Ben and Jerrys Case Study
Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream
1997
Ben and Jerry’s
Perry Odak
1997
Background
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were childhood friends born four days apart in Brooklyn, New York, in 1951. You could say that ice cream runs in their veins. During his senior year of high school, Ben drove an ice cream truck. After high school, he attended and dropped out of various colleges in the Northeast, eventually leaving his studies altogether to teach pottery on a working farm in New York 's Adirondack region, where he also dabbled in ice cream-making.
Jerry started on a more traditional path. After graduating high school, he attended Oberlin College to study medicine. Jerry worked as an ice cream scooper in the school’s cafeteria. Upon graduating, Jerry returned to New York to work as a lab technician, while applying to medical school without success. During his lab tech days, he shared a Manhattan apartment with Ben. After moving to North Carolina for a few years, Jerry reunited with Ben in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and they decided to go into the food business together.
At first the pair thought about making bagels but decided the necessary equipment was too expensive. Instead, they settled on ice cream. They decided Burlington, Vt., was an ideal location for a scoop shop because it was a college town without an ice cream parlor. They took a $5 course on ice-cream making and in 1978 opened the first Ben & Jerry’s in a converted Burlington gas station.
Summary
Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. (B&J) is one of the two major players in the superpremium ice-cream market in the United States of America. B&J had been very successful throughout the 1980s; controlled by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. It currently holds 42% of its market. It benefits from its high product quality, social image and marketing strategy, high employee satisfaction, and overall good financial situation while it suffers from high costs of sale, poor
1997
Ben and Jerry’s
Perry Odak
1997
Background
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were childhood friends born four days apart in Brooklyn, New York, in 1951. You could say that ice cream runs in their veins. During his senior year of high school, Ben drove an ice cream truck. After high school, he attended and dropped out of various colleges in the Northeast, eventually leaving his studies altogether to teach pottery on a working farm in New York 's Adirondack region, where he also dabbled in ice cream-making.
Jerry started on a more traditional path. After graduating high school, he attended Oberlin College to study medicine. Jerry worked as an ice cream scooper in the school’s cafeteria. Upon graduating, Jerry returned to New York to work as a lab technician, while applying to medical school without success. During his lab tech days, he shared a Manhattan apartment with Ben. After moving to North Carolina for a few years, Jerry reunited with Ben in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and they decided to go into the food business together.
At first the pair thought about making bagels but decided the necessary equipment was too expensive. Instead, they settled on ice cream. They decided Burlington, Vt., was an ideal location for a scoop shop because it was a college town without an ice cream parlor. They took a $5 course on ice-cream making and in 1978 opened the first Ben & Jerry’s in a converted Burlington gas station.
Summary
Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. (B&J) is one of the two major players in the superpremium ice-cream market in the United States of America. B&J had been very successful throughout the 1980s; controlled by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. It currently holds 42% of its market. It benefits from its high product quality, social image and marketing strategy, high employee satisfaction, and overall good financial situation while it suffers from high costs of sale, poor