SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
Ben & Jerry’s is an innovative leader in the super premium ice cream industry. They have a product line that consists of ice cream, low-fat ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and a few novelty products. All of their products are sold through supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, franchised Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops, and restaurants. Ben & Jerry’s also incorporates a commitment toward being a socially active and environmentally responsible ice cream manufacturer. Ben & Jerry’s pride themselves on being the leader in the super premium ice cream manufacturer industry. Super premium ice cream is characterized by a greater richness and density, than that, of economy ice cream, and demands a premium
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Weaknesses:
The weaknesses of Ben & Jerry’s are their lack of marketing strategies, manufacturing facilities, and their use of distribution channels. Ben & Jerry’s rely on its social activities as the source of its marketing and promotional efforts. In reference to their use of distribution channels, they currently rely on a rival company’s distribution channel. Ben & Jerry’s currently have only 3 manufacturing plants located in Vermont (The New England region), at which they manufacture their super premium ice cream from. Ben & Jerry’s are not utilizing their capacity as a manufacturer.
Ben Cohen’s management style is not primarily focused on increasing market share and profit growth, as it should be. They also have a high cost of goods sold expense as a percentage of their sales at 73.8 % in 1994. As a result of this, Ben & Jerry’s net profit margin turned out to be -1.3 % and earnings per share of 0.2%, which is deemed to be not profitable in 1994.
Opportunity:
There are numerous opportunities for Ben & Jerry’s in the super premium ice cream industry. Ben & Jerry’s wants to become a more eco-friendly company and they also need to improve on their marketing strategies, their distribution networks and also look to expand their manufacturing facilities.
Ben & Jerry’s has the opportunity to develop on its environmental mission by incorporating a system to track its waste reduction
Braum’s Incorporation is a vertically integrated company (owns multiple segments of industry and merges them together) which allows them to produce their products to the quality and standards they want. The corporation produces meat, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables. They have 280 stores located throughout Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, and the majority located in Oklahoma, where their headquarters are (About Us 2016). The chains of stores located in these areas provide hamburgers, ice cream, and a small grocery store for their customers. Although Braum’s provides all of these commodities they’re mainly known for their ice cream.
Since their biggest competitor is a foreign entity (Nestle) who uses western manufacturing practices and ingredients, one strategy may be to market heavily on the merits of all-natural ingredients. They have already joined an association which promotes domestic producers over foreign producers and should further capitalize on the gains made by this association. Substitution: Since one of the highest threats in the industry is the threat of substitution, Ice-Fili could look to diversify their offerings. This could mean producing a wider variety of food products, or it could mean selling/renting out unused capacity, particularly cold storage capacity, to other industries. Buyer Power: In order to mitigate the bargaining power of buyers, Ice-Fili may consider shifting a larger portion of their sales to direct-to-consumer channels as well as creating exclusive agreements with resellers. In addition, they could focus their marketing efforts on building brand loyalty. For products for which they aren’t able to secure licensing, such as Lakomka, they could rebrand it as “The Original” Lakomka or something similar that capitalizes on the longstanding popularity of the product. New Entrants: To combat the threat of new entrants, Ice-Fili should continue to focus on developing more efficient ways to produce ice-cream as well as the maturation of their distribution channels. If they are able to further add to
In this case, Ice-Fili hold this competitive advantage since the company mainly use natural ingredients and do not use any preservatives or colorants (“Lakomka”). At the time of the case Ice-Fili’s ice cream are seen as a quality product which fit with the traditional recipe. At the opposite, Nestlé adds preservatives which distort the taste, but by using these ingredients, it decreases the total costs.
We believe that Ice-Fili, to stop the decline in its market share, should focus on the market opportunities in the Russian ice cream market. The main opportunity seems to lie in consumers’ behavior. They only consider ice cream as an "on the go" snack. Ice-Fili should use all possible means to create a change in their way of consumption. It would be doubly useful as it would both increase ice cream sales in restaurants but also in supermarkets so that families eat them at home.
Even though Ben & Jerry were able to perform well on their objectives in their mission statement, at times those same objectives did not always work together. At one point, Ben & Jerry were not making a profit because they were unwilling to raise their prices, which the shareholders were suffering. They feared they will lose customers. However, once prices were raised the business was successful.
This is turning out to be the new generation of producing ice cream and still be able to satisfy customer needs. According to the director of marketing at Blue Bell Carl Breed, “We plan to go after the low carb and Hispanic influence market. But we will continue to provide fabulous tasting ice cream, that appeal to almost every customers and we will never lose sight of the fact that ice cream is supposed to
Ben & Jerry’s is an ice cream brand that started in Vermont in 1979 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Originally started as a small parlour business, it saw steady expansion in its distribution over time. Its acquisition by Unilever in 2000 allowed the brand to undergo worldwide distribution through tapping on the conglomerate’s logistics and distribution expertise. Faced with an ever changing business environment and dynamic consumer preferences, Ben & Jerry’s has adopted unique strategies to boost its competitiveness.
Ice-Fili is the top ice cream producer in Russia. Currently, the company is experiencing tough competition with Nestle, Baskin-Robbins and regional ice cream producers. Its loss in market share due to their poor quality decisions-making after Russia became an open marketing in 1992. Nestle took great advantage of Ice-Fili’s low reaction adjustment and is taking over their market.
We at Temple Consulting have completed an analysis of Ice-Fili’s current corporate standing using data collected over the past several years. Using tools such as Porter’s Approach and SWOT we have analyzed the internal and external environments and have recommended several strategic plans of action. Current areas for improvement such as marketing initiatives and re-evaluation of distribution channels will increase sales and profitability almost instantly. Long term plans such as lobbying against luxury tax on ice cream, partnerships with franchise vendors, and bringing new products to the market, performing an IPO, and planning more global efforts will help keep Ice-Fili rooted as the
As marketing manager of the RBG business, Ivan Guillen must propose a solution to repair Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RGB)’s business performance. Since the refrigerated-cookie product line consisted of 62% of RBG’s unit sales and over 75% of the company’s profits, Guillen found it appropriate to alter this segment in the market. Proposing this idea to GMCC would require Guillen to consider all the challenges he faces. Guillen will have to discover a strategy to increase household penetration since it has fallen to 24% in the past few years. The lack in market penetration has
3. Why is Ben & Jerry’s a takeover target? Is there evidence that investors are dissatisfied?
A few weeks ago I wanted ice cream but I didn't want to go to the store and buy an entire tub of ice cream I just wanted something like a banana split. The only problem is that belvidere has no ice cream places except Dairy Ripple and they close in the winter,so a thought occurred to me Belvidere needs a Dairy Queen. See Dairy Queen is something that lots of people like so this would make many people happy,and let’s be honest we all have one point in the winter when we want ice cream. Dairy queen has lots of food options,they are very popular and very clean, and they have good prices.
7-Eleven will not help Ben and Jerry’s in the marketing of its products, making Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream one of the many brands carried by the convenience store.
Ben & Jerry’s is a renowned Ice Cream company which becomes a social enterprise icon since it was founded in 1978 (Kazs, Page, 2013).And it is claimed that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is the best in the world for its comfortable environment, equitable system, and being kind to its cows by Time Magazine in 1981(Dennis et al, 1998).
1. B2B – our company can expand into the distribution of product by exploring ice cream wholesaler opportunities.