Rather, the reason for being of the brand was “to see if it was possible to use the tools of business to repair society”. Of note is that Ben & Jerry’s value was not really meant to be measured in monetary terms by that time. Today the brand has sales of about $800 million (Euromonitor, 2017). Within 20 years they had made it into a multi-million-dollar publicly traded company that became the subject of a bidding war between food conglomerates, with Unilever taking away the grand prize in 2001 for US $326 million. Driven by a love of food, the two hippie friends took correspondence courses on making ice cream. Let us illustrate below how we come to this conclusion by comparing the ‘full pint’ Halo Top versus ‘double dip’ Ben & Jerry’s stories through the lens of what drives the success of ‘Ueber-Brands’: Having a Mission and Myth that matters to enough people (call it ‘having Soul‘), recognizing who your most fervent disciples are and keeping them engaged (the Ueber-Target) while making many more long to be like them (balancing Longing and Belonging) and doing all this with products and in ways that seductively authentic versus hard selling marketing (‘having a compelling Truth‘).ĭouble Dip Mission and Myth faces Full Pint Fillīen Cohen & Jerry Greenfield, two “under-achievers with counter-culture values” as Professors Page and Katz describe them (link below) started their eponymous ice cream brand and business in 1978 in an old Vermont gas station, after first trying their luck at finishing their studies, driving cabs and starting a bagels and newspaper business. And we think that, if the brand wants to hold on to that love, premium price and business growth in the long-term, it needs to create the kind of deeper-seated relevance and meaning that Ben & Jerry’s has learned to keep, and refresh over the years – through ownership changes and external challenges like the current one from low-calorie offerings. Several of the principles that drive Ueber-Brand success are reflected in the Halo Top story, to date. In fact, Halo Top was founded by two lawyers – and not the civil-rights kind.īut no, Halo Top does not dis-prove the power of Ueber-Branding. No ‘free cones for the 99%’ or the founders getting arrested for civil disobedience (again, in 2017!), either. No ‘Imagine Whirled Peace’, ‘Hubby Hubby’, ‘Yes Pecan!’ or other ‘double dip’ messaging (taste-good, do-good) à la Ben & Jerry’s, here. Is this a case of product-benefit focus winning over the kind of purpose-led, myth-making and mission manifesting brand building we call ‘Ueber-Branding?’ After all, Halo Top puts the calorie count large and smack in the middle of their label and does not ‘clutter’ its packaging or posts with statements of any deeper meaning. The premium ice cream’s low-calorie, ‘you can eat a pint’ goodness is all the rage and seems to make Ben & Jerry’s with its ‘Peace, Love & Ice Cream’ message look lame – and loose share. Morgan Securities and Barclays, with LKP Global Law serving as legal counsel.If you live in the US and have any interest in ice cream – or consume social media with any regularity (and the two seem to correlate) – then you will have heard about ‘Halo Top’. UBS Investment Bank was the financial advisor for Wells on the deal, with the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery serving as legal advisor. and Canada under a new company that Doug Bouton, president and chief operating officer of Halo Top, plans to operate after the deal closes, Wells said. Halo Top will be expanding outside of the U.S. To stay ahead of the rapidly proliferating competition, the company has added retail shops as well as a nondairy line and frozen pops. Vanilla, at the low end, compares with 1,000 calories for a Haagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s pint. Halo Top’s appeal is simple: a no-shame pint of low-sugar, high-protein ice cream with just 240 to 360 calories for the entire carton. Halo Top’s offices were in a low-rent co-working space in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District. Halo Top did not own its own factory and had to refine its recipe to avoid blowing up the production pipes in its contractor’s facility because the original formulation was too thick. The idea that led to Halo Top had the most modest of beginnings: in Woolverton’s apartment with a $20 ice cream maker as he sought to reduce his intake of refined sugar and carbohydrates.
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