Ben and Jerrys

In what ways does Trader Joe's demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process—planning, organizing, leading, and controlling?

Goal: “To make, distribute and sell the finest quality all natural ice cream and use natural ingredients to promoting business practices that respect the earth and

Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation and one of the leading discount department retail stores (Wikipedia). It is the highest- grossing company in the United States (Fortune 2008a), and is by far one of the most successful companies worldwide. Wal-Mart offers a place to buy the majority of our goods under one roof like electronics, furniture, clothing, pharmacy, sports, food, books etc. Wal-Mart sells good at lower price than the others and this is even shown by its slogan “save money, live better”.  It drives out smaller and sometimes even the expensive stores out of business due to its lower prices. Wal-Mart provides jobs for thousands of

In contemporary China, people not only focus on what’s delicious, but also the health benefits that the food product had to offer. Frozen yogurt is a hybrid food, offering both a delicious taste and health benefits. The usage of fresh fruit and lower calorie ingredients has thrust frozen yogurt into popularity amongst dessert lovers worldwide, while still capturing the health food sector of the market. High quality and healthy food defined the Yogen Fruz culture and allow the company to appeal to its target market.

With giants such as Walmart, and Kroger running the grocery store industry it’s difficult for companies such as Smuckers to bargain for shelf-space and prices. Brand name items drawn to the center of the store are what leverages these companies to succeed in the industry. After numerous acquisitions and strategic alliances, Smuckers developed a solid core of product lines which experienced success rapidly. Product lines that experienced the most success as a result of strong positioning in the industry included their Coffee labels, flour and baking products, Oils and food spreads. A 9-Cell Industry Attractiveness/Business Strength Matrix shows that the Industry attractiveness is relatively moderate. With many competitors and strong buyer power from large grocery chains such as Kroger, companies such as Smuckers have explored different strategies that have proved successful in what can be described as a saturated industry. The case insinuates that there may be opportunities in the industry in regards to special markets and perhaps Oils and Baking with sugar free products, but otherwise the recession, although it drove families to buy store bought as opposed to eating out, has had its effects on the food service industry as well.

Ben & Jerry were able to fulfill their mission statement with the finest quality all-natural ice cream, profitable business and by improving the community. Ben & Jerry stated, they would make and distribute the finest quality all natural ice cream with a wide variety of innovative flavors, which they fulfilled. They created interesting names such as Chubby Hubby, Chunky Monkey and Phish Food with flavors to match. With the great flavors and names produced a profitable business, which was one of the points in their mission statement.

The ice cream industry is very a competitive field. Blue Bell has many competitors with a bigger budget and a bigger distribution channel. The company still manage to produce top brand ice cream to please its customers. According to the U.S Market for Ice Cream, “Sales nearly $12.2 Billion in 2005 with the sales of frozen, yogurt frozen desserts at scoop shops, restaurants and vending outlets. Three years ago there was a tremendous interest in ice cream nutrition panel. Other competitors were introducing product such as; low crab ice cream, no sugar added and low fat ice cream.

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.

The Pillsbury Cookie Challenge is a case study written by Natalie Mauro under the supervision of Professor Allison Johnson. The case study creates an open discussion about what the marketing manager of the refrigerated baked goods category for Canada General Mills should do to revive his products. Ivan Guillen, the marketing manager, was faced with tough challenges. He was initially “…faced with the challenge of developing a strategy that would lead to improved business performance on his category” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). To clarify, Guillen’s category is refrigerated baked goods (RBG), which means, this category is his marketing responsibility. The issue here is that “RBG was GMCC’s fourth largest category, and its performance over the past two years had been less than stellar” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). It is important to note that GMCC stands for General Mills Canada Corporation. Pillsbury has enjoyed majority market share in the RBG category in Canada, however, recently, the market was experiencing only moderate growth. Guillen was disappointed that their goal of 5%-7% market growth was not being achieved mainly in the refrigerated cookie dough segment. To be exact, their volume growth for two years was flat and they were having difficulty reaching new households. There was a shift among consumer’s purchases, which Guillen was challenged to figure out why.

dominant incumbent even if the incumbent priced its products substantially above competitive levels for a significant period of time” (“Microsoft: Court’s Findings…). Obviously, the rival companies such as, IBM and Apple, have found great fact, that

Ice-Fili’s marketing approach and product distribution could be seen as weaknesses in the company’s primary activities. In 2001 the firm started its first TV marketing campaign years after competitor’s advertised through the media outlets. To date Ice-Fili is still very inexperienced and far lacking of marketing strategies deployed by Western competitors such as Unilever and Nestle. Not only does Ice-Fili need to market more fiercely against competitors within industry, it must also compete against other consumables such as beverages and snacks. Another weakness is the distribution that is handed over to several distribution companies. There is a much higher chance (twice as likely) to find products of its biggest competitor Nestlé than those of Ice-Fili. Another detriment is how ice cream is viewed socially. Currently ice cream is primarily an impulse purchase. If Ice-Fili can change this outlook, it would result in an enormous

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

Today Unilever is one of the world’s largest consumer products companies. Becel Margarine was launched in 1978 as a premium priced product, positioned as the heart healthy margarine of choice. Previously, the Becel brand had been positioned as the heart healthy margarine of choice in Europe for twenty years prior to Canadian introduction. Despite unique positioning Becel struggled for many years gaining only 8.1 percent market share by 1991. Unilever considered several options for growing the Becel brand, such as, price decreases, repositioning the product, and dramatic increases in advertising support. In 1991 Lipton devised the strategy “living a life that is young at heart”. This strategy was very successful with its current target market, 65 and above. In the butter and margarine category, butter holds fifty percent of the market. The Dairy Bureau of Canada positions butter as tasty and natural, which is conveying that margarine is processed and does not taste as good. However, that is not true, margarine is better for you than butter and does suit consumers’ tastes. In addition, the health focus of the butter and margarine market is growing. More and more competitors are positioning their product as healthy for the consumer. For example, Parmalat is a brand of butter that has just entered the margarine market to compete with Becel with the brand Lactantia.

The following marketing plan forms the basis for the introduction of an innovative new product by Snyder’s-Lance Inc. This analysis allows me to outline the best strategies to follow for the achievement of the company’s strategic goals. “Pretzel Abobodas” will be marketed as a unique flavored pretzel that targets the Hispanic consumer, while striving to reinforce the company’s focus on wanting to penetrate the Hispanic market. The marketing strategies will hopefully enable our company to

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. This global company began with only a $12,000 investment to open Ben & Jerry’s Homemade ice cream scoop shop in a renovated gas station in downtown Burlington, Vermont, on May 5th, 1978. From one small shop in downtown Burlington, the company had grown to include a chain of nearly 100 franchised shops, and a line of products sold in stores across the country.