising campaign would boost sales even more in an environmentally conscious society.
The two ideas are a run-ons of a current advertising strategy already implemented by Ben & Jerry’s. We feel that using this strategy would promote sales and target a healthy part of the market. Considering the fact that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is a hit among consumers at this time, a marketing strategy such as ours will boost the company’s public image considerably more We also plan to keep the same role of personal selling and promotion that the company has been using. The philosophy of Ben & Jerry’s is to get the product in the consumer’s mouth. We believe in a lot of sample testing because it sparks interest in our products.
In the past Ben & Jerry’s have promoted their ice cream by sending various personnel to colleges or high schools to participate in classes, in which they are always equipped with samples of their products, as part of their lecture presentation. A long with the presentation will be the Ben and Jerry’s truck with their logo on the side, which will act as a mobile advertisement. This type of personal promotion is what the company has been doing for a while but is one that will never fail. Ben and Jerry’s stands by the excellence of their products and their ingredients, and they feel that tasting the product is the best way to advertise properly. Our objectives are to increase sales and promote saving the environment.
We are establishing new products that pertain to social and environmental trends of society. New Marketing Mix and Target MarketBen & Jerry’s marketing mix has never been traditional in the ice cream market. It does need to conform in some ways however to the changing market. The company has not taken the route as many others in terms of promotion.
Although this has differentiated the company from its competitors, it has also let the company slip away and start lagging in terms of competition. We are recommending changing the marketing mix and expanding the current target market. The company needs to start advertising in magazines, if not, television, to keep up with other ice cream manufactures. We do not recommend changing the Ben & Jerry’s ideals or values on which the company was founded and became successful upon. We do recommend changing the medium for delivering its messages. A new magazine campaign can be used to deliver information about the Web site, new promotions, and the get the company message across to the public.
The company needs to take a more aggressive approach in terms of marketing, for it is no longer a one stand scoop shop. We believe that the market of individuals ages 4-12 needs to be heavily targeted, and have come up with some promotions to reach them as well as their parents. The new campaign will target parents of young children, instead of concentrating on the children directly. The ads that will be placed in young adult and children magazines will not be true advertisements, but instead, will provide information about Ben & Jerry’s crusades. An example would be to have an ad based around a story concerning the rainforest, or endangered species, helping to raise child awareness of these issues. This subtle way of advertising will keep Ben & Jerry’s from being perceived as marketing to children, which might otherwise be considered unethical.
A new product line will be released especially for children. This will feature smaller, one serving sized containers, to give kids a snack. The containers, keeping with the ideals of the company, will be able to be reused, and instructions will be given on its sides for art projects, which it can be incorporated into. These smaller containers will be easier for parents to give their children than serving them from the larger pints which they now sell. Another promotional idea we recommend is any young adult sports team, such as little league, that sends their team picture into Ben & Jerry will receive discounts for either pints of ice cream or the scoops shops.
The pictures will be posted in the factory as a display for touring patrons and employees. This will provide a discount for the children and make for a sense of family and community caring. We have chose to recommend making children and young adults as the new target market after studying the demographics of the country. There will be more children by the turn of the century then ever before. Looking at the chart of births from the year 1910 through 1995 we can conclude that this large population we be a major market. We have sort to gain a larger market share in the age group of 4-12 which represents an extremely large market.
If brand loyal customers can be gained, Ben and Jerry’s sales will continue to grow. This market will allow Ben & Jerry’s to mass market it’s products to children and reach an enormous market.