Ben And Jerry's
Ben and Jerry’s was founded in 1978 by childhood friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. They had a dream of starting a company together but they didn’t have any experience in business. Due to their love for food, they came up with the idea of making bagels or ice cream, but the cost of the equipment for bagels was much higher so they chose to produce homemade ice cream (citation). They learned only from small business pamphlets and a correspondence course from Penn State University (citation).
When developing a business plan, they thought that their target market, the group that they would market their product to, should be college students in warm climates (citation). However, through environmental scanning when they surveyed campuses looking …show more content…
Ben had sinus problems which meant that he couldn’t taste well and this caused them to put two to four times the recommended amount of flavor into the batches of ice cream, and also accounted for the variety of textures. They began with 12 flavors when they opened in May of 1978. The strong flavors and textures were a hit with customers and the scoop shop frequently sold out of ice cream.
Ben and Jerry’s took a proactive approach to the ice cream off season by sponsoring contests and carnivals in the fall to draw in customers. These events allowed them to be personally active in the community. This created an atmosphere of customer loyalty and enabled them to personally deliver value by getting to know the customers on a personal level.
However, at the end of the first year the company was just scraping by and they realized that they needed to be innovative. They instituted a new marketing strategy that involved packaging their ice cream. This allowed them to increase their distribution area to include local restaurants and grocery stores. This worked as hoped and increases their sales but soon demand was higher than their ability to supply and they looked to purchase a new production facility. They bought an old spool and bobbin mill and converted it into a manufacturing
When developing a business plan, they thought that their target market, the group that they would market their product to, should be college students in warm climates (citation). However, through environmental scanning when they surveyed campuses looking …show more content…
Ben had sinus problems which meant that he couldn’t taste well and this caused them to put two to four times the recommended amount of flavor into the batches of ice cream, and also accounted for the variety of textures. They began with 12 flavors when they opened in May of 1978. The strong flavors and textures were a hit with customers and the scoop shop frequently sold out of ice cream.
Ben and Jerry’s took a proactive approach to the ice cream off season by sponsoring contests and carnivals in the fall to draw in customers. These events allowed them to be personally active in the community. This created an atmosphere of customer loyalty and enabled them to personally deliver value by getting to know the customers on a personal level.
However, at the end of the first year the company was just scraping by and they realized that they needed to be innovative. They instituted a new marketing strategy that involved packaging their ice cream. This allowed them to increase their distribution area to include local restaurants and grocery stores. This worked as hoped and increases their sales but soon demand was higher than their ability to supply and they looked to purchase a new production facility. They bought an old spool and bobbin mill and converted it into a manufacturing