Analysis of Ben & Jerry's Company Branding The Ben & Jerry's Company sets forth a clear mission

statement that is outlined with three major principles in mind that outline the company's values and motivates its employees. Their mission statement is divided into a product mission, economic mission and social mission that each further defines the company's outlook on how they should impact the world. By using clear energizing goals and communicative goals, the mission statement of Ben & Jerry's provides a motivating ideal that its employees can strive for. The Ben & Jerry's Company has a mission statement that motivates its employees to want to produce a good product. The Ben & Jerry's mission statement is divided into three subsections that make it simpler to see what the overall goals are. The subsections are product, economic and social missions. Each area addresses energizing goals as well as communicative goals to provide a clear and motivating mission statement. Energizing goals state the intent of the company and what goals the organization would like to achieve. Under the product mission, it is stated that their goal is "to make, distribute & sell the finest quality all natural ice cream & euphoric concoctions". This is the primary mission of Ben & Jerry's because they are in the business of selling ice cream. It is also the first line of the first subsection in their mission statement. By placing this in their official mission statement, they are saying that

this is who we are and this is what we do. Ben & Jerry's is an ice cream company, so the first line makes sense because it simply states what the primary goal of the company is--to make ice cream. Along with this line, there are more lines about serving the Earth and using only the finest natural ingredients. These statements add a sort of validity to the business of making ice cream. Employees reading this might feel like they are doing the world a service by working for Ben & Jerry's. These sort of statements are designed to make the employees feel like they are making a better product-better for the people who eat it and better for the rest of the world too. A portion of people that work for Ben & Jerry's as well as a portion of their customer base will place great importance on the company's outlook on nature and making a natural product. The goals in this first paragraph are clear organizational goals and will make some of the employees that work there feel good about working there. The next portion of their mission statement goes into their economic mission. The economic mission states that part of their mission is to expand opportunities for development and growth for their employees. This is a sort of communicative goal. By making expansion a part of their economic mission for the purpose of providing opportunity, it becomes in the interest of all employees to work hard for expansion. By adding this section into their mission statement, Ben & Jerry's is communicating to every employee that it is their duty to help expand the business to create even more

opportunity for current and future employees. Every employ gains from the expansion of Ben & Jerry's because part of their economic mission is to provide opportunity. Of course the rest of the economic mission includes increasing revenue for investors and making profit. Most companies will include profit making for investors and increasing revenue because stating this in the mission statement can attract investors. The final area that is included in their mission statement is the social mission that Ben & Jerry's has outlined for its organization. They state that because business plays a vital role in society that they should initiate ways to improve conditions locally, nationally and internationally. This paragraph basically outlines how to be a good citizen or neighbor within the community. A certain portion of the employee population will feel inspired by this portion of the mission statement and get increased job satisfaction from working at Ben & Jerry's. Working in the community and coexisting with neighbors is good for the company as well as being good for the employees. When the whole picture is put together, the values that Ben & Jerry's is trying to push in their mission statement is clear. Respect for nature, helping one another and being good neighbors to each other sums up the Ben & Jerry's mission statement. Their mission statement is very idyllic, but it is a good ideal that many people would take to heart. The mission statement of Ben & Jerry's sets the tone for all employees and creates a positive

impression of their company. The employees of Ben & Jerry's are probably very motivated to work for a company that has so much social conscientiousness and basic love for fellow man. It is definitely a 'feel good' kind of mission statement. ice cream owners sponsored concerts, festivals and fairs and continued to give back to the community. They made a point of supporting local farmers. All of the milk and produce that went into their ice cream was always purchased locally, first.
Now, the

They practiced the law of reciprocity. If you give something, you will get something. They always remembered their customers. They gave much to their customers and they got much back in return. The lesson here is clear: have passion, then, take action. Ben and Jerry had big ideas that took their company to the next level. Always remember your customers and the power of word of mouth advertising.
Remember always, the law of reciprocity. When you give back, you get back...

Marketing Strategy of Ben & Jerry - December 13th, 2010 Ben & Jerry's is an American ice cream company, a division of the British-Dutch Unilever conglomerate, that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, United States, with the main factory in Waterbury. It is best known as an ice cream brand, founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont.

Statistics: Public Company Incorporated: 1978 Employees: 446 Sales: $132 million Stock Exchanges: New York SICs: 2024 Ice Cream & Frozen Desserts; 6794 Patent Owners & Lessors; 5812 Eating Places

Company History: Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. produces super premium ice cream, frozen yogurt, and ice cream novelties in rich and original flavors. The company sells its unique offerings in grocery stores, restaurants, and franchised ice cream shops, and it holds about one-third of the market for its products. Started by two friends who never intended to become big businessmen, Ben & Jerry's is distinguished by a corporate philosophy that stresses social action and liberal ideals in addition to profit making, and is known for innovative and creative marketing devices that express this unorthodox spirit. Ben & Jerry's was founded in May 1978, when Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened an ice cream shop in Burlington, Vermont. Cohen had been teaching crafts, and Greenfield had been working as a lab technician when the two decided that 'we wanted to do something that would be more fun,' as Greenfield later told People magazine. In addition, the two wanted to live in a small college town. In 1977, they moved to Burlington, Vermont, and completed a five dollar correspondence course in ice cream making from Pennsylvania State University. With $12,000 in start-up money, a third of which they borrowed, the two renovated an old gas station on a corner in downtown Burlington and opened Ben & Jerry's Homemade. The first Ben & Jerry's store sold 12 flavors, made with an old fashioned rock salt ice cream maker and locally produced milk and cream. Initially, ice cream production ran into some glitches. 'I once made a batch of rum raisin that stretched and bounced,' Greenfield told People. With time, however, the pair's rich, idiosyncratic, chunky offerings such as Dastardly Mash and Heath Bar Crunch gained a loyal following. In the summer of 1978, Ben & Jerry inaugurated the first of the many creative marketing ploys that would help drive the growth of their company when they held a free summer movie festival, projecting films onto a blank wall of their building. By 1980, Ben & Jerry had begun selling their ice cream to a number of restaurants in the Burlington area. Ben delivered the products to customers in an old Volkswagen squareback station wagon. On his delivery route, he passed many small grocery and convenience stores and decided that they would be a perfect outlet for their products. In 1980, the pair rented space in an old spool and bobbin factory in Burlington and began packaging their ice cream in pint-size cartons with pictures of themselves on the package. 'The image we wanted was grass roots,' Cohen later told People. The popularity of Ben & Jerry's products brought the company growth, despite the laissez-faire attitude of its two proprietors. At one point, the two were forced to close the doors of their store for a day to devote themselves to sorting out paperwork. In 1981, Ben & Jerry's expanded its pint-packing operations to more spacious quarters behind a car dealership. Shortly thereafter, the company opened its second retail outlet, a franchise on Route 7 in Shelburne, Vermont. Despite its exclusively local operations, Ben & Jerry's first gained national attention in 1981 when Time magazine hailed its products as 'the best ice cream in the world' in a cover story on ice cream. In the following year, Ben & Jerry's began to expand its distribution beyond the state of Vermont. First, an outof-state store opened, selling Ben & Jerry's products in Portland, Maine. Then, the company began to sell its pints in the Boston area, distributing their goods to stores through independent channels. At the same time, Ben & Jerry's continued its policy of promoting itself through unique and whimsical activities. In 1983, for instance, the company took part in the construction of the world's largest ice cream sundae in St. Albans, Vermont. With its continuing expansion, Ben & Jerry's developed a need for tighter financial controls on its operations, and the company's founders brought in a local nightclub owner with business experience to be chief operating officer. As sales grew sharply, Cohen and Greenfield slowly came to realize that their small-scale endeavor had exceeded their expectations. They were not entirely happy about this unexpected success. 'When Jerry and I realized we were no longer ice cream men, but businessmen, our first reaction was to sell,' Cohen told People magazine. 'We were afraid that business exploits its workers and the community.' Ultimately, Cohen and Greenfield did decide to keep the company, but they vowed not to allow the growth of their enterprise to overwhelm their ideas of how a business could be a force for positive change in a community. 'We decided to adapt [the company] so we could feel proud to say we were the businessmen of Ben & Jerry's,' Cohen concluded. Among the stipulations they made to ensure that their company would be different from other parts of corporate America was a salary cap, limiting the bestpaid people in the company to wages just five times higher than those of the lowest-paid employees. As Ben & Jerry's grew, this unusual limitation would complicate the company's high-level staffing. To finance further growth, Greenfield and Cohen decided to raise capital to expand by selling stock to the public. However, in an effort to maintain a sense of local accountability in the company, they limited

the stock offering to residents of Vermont, utilizing a little-known clause of the state law governing stocks and brokering. With the proceeds from this sale of stock, the company began construction of a new plant and corporate headquarters in Waterbury, Vermont, about half an hour away from Burlington. As Ben & Jerry's products continued to garner attention, its prime competitor in the premium ice cream market, H&aumln-Dazs, took steps to protect its own share of the market. In 1984, Pillsbury, H&aumln-Dazs' corporate parent, threatened to withhold its products from distributors who also sold Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Ben & Jerry's retaliated by filing suit against Pillsbury, and also by launching a publicity campaign with the slogan 'What's the Doughboy Afraid Of?' Pillsbury took steps to restrict distribution again in 1987, when it threatened to stop selling its ice cream to retailers who also sold Ben & Jerry's products. In both cases, legal action brought the restrictive practices to an end. By the end of 1984, sales of Ben & Jerry's products had exceeded $4 million, a figure more than twice as large as the previous year's revenues. In 1985, Ben & Jerry's expanded distribution of its products dramatically, starting up sales of its pints in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Florida, and Minnesota. To supply these new markets, the company completed work on its modern manufacturing plant. Among the new offerings that year was New York Super Fudge Chunk, created at the suggestion of a customer from New York City. Throughout 1985, sales of Ben & Jerry's products continued at a break-neck pace. By the end of the year, revenues had reached $9 million, an increase of 143 percent from 1984. As part of their program to remain true to their ideals, Cohen and Greenfield established the Ben & Jerry's Foundation to fund community oriented projects. In addition to the Foundation's initial capitalization, the two pledged 7.5 percent of the company's annual pre-tax profits to the charity. In 1986, facing demand for its products that its one Vermont plant was unable to meet, Ben & Jerry's contracted with Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, an ice cream company located in the Midwest, to manufacture Ben & Jerry's ice cream in its plants and distribute its products in most markets outside the Northeast. In addition, the company introduced its newest pint flavor, Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. To promote this and other flavors, as well as the corporate identity, Ben & Jerry's began conducting tours of its Waterbury, Vermont, plant in 1986. In addition, the company launched its 'Cowmobile,' an altered mobile home that Cohen and Greenfield set out to drive across the country, distributing free scoops of ice cream as they went. Four months into the trip, the Cowmobile burned to the ground outside Cleveland without causing any injuries, bringing the planned expedition to a premature end. These efforts had pushed company sales to $20 million by the end of 1986, as Ben & Jerry's continued to post a remarkable rate of growth. Cohen and Greenfield's original plan for a cross country trip was brought to fruition in 1987, when 'Cow II' made its maiden voyage, dispensing free scoops of ice cream along the way. After the October 1987 stock market crash, Cow II appeared on Wall Street to hand out scoops of 'That's Life' and 'Economic Crunch' ice cream to financial industry workers. Along with these highly topical creations, Ben & Jerry's introduced pints of 'Cherry Garcia,' named for the long-time lead guitarist of the rock group Grateful Dead. In addition, the company began to market its first ice cream novelty, the Brownie Bar. This product consisted of a square of French Vanilla ice cream, sandwiched between two brownies. At their manufacturing plant in Vermont, Ben & Jerry's also took steps to keep the company in compliance with its ideal of being a unique enterprise. To reduce its impact on the environment, Ben & Jerry's began using its ice cream waste to feed pigs being raised on a farm in Stowe, Vermont. In addition, to keep plant employees happy, the company instituted a variety of gestures, including Elvis day and Halloween costume celebrations, to break the monotony of life in a factory. By the end of 1987, company revenues had increased again, to reach $32 million. In 1988, Ben & Jerry's opened its first outlets outside the United States when ice cream shops began operating in Montreal, Quebec and in St. Maarten in the Caribbean. By the end of the year, more than 80 'scoop shops' were flying the Ben & Jerry's banner across 18 different states. At this time, the company decided to hold back on further franchising to make sure that product quality and service in its existing stores met its standards. Also in 1988, Ben & Jerry's responded to continuing growth in demand for the company's products by opening its second manufacturing facility in Springfield, Vermont. This plant was used to make ice cream novelties, including the 'Peace Pop,' a chocolate covered ice cream bar on a stick. The name of this product referred to 'One Percent for Peace,' a nonprofit group founded in part by Cohen and Greenfield that was dedicated to redirecting national resources towards peace. To aid in running their own company, Cohen and Greenfield with their employees formulated a threepart statement of mission that was designed to sum up the company's unique corporate philosophy. Relying on a theory of 'linked prosperity,' the mission statement asserted that Ben & Jerry's had a

product mission, a social mission, and an economic mission. The company hoped to use this credo to enhance the lives of individuals and communities through its actions. As part of its philosophy of linked prosperity, Ben & Jerry's introduced several new flavors of ice cream that incorporated ingredients from special sources. Rainforest Crunch, marketed in 1989, used nuts produced by rain forest trees. Chocolate Fudge Brownie, brought out in February 1990, used brownies made at a bakery in New York where formerly unemployed and homeless people worked. Beginning in the late 1980s, Ben & Jerry's joined the trend toward producing low-fat ice cream and yogurt. Ben & Jerry's Light, introduced in 1989, had reduced levels of fat and cholesterol compared to the regular Ben & Jerry's ice cream, but no less fat than other 'regular' products then on the market. 'It was sort of an oxymoron,' the company's chief financial officer admitted to the Wall Street Journal. Sales of the products never exceeded about $9 million, and in December 1991 the line was declared a mistake and phased out. Ben & Jerry's frozen yogurt proved far more successful. Boasting a butterfat content between one and five percent-&shy opposed to the 17 percent butterfat levels in the regular ice cream--Ben & Jerry's yogurt was selling in 13 cities around the United States in 1992. Within five months, yogurt sales were accounting for 15 to 18 percent of the company's revenues, and by the end of the year, it had become the leader in the super premium yogurt market. In addition, Ben & Jerry's introduced a pint version of one of its most popular scoop shop offerings, chocolate chip cookie dough. The company had spent five years finding a way to get the chunks of dough into pints of ice cream without having them stick together and gum up the packaging machines. The product was an immediate hit, and soon became the company's best-selling flavor. Finally, the company began to market its ice cream novelties, Peace Pops and Brownie Bars, in 'multi-paks' in supermarkets. In response to continuing demand for its new products, Ben & Jerry's moved to increase its output in Vermont. The company added a pint production line at its Springfield plant, and also borrowed space at the St. Alban's Cooperative Creamery to open another temporary production facility. To increase its capacity over the long term, Ben & Jerry's broke ground on a third ice cream factory in St. Alban's in late 1992. Financed through an additional stock offering, this plant was scheduled to be functional in 1994. In addition, the company completed a new distribution center in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Ben & Jerry's also renewed its co-packing agreement with Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc., its Midwestern partner. By the end of 1992, Ben & Jerry' sales overall had reached $132 million, up from $77 million in 1989. Further from home, Ben & Jerry's opened two ice cream shops in the Russian cities of Petrozavodsk and Kondopoga. With two Russian partners, the company had spent three years navigating the Soviet bureaucracy and finding supplies for the venture, which Cohen and Greenfield hoped would promote friendship between Russians and Americans. After lining up reliable sources of cream and importing equipment, the company was able to open a combination ice cream plant and parlor, which was blessed by a Russian Orthodox priest on its first day. As Ben & Jerry's moved into the mid 1990s, it could look back on a streak of extraordinary growth. From one small shop in downtown Burlington, Vermont, it had grown to include a chain of nearly 100 franchised shops, and a line of products sold in stores across the country. Company leaders were aware that it was unlikely that this rate of expansion could continue forever, since Ben & Jerry's growth had come in a mature and stable market. With its idiosyncratic corporate culture, and its strong track record of introducing innovative flavors that drove ever-stronger sales, however, it appeared that Ben & Jerry's was well positioned to continue its success