Background : * Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were childhood friends born four days apart in Brooklyn, New York, in 1951. * During his senior year of high school, Ben drove an ice cream truck. * After graduating high school, he attended Oberlin College to study medicine. Jerry worked as an ice cream scooper in the school’s cafeteria. * After moving to North Carolina for a few years, Jerry reunited with Ben in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and they decided to go into the food business together. * At first the pair thought about making bagels but decided the necessary equipment was too expensive. Instead, they settled on ice cream. * They took a $5 course on ice-cream making and in 1978 opened the first Ben & Jerry’s in a converted Burlington gas station.
Size:
* Ben & Jerry's has over 580 franchised ice cream scoop shops and Partner Shops worldwide. * They have over 430 scoop shops in the United States * And over 150 scoop shops internationally * In 2000 Ben & Jerry’s employed 739 staff members * . 422 at three manufacturing sites * . 221 at its corporate office in Burlington * . 22 people in international operations
Marketing
The ice cream produced (and still produce) by the company were very rich and dense and those characteristics explained that the Ben and Jerry have been classified from the beginning as “super-premium ice cream”. The main competitor of the company has always been “Häagen-Dazs” (classified as super-premium as well). The difference between the two companies is the image promoted (sophisticate vs funky and caring).
To respond to a difficult beginning finding shelf space in supermarkets, Ben and Jerry did a marketing operation with a demonstration in front of Pillsbury’s headquarters. This action enabled them to gain the press and to have a relevant publicity throughout the US territory. This event was the beginning of the company’s grown up and in the 1980’s there ice creams