Dippin' Dots Case
Bailey Brupbacher
MGT 400 – Summer
Amber Rivers Holmbeck
Dippin’ Dots – With Less Dots Dippin’ Dots was founded in 1988, and for almost 20 years it has been affectionately known as “the ice cream of the future.” In the face of soaring operating costs and plummeting sales though, Dippin’ Dots has been faced with considerable losses in the number of franchises operating, with only 420 in 2008, 215 less than in 2005. Dippin’ Dots has continued to slide down the Entrepreneurs Top Franchises List as well. Dippin’ Dots are BB size pellets of flash frozen ice cream, frozen with liquid nitrogen, which cryogenically locks in both flavor and freshness by eliminating the presence of trapped ice and air, giving the ice cream a fresh flavor and a hard texture. This being their core competency, Dippin’ Dots prospered for many years as a unique segment of the ice cream market, targeting the out of home ice cream segment, mainly focusing operations in high-traffic areas like amusement parks and malls. Now facing increased competition Dippin’ Dots must first pinpoint the problems, then implement the needed solutions if they want to re-stabilize growth. One problem facing Dippin’ Dots is that the unique product they offer severely limits the target markets that can be reached. Since retail locations can only offer the product at 10 to 20° below zero, special storage and serving freezers are required, as well as specially designed cryogenic transport containers in order to move the product. This as well as other factors have limited the distribution of Dippin’ Dots to only serve the away from home segment of the ice cream market, which accounts for $13.9 billion. Therefore it is recommended that Dippin’ Dots develop an ice cream product which can be offered at temperatures that a supermarket could handle in efforts to reach the $8.9 billion take-home segment of the ice cream market. As well as continue the development of all of the Dot Delicacies, with line extensions to
MGT 400 – Summer
Amber Rivers Holmbeck
Dippin’ Dots – With Less Dots Dippin’ Dots was founded in 1988, and for almost 20 years it has been affectionately known as “the ice cream of the future.” In the face of soaring operating costs and plummeting sales though, Dippin’ Dots has been faced with considerable losses in the number of franchises operating, with only 420 in 2008, 215 less than in 2005. Dippin’ Dots has continued to slide down the Entrepreneurs Top Franchises List as well. Dippin’ Dots are BB size pellets of flash frozen ice cream, frozen with liquid nitrogen, which cryogenically locks in both flavor and freshness by eliminating the presence of trapped ice and air, giving the ice cream a fresh flavor and a hard texture. This being their core competency, Dippin’ Dots prospered for many years as a unique segment of the ice cream market, targeting the out of home ice cream segment, mainly focusing operations in high-traffic areas like amusement parks and malls. Now facing increased competition Dippin’ Dots must first pinpoint the problems, then implement the needed solutions if they want to re-stabilize growth. One problem facing Dippin’ Dots is that the unique product they offer severely limits the target markets that can be reached. Since retail locations can only offer the product at 10 to 20° below zero, special storage and serving freezers are required, as well as specially designed cryogenic transport containers in order to move the product. This as well as other factors have limited the distribution of Dippin’ Dots to only serve the away from home segment of the ice cream market, which accounts for $13.9 billion. Therefore it is recommended that Dippin’ Dots develop an ice cream product which can be offered at temperatures that a supermarket could handle in efforts to reach the $8.9 billion take-home segment of the ice cream market. As well as continue the development of all of the Dot Delicacies, with line extensions to