Häagen-Dazs Responds To Ben & Jerry’s Email
March 9, 2009 by Sean Kelly
Filed under BEN & JERRY'S, haagen-dazs
Last week we posted the snarky email message from Ben & Jerry’s making fun of rival Häagen-Dazs’ supposed redefining the pint as 14 oz. rather than 16 oz.
Read: Who’s Phonier? Haagen-Dazs? Ben & Jerry’s?
Being openly criticized on the immeasurably powerful FranchisePick.com blog obviously sent shockwaves through the factories to the boardrooms of Häagen-Dazs.
And rightfully so.
Today, we received this response to Ben & Jerry’s email from an obviously shaken Häagen-Dazs:
You may have seen a recent message from Ben & Jerry’s calling out our decision to downsize our Häagen-Dazs cartons.
While the reality is that size sometimes matters, we continue to believe that quality matters more.
Our ice cream is created with only a few select, simple, all-natural ingredients.
That is why we searched six years for the perfect variety of strawberry for our Häagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream and why we paid four times more over the last two years for the raspberries that make it into our Häagen-Dazs raspberry sorbet.
And we wouldn’t think of soaking the raisins for our Häagen-Dazs rum raisin ice cream even a minute less than the 60,480 minutes (42 days, actually) that they currently luxuriate in their rum baths.
Why not? Because then it just wouldn’t be Häagen-Dazs. Call us obsessive. But we’re that serious about our ice cream. We hope you’ll continue to make it your ice cream.
Thank you for giving us a chance to respond.
While not trashing Ben & Jerry’s ice cream directly (that would be poor form for the refined and umlauted ice purveyor) the response definitely casts doubt as to Ben & Jerry’s commitment to quality rather than quantity.
It makes one wonder:
- Is it better to have 14 oz. of select, simple, all-natural ingredients than 16 oz. crammed with shards of heath bar, brownies, marshmallow and peanut butter cups?
- Do Ben & Jerry’s raisins luxuriate in rum baths for 60,480 minutes (42 days, actually)? If not, how long DO they luxuriate?
- How exactly are Ben & Jerry’s “fudge fish” harvested, and does Greenpeace approve?
The scoop has been thrown down once again.
Ben? Jerry? What do you have to say for yourselves?
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Image: Häagen-Dazs
Who’s Phonier? Haagen-Dazs? Ben & Jerry’s?
March 5, 2009 by Sean Kelly
Filed under BEN & JERRY'S, haagen-dazs, x Franchise Marketing
Check out this post on Ben & Jerry’s at Franchisor Marketing. It’s pretty funny.
Seems that Ben & Jerry’s has built it’s brand, in no small part, by slamming rival Haagen-Dazs for being a phony corporate brand with a made-up pseudo-Scandinavian that means… nothing.
A current Ben & Jerry’s email campaign (subject line: A pint is still a pint!) blasts Haagen-Dazs for dropping the size of its “pint” container from 16 oz. to 14 oz.
But, really, which brand is being more devious here?
Ben & Jerry’s gives the impression that Haagen-Dazs is trying to pull a fast one. In reality, Haagen-Dazs isn’t calling the 14 oz. container a “pint.” Furthermore, they announced the change in advance via press releases and on their website.
[Pictured: Ben & Jerry's Co-founder Jerry Greenfield]
It’s ironicly humorous that Ben & Jerry’s continues to position itself as the underdog hippy David pitted against the effete corporate goliath of Haagen-Dazs. It’s been nearly a decade since Ben & Jerry’s once-hippy owners sold out to multinational corporate behemoth Unilever.
Check out: Ben & Jerry’s Busts on Haagen-Dazs. Again.
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photo credit: chris friese License: Creative Commons
Cold Stone Franchise Getting Creamed in the Press
June 19, 2008 by Sean Kelly
Filed under COLD STONE CREAM., xBuyer Beware
(Franchise Pick Franchise Blog) Things have gotten chilly for Cold Stone Creamery. It started with Richard Gibson’s The Inside Scoop article in the Wall Street Journal:
Earlier in this decade, Cold Stone Creamery was one of the hottest franchises around. The super-premium ice-cream stores attracted scores of franchisees hungry for a piece of the “Ultimate Ice Cream Experience.”
Now many franchisees are selling their stores, overwhelmed by soaring bills and shrinking profits. Some have lost their homes, broken their retirement nest eggs or filed for bankruptcy…
A number of franchisees… contend the company misled them, giving them promises of profit potential that proved unrealistic or inaccurate revenue numbers from existing stores. And some say that they got little help from the company as their stores went under…
Cold Stone says more than 100 of its stores closed last year. That’s up from 60 in 2006. One list on a Cold Stone Web site recently had 303 stores for sale — more than 20% of the company’s 1,384 as of last December
Blue Mau Mau reported that the WSJ article left the franchise company president cold. President Chris Prasifka fired off a quick, reassuring letter Cold Stone Creamery franchisees. It didn’t seem to have worked.
Meanwhile, on the WSJ site and on franchise expose site Unhappy Franchisee, struggling and failed Cold Stone Creamery franchise owners took the opportunity to both vent and share their perspectives on the failings of the Cold Stone Creamery franchise, the franchise organization, and effects both have had on their lives.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH KAHALA & THE COLD STONE CREAMERY FRANCHISE? WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
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