If you haven’t heard of Ben & Jerry’s before, it certainly isn’t a name you will forget once you have tasted their amazing ice cream. What started out as a small business between two childhood friends; Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield; established in 1978 in a renovated gas station selling homemade ice cream, is now a multimillion-dollar business owned by Unilever.
So how did a brand selling something as simple as ice cream achieve such enormous success? By offering something different, and I don’t just mean the product.
So if you have heard of Ben & Jerry’s, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the product. This being the over 60 innovative ice cream flavours on offer. That’s certainly the first thought that enters my mind, but the distinctive flavours aren’t the only thing that set the brand apart from competitors like Haagen-Dazs and Baskin-Robbins, it’s the brand’s social mission that does. Competitors have a long road ahead of them in this regard if they want to rival Ben & Jerry’s success.
Let’s take a closer look at how Ben & Jerry’s has differentiated and positioned itself against major competitors; Haagen-Dazs and Baskin-Robbins.
Ben & Jerry’s follows a 3-part mission statement, which encompasses a product, economic and social aspect. Focus is placed on making a fantastic tasting product, on increasing value for all stakeholders, and on improving the quality of life globally.
Source: https://goo.gl/DpFhlD
But its Ben & Jerry’s social aspect of the mission statement I believe to be the true differentiator against its competitors. The brand’s social mission accompanied by unique product flavours has allowed the brand to occupy a prominent space in consumers’ minds.
Whilst both Haagen-Dazs and Baskin-Robbins also create high quality ice-cream with innovative names, the brands seem to be falling behind Ben & Jerry’s social endeavours. This is made evident in the positioning map I created below.
Positioning Map to compare Ben & Jerry’s level of social activity against competitors; Haagen-dazs and Baskin-Robbins:
From this positioning map it is evident that Ben & Jerry’s has a significantly higher level of social activity compared to both Haagen-Dazs and Baskin-Robbins.
So let’s delve a little deeper in to Ben & Jerry’s key differentiator; its social mission.
Ben & Jerry’s has a strong social mission at its core that is ingrained deeply in everything the organisation does. Not only that, but the brand lives by its mantra of “peace, love and ice-cream”, which is apparent in all of its social endeavours and the manner in which the brand interacts with its customers.
At the centre of its social mission is the brand’s ‘Caring Dairy’ program, which is a continuous improvement model that uses 11 indicators of sustainability to rate local dairy farmers’ practices, such as animal welfare and soil health. This initiative is a way for the brand to support local farmers whilst ensuring the dairy being sourced from them to be used in the production of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream is of the highest quality.
Furthermore, Ben & Jerry’s has dedicated itself to a host of issues they care about such as, racial justice, fair trade, LGBT equality, democracy and climate justice.
The campaign created to support climate justice is a great example of how the brand positioned itself as a promoter of social change and in turn differentiated itself from its major competitors Haagen-Dazs and Baskin-Robbins. The campaign was creative and relevant, and connected with people on an emotional level through the product to the critical global issue of how an increase in temperature can be detrimental to the earth. The campaign resulted in over 1 million views and over 12 thousand signatures on a petition to take action demanding climate action. These statistics indicate the success of the campaign, and the campaign itself clearly resonated well with people.
Another initiative Ben & Jerry’s created is ‘Free Cone Day’, which is the brand’s way of giving back to the customers who have supported them. Once a year the brand allows customers to come in store and get a free scoop of ice cream of their choice. This initiative shows customers that they are valued, appreciated and important.
Source: https://goo.gl/SRX9Qo
Ben & Jerry’s further demonstrates the value it places on its customers by collaborating with them. Customer’s could enter a competition to submit new flavours to be added to the existing flavours on offer. The flavour with the most votes would then be added to the product range. Just like the ‘Free Cone Day’ initiative, this action shows customers that their input is valued.
Last but not least, whilst this may not be the brand’s key differentiator, Ben & Jerry’s has nevertheless differentiated itself in terms of its product offering. The flavours are innovative, cheeky and unheard of, such as ‘Chunky Monkey’ and ‘Clusterfluff’, which draws attention to them and makes them fun and memorable.
Source: https://goo.gl/DwwAqI Source: https://goo.gl/ykCgh1
Haagen-Dazs and Baskin-Robbin may easily rival Ben & Jerry’s in terms of the product offering, as all 3 brands offer a wide range of unique ice cream flavours, however I find Ben & Jerry’s to have a much wider target audience than Haagen-Dazs who caters mainly to a more sophisticated, adult audience; and I believe Baskin-Robbins may have a much too large product offering with its over 1000 ice cream flavours.
Overall, it is evident that Ben & Jerry’s key differentiator against major competitors is its social mission. The brand clearly goes out of its way to live out its brand mantra whilst fulfilling various social endeavours the brand cares about. Ben & Jerry’s knows how to ignite the inner activist in its target audience by getting them involved in global social issues.
It is apparent that the brand gives careful consideration to both the community and end consumer in every business decision it makes, and I believe that this lays the foundation for Ben & Jerry’s loyal customer base. After all, its hard not to love a brand that cares so deeply for its environment and community, and Ben & Jerry’s not only does this, but they do it well.
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