Marketing Management in Ben and Jerrys Ice-Cream Company

Marketing refers to the business or action of selling and promoting services or products, inclusive of market research or advertising. On the other hand, management is the process of controlling things or dealing with people. With such definitions, marketing management can be taken to mean the coordination and organization of the marketing activities of a corporation so as to realize well-defined objectives. The heart of a firms success or failure is very much dependent on how marketing is conducted. Most of the businesses aspects are usually dependent on successful marketing. Taken as a whole, a business marketing umbrella covers public relations, advertising, sales, and promotions. For Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream, marketing has been a very useful tool for making the business grow progressively from its initial small outlets to the corporate giant it has become. Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream is a corporation that was founded in the year 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, and it is a subdivision of the English-Dutch Unilever Corporation. What has made this company gain popularity is the making of high-quality ice cream, frozen yogurt, ice cream novelty products, and sorbet? This paper is going to give insights on what marketing management is all about and how companies like Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream have benefited from well-defined marketing management strategies (Edmondson, Leonard, & Furman, 2014).

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Executive Summary

Background and Context of the Current Position of the Organization

Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream is an ice cream company that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever that is governed by an independent Board of Directors. The board in question is not a governing body in the conventional sense but a very much autonomous B.O.D that is enabled to give protection to and defend the Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream company image, integrity, and equity. The quality of the product is what the company takes pride in; it is a customer centric approach considering that Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream is a company that has a mission to preserve and expand the companys brand integrity, product quality, and social mission through the provision of a social mission-mindful insight and proper guidance to make sure the company is the maker of the best possible product (ice cream) in the best manner possible and on a world level. In essence, Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream happens to be one of the most recognized ice cream corporations around, and in as much as the company has had a lot of ups and downs all through its past, management has seen to it that every hardship that has faced the company has been overcome. Serious competition faces Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream as a company within a very large industry; this is with consideration to the fact that challenges such as financial struggles, internal issues, economic and social factors have been a challenge. HaagenDazs is at the moment, the main competitor of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream when it comes to offering existing and potential customers super premium ice cream. It is worth mentioning that another challenge that Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream faces is the existence of substitutes that are not in the super premium category; these happen to be the real competition. This ice cream maker has management and employees that are emotionally tied to each and everything possessed by the company. For customers, it is a matter of I would not be seen dead eating another brand of ice cream in comparison with the notion this is way much cheaper and has a similar taste to Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream, so I will be purchasing this one from now on. All these are advantageous to the companys sales volume, growth, and development.

Key Strategic Planning Issues; Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream

The corporate strategic planning of Ben &Jerrys aims at surfacing strategic planning issues; these strategic issues happen to be primary to the process of corporate strategic planning. In general, strategic planning happens to be a systematic procedure that is used in the identification of the most basic issues; the management of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream is well aware of the fact that strategic management is an important aspect of its operations. At the moment and for the longest time possible, the companys strategies have revolved around the generation of revenue, Corporate Social Responsibility, the conservation of the environment, and customer loyalty(Edmondson, Leonard, & Furman, 2014).

To maintain a stable growth in the revenue of the company, there is always a need for Ben & Jerrys to process the highest quality ice cream that will attract consumers. When customers perceive that they get value for their money whenever they buy ice cream from Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream, then they are bound to buy more and benefiting the company in the long run; generation of revenue streams. Besides, a commitment to the conservation of the environment and in Corporate Social Responsibility wins the hearts of customers and builds loyalty. Finally, customer centricity can be included in strategic planning by making ice cream that resonates to the tastes and preferences of current customers and the target market i.e. prospective customers.

Organization Strategy

Mission

The company mission of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream is what drives the management and employees to work very hard when it comes to realizing profit objectives. Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream has a mission that is three-part; the mission looks to bring into realization linked success and prosperity to each and every individual that has a connection to the company. The individuals in question include the employees, dairy farmers, customers, suppliers, franchisees, and the community at large. In essence, the three parts to Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream mission come in the name of product mission, economic mission, and social mission. The product mission of the company drives the management and the employees to work towards the making of fantastic ice cream for its own sake; it is to be the maker, distributor, and seller of the finest quality all natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions with a continuous dedication to including nutritious natural elements and promoting industry practices that accord respect to the earth and the environment. Whats more, the economic mission of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream expects everyone that works for the company to manage all company aspects linked to profitability so that sustainable financial growth is realized. Finally, the social mission of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream requires the management and the employees to utilize the corporation in ways that are innovative so that the world can be made into a much better place. In a nutshell, central to the mission of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream as a company is the conviction that all the three cornerstones ought to thrive equally in a way that guidelines respect that is full of meaning when it comes to individuals within and without the environment of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream and gives support to the communities of which they are a part of.

Vision

Part of the vision of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream resonates with being the first choice ice cream all over the world via its customer-preferred and rich contents of minerals, nutrients, and vitamin formulas to realize a 40% global market share by the year 2022. In addition to that, the companys vision recommends that all customers are well taken care of; their tastes, their choices, and ultimately their lifestyles. Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream has a preference of measuring its company objectives with respect to customer response to products and a healthy internal and external environment. All in all, the firm looks forward to always align its products, and financial progress top revolves around being in touch with customers; on a daily basis.

Marketing Objectives

Ben & Jerrys Ice-creams marketing objectives center on the perceptions of current and prospective end users. After the conduction of a thorough marketing research and development, the company executives and management became well aware of the market wants. Having realized that consumers are swayed by frozen desserts, low sugar, 98% fat free ice cream that is also calorie-controlled, a rich and creamy taste, and allergen-free ice cream; there was a need to produce what was desirable in the market if at all the company wanted to realize true sales, growth, and development. Additionally, it is important for the company that all its line of ice cream products are regarded as healthy, fun, delicious, and premium. All the above-mentioned attributes of the product fall in line with the perceptions Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream wants the customers to have for all the assorted range of products it produces. These perceptions include delicious indulgence, fun products, and premium quality products that are trendy and health conscious(Moutinho& Southern, 2010).

A number of brand attributes characteristic of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream are meant to keep existing customers loyal and lure brand new prospective customers. These include a variety of flavors and a very rich taste; low fat, calorie, and sugar; myriad fruit flavors; and nutritional benefits. The brand also likes to present itself as one that is meant for people that have fun-loving and outgoing personalities. Other examples of marketing objectives of the company include the usage of color schemes that are feminine; this is because the most loyal customers of the company are female. That paired with humorous, cheeky communication styles and eye-catching packaging makes Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream to be very fashionable in the eyes of customers.

Overall Position and Organizational Strategy

Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream can be considered to be one of the most successful processors of ice cream in Singapore and other parts of the world. Its organizational strategy revolves around market segmentation, execution, the social media, innovation and adaptation, customer collaboration, customer relationships, interactive customer engagement, encourage sharing, social mission focus, customization experiences, and showing customer appreciation.

With respect to execution, the organization always looks to place its entire focus on its unique product bundle that is characterized by great ice cream, quality service, unique flavors, and an environmentally ambient place to hang around. The company keeps its focus on paying attention to the details of service and great execution.

The social media has been very helpful when it comes to marketing. Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream happens to be one of the earliest adopters of the utilization of social media websites for social commerce and marketing. The company has definitely assumed a position in leadership when it comes to social engagement; its online social site strategy revolves around the website of Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream and six supplementary social platforms i.e. Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, YouTube, and Instagram.

Innovation that develops new product lines for the company and embracing online social sites has done a lot of good for the company. With a robust presence on several social networks, Ben & Jerrys Ice-cream as a brand has set a very high bar when it comes to engaging all its current and prospective customers and being social. The company is known to be either at the top or near the top of every major brand ranking when it comes to matters of social commerce. The ability of the company to wear so many caps when it comes to corporate success, internet sensation, and local favorite warrants a lot of close examination.

What makes this corporatio...