Programme
BSc Business Management
Module name
Marketing Fundamentals
QAA Level
5
Schedule Term
August 2017
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1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Main body ....................................................................................................................................... 3
I.
Internal and external UK environment ................................................................................ 3
II. Marketing challenges facing Ben & Jerry’s......................................................................... 5
III.
Positioning........................................................................................................................ 6
IV.
Marketing objectives ........................................................................................................ 6
V. Marketing Mix ..................................................................................................................... 7
1.
Product ............................................................................................................................. 7
2.
Price ................................................................................................................................. 7
3.
Place ................................................................................................................................. 8
4.
Promotion ......................................................................................................................... 8
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 9
References ..................................................................................................................................... 10
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Introduction
Ben & Jerry’s is one of the biggest ice cream provides in the world generally and in the UK
market particularly. The purpose of this report is to determine Ben & Jerry’s approach to its
marketing in the UK market. In order to do that, different areas of marketing are analyzed,
including internal and external UK environment, marketing challenges, positioning, marketing
objectives, and marketing mix. Based on the analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, threats and
opportunities posing to Ben & Jerry’s are identified, along with further recommendations for
better marketing implementation.
Main body
I.
Internal and external UK environment
In order to determine the suitable marketing approach that the company should use in a specific
market, it is important to understand internal and external environment of that market. In case of
Ben & Jerry’s, the internal and external UK environments are analyzed using Porter’s Five
Forces and PESTLE analysis
Porter’s Five Forces model analyses five main competitive forces that shape every industry,
(Porter, 1980). Based on Five Forces Model, Ben & Jerry’s internal environment is analyzed as
followed:
 Threat of new entrants: Low. UK ice cream industry is dominated by a few large
brands, including Ben & Jerry’s, meaning that there is little space for challenges
to grow (IBISWorld, 2017).
 Rivalry among current competitors: High. Haagen-Dazs and Wall’s are two
largest competitors of Ben & Jerry’s in UK ice cream market. Compared with Ben
& Jerry’s, they are more advanced and better distributed (Euromonitor, 2016).
 Threat of substitutes: High. Besides ice cream for refreshments, buyers can easily
switch to other alternatives such as Coke and cakes with better prices than Ben &
Jerry’s products (Cottle, 2016).
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 Power of buyers: High. The reason is that ice cream is not highly important food
to consumers compared with rice or meat. Moreover, consumers are price
sensitive (Huxley et al., 2011).
 Power of suppliers: Low. There are a lot of suppliers who provide raw materials
to make ice cream in the UK (Euromonitor, 2016). Besides, the high threat of
substitutes lowers the power of suppliers.
PESTLE analysis is one of the most common models to analyze external environment. It aims to
identify external factors (political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental)
that may affect business (Gupta, 2013).
 Political:
the UK has a long history of political stability. This significantly
contributes to impressive growth of ice cream market. From 2010 to 2014, the UK
ice cream market reports annual growth rate of 2.8%, along with 1.9% increase in
consumption volume (Market Line, 2015).
 Economic: the UK has suffered slowdown in the economic growth when GDP
growth in 2017 is expected to slow to around 1.2% due to drag on investment
compared with 2% in 2016 (PWC, 2016). However, thanks to low price and
refreshments advantage, this slowdown would not have strong impact on ice
cream industry.
 Social: The UK population has risen at the largest rate in 70 years with more than
500,000 people increase from 2014 to 2015 (Khomami, 2017). The population is
forecast to pass 70 million in less than a decade. This increase will contribute to
increase in ice cream consumption.
 Technological: The development of technology and popularity of the Internet
make consumers quickly get news and updates from Ben & Jerry’s promotional
campaign, as well as new ice cream flavor offer (Canadean, 2013). This helps
company’s marketing activities more effective.
Based on Five Forces and PESTLE analysis, it can be summarized that the internal and external
UK environment brings some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges to Ben &
Jerry’s. The opportunities include higher market share and increasing consumption of ice cream
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as result of increasing population, political stability and technological development. However,
The Company should be careful due to high threat of substitutes, as well as power of buyers.
II.
Marketing challenges facing Ben & Jerry’s
Before choosing the suitable marketing campaign in the UK market, Ben & Jerry’s should
consider five marketing challenges as follows:
 Customers are paying more and more attention to unique flavors and premium
offerings. They are willing to buy more expensive ice cream to enjoy unique
flavor. Ben & Jerry’s is pricing its ice cream at premium price to reflect its luxury
status. However, it is also a challenge to the company in terms of developing new
flavor to satisfy customers who pay for that at higher price.
 Decreasing customers due to premium price: Due to high power of substitutes
such as chocolate, cake, and Coke with possibly cheaper price, customers may
switch from buying ice cream at premium price to cheaper substitutes (Huxley et
al., 2011).
 Increasing health concern: UK consumers are highly concerned with obesity
problems due to fat and sugar. Therefore, they are switching to a low-fat ice
cream with little to no sugar (Ryan, 2017). That becomes a challenge for Ben &
Jerry’s in terms of introducing healthy products.
 Competitor’s advanced distribution: Ben & Jerry’s products are often available in
the supermarkets, convenience stores, and entertainment kiosks. However, other
competitors such as Haagen-Dazs distribute their product in ice cream vans to
promote consumption.
 Diversified product types: The ice cream product types that Ben & Jerry’s
offering are still limited with main types of pints, slices, and mini cups (Ben &
Jerry's, 2017). However, competitors such as Haagen-Dazs also offer customers
with different types (stick bar) for more choice options. That challenges Ben &
Jerry’s in terms of diversifying product types.
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III.
Positioning
From marketing perspective, positioning refers to the process by which firm tries to create an
image or an identity in target customer’s mind for its brand or business (Akpoyomare et al.,
2013). It is related to competitive comparison of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in UK market as
compared with other competitors.
Ben & Jerry’s has come up with some features which help the company position itself at the top
level of brain compared with competitors. These features include taste, quality, and price.
 Quality: All ingredients to make ice cream of Ben & Jerry’s are fairtrade certified,
including sugar, cocoa, vanilla, coffee, and bananas, meaning that farmers get a
fair price for their products (Ben & Jerry's, 2017). Besides, Ben & Jerry’s
ingredients are non-GMO (non-genetically modified organism) which shows
company’s effort to minimize the risk of GMO, giving customers confidence to
enjoy its products (Ben & Jerry's, 2017).
 Taste: The flavors are absolutely keys to differentiate Ben & Jerry’s brands to
others. The brand has provided customers with wide range of flavors to boost
their favorites and taste. Moreover, new flavors are developed by collaboration
between the brand and customers to satisfy their desired taste.
 Price: Since its establishment, Ben & Jerry’s has create a brand with super
premium ice creams in customer’s mind (Aaseng, 2005). Specifically, company’s
ice creams are sold at higher price compared with other brands, making customers
see it as luxury brand.
IV.
Marketing objectives
In order to successfully achieve marketing strategies, it is important to establish proper
marketing objectives. According to BBC (2014), the objective needs to be SMART which stands
for five criteria for a objectives (Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Timed). Firstly,
specific criteria means that objective clearly states what is to be achieved (e.g. increase profits,
reduce waste). Secondly, measurable objective refers to the desired outcome in a number value
that can be measured (e.g. increase profits by 20%, develop 4 new flavors). Thirdly, the objective
needs to be agreed by all involved staff to avoid conflict or misunderstanding. Fourthly, the
objective has to be set based on the current market conditions, as well as firm’s resource
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conditions available (BBC, 2014). For example, the objective of increasing profit by 20% seems
to be unrealistic during the crisis period. Lastly, objectives need to be achieved within a specific
timebound such as one year, 2 years, or 6 months.
Based on SMART criteria, three marketing objectives are proposed to enable Ben & Jerry’s to
continue their growth in the UK market. These objectives focus on three areas, which are
increasing market share, developing new products, and gaining advantages over competitors.
 Objective 1: To increase the market share in the UK by 4% by 2018
 Objective 2: To develop at least 3 new ice cream flavors into the UK market by
the end of 2017
 Objective 3: To grow average first year sales of new ice cream flavors by 10% in
the UK market.
V.
Marketing Mix
Based on the proposed objectives, Ben & Jerry’s current marketing mix will be evaluated to
ensure successful achievement.
1. Product
Ben & Jerry’s offering customers with different ice cream products such as ice cream tubs,
topped, cookies, scoop shop with wide range of flavors (caramel, chocolate, cheesecake, cherry,
coffee, cinnamon, and so on) (Ben & Jerry's, 2017). As mentioned before, quality and flavors are
two key competitive advantages of Ben & Jerry’s compared with others. Besides wide range of
flavors, the products are produced with non-GMO and fairtrade certified ingredients. As a result,
the company’s ice cream is perceived as assured, sustainable and high quality products.
However, taking into account the internal and external UK environment, it can be seen that Ben
& Jerry’s has some limitation in terms of product types compared with competitors such as
Haagen-Dazs. Therefore, it is recommended that the company should diversify product types to
give customers more options to choose.
2. Price
Ben & Jerry’s is widely known as luxury ice cream providers by pricing is product at super
premium price. This is because its product has significantly high quality with certified
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ingredients and international standards. Therefore, it is believed that customers are willing to
spend more money to taste assured and high quality products.
However, in the UK market where there is a high threat of substitutes such as cake, and cake
with lower price, customers have many choices for refreshments besides ice creams. Moreover,
not all customers put product quality as their most priority when purchasing products. They are
price sensitive, so that they can easily switch to other cheaper brands to enjoy ice creams.
Therefore, it is important that Ben & Jerry’s develops product with cheaper price to serve more
potential customers.
3. Place
Most of Ben & Jerry’s products are available in supermarket, groceries, or convenience stores
where consumers often go to purchase goods. The company also co-operates with other retailers
such as Domino’s, Amazon, and Uber Eats to make its products available.
However, the limitation is that the company does not have as diversified distribution channel as
its competitors. Besides traditional channel, the competitor Haagen-Dazs also distributes their
product in ice cream vans to promote consumption. Thus, developing new distribution channel
should be a good tactic for Ben & Jerry’s to attract more customers.
4. Promotion
Ben & Jerry’s uses a wide range of promotional approaches to engage with customers. These
approaches include social media presence of restaurant chain, social media networks (Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and so on). Besides, TV advertising, newspapers, and outdoor promotional
campaign are also utilized by the company. It is recommended that the company could use the
approach of sponsorship for charities, football games, or TV shows to quickly deliver promotion
message to customers. Besides, the promotion activities should not stop at introducing new
products or discount. Instead, they could be involved with social matters (climate change,
pollution, etc.) to further engage with customers and build a socially responsible brand name.
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Conclusion
The report successfully determine Ben & Jerry’s approach to its marketing in the UK market by
taking into account different elements of marketing such as internal and external UK
environment, marketing challenges, positioning, marketing objectives, and marketing mix. Based
on the analysis, it can be concluded that Ben & Jerry’s has competitive advantages compared
with others in terms of product quality, diversified flavors, premium price, as well as
international brand name. However, there is still some challenges facing the company in terms of
threat of substitutes, competitor’s diversified distribution channel, as well as increasing concern
about health.
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References
Aaseng, N., 2005. Business Builders In Sweets and Treats. The Oliver Press, Inc.
Akpoyomare, O.B., Adeosun, L.P.K. & Ganiyu, R.A., 2013. Approaches for Generating and
Evaluating Product Positioning Strategy. International Journal of Business Administration , 4(1),
pp.46-52.
BBC,
2014.
Aims
and
objectives.
[Online]
Available
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[Accessed
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Ben & Jerry's, 2017. FairTrade. [Online] Available at: http://www.benjerry.com/values/issueswe-care-about/fairtrade [Accessed 1 Augustus 2017].
Ben & Jerry's, 2017. Flavors. [Online] Available at: http://www.benjerry.com/flavors [Accessed
1 Augustus 2017].
Ben
&
Jerry's,
2017.
Our
Non-GMO
Standards.
[Online]
Available
at:
http://www.benjerry.com/values/issues-we-care-about/support-gmo-labeling/our-non-gmostandards [Accessed 1 Augustus 2017].
Canadean, 2013. The UK Ice Cream Market: What Consumers Eat and Why? Canadean.
Cottle, F., 2016. UK Organic Market. Bord Bia.
Euromonitor, 2016. Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts in the United Kingdom. Euromonitor
International.
Gupta, A., 2013. Environment & PEST Analysis: An Approach to External Business
Environment. International Journal of Modern Social Sciences, 2(1), pp.34-43.
Huxley, R., Land, J. & Lobley, M., 2011. A Review of the UK Food Market. Cornwall Food &
Drink.
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IBISWorld, 2017. Ice Cream Production in the UK: Market Research Report. IBISWorld.
Khomami, N., 2017. UK population to hit 70 million in less than a decade. [Online] Available
at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/03/uk-population-to-hit-70-million-ons-inless-than-a-decade [Accessed 1 Augustus 2017].
Market Line, 2015. Ice Cream in the United Kingdom. Market Line.
Porter, M.E., 1980. Competitive Strategy. Free Press.
PWC, 2016. UK Economic Outlook. PWC.
Ryan,
R.,
2017.
Ice
cream
that
keeps
[Online]
Available
at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-132597/Ice-cream-keeps-slim.html
[Accessed
1
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you
slim!