Ben & Jerry's Web Strategy and a Creative Service Concept

Ben & Jerry's Website as a Marketing Tool

Ben & Jerry's website is an almost perfect reflection of the company as the consumer popularly views it: high quality but "down home," clever, humanistic, ecologically minded, and service-oriented. Few people have not heard at least some part of the Ben & Jerry story — how two friends pooled their savings and started a little ice cream shop in a converted gas station, a sort of commercial swords-into-ploughshares tale.

The website opens with a top banner reminiscent of Blue Mountain Arts, containing simple animation of simple shapes. In this case, it is snowflakes falling on a cow that licks an ice cream cone. (One assumes that the sun shines in summer, leaves fall in autumn, and so on.)

Right below that, a product shot tells the consumer immediately that this is organic ice cream, appealing to the "greens." It mentions that it is good for you — that "your body will thank you" — and that it tastes good, appealing to the "foodies." It then invites praise, asking for "love letters." This is all calculated to engage the consumer further; one can assume that a visitor to a Ben & Jerry's website was already fairly well hooked. But a little invitation to interaction never hurts, especially when it is clever.

Product Promotion and Consumer Engagement

Next, Ben & Jerry's attempts to satisfy the curiosity of its upscale consumer by offering a virtual factory tour of the place where "Vermont's Finest" is made. This is both good marketing and good service. Ben & Jerry's target market, by virtue of the price of the product alone, is an upscale consumer — one who is likely well-educated or at least curious — who would want to see how ice cream is commercially made and to be assured that the product is everything Ben & Jerry's claims: premium, fresh, ecological, and all the other "earthy-crunchy" and food-aficionado buzzwords.

So far, Ben & Jerry's has entertained the customer (the cute animated banner), promoted the product (the product shot and tag lines), and educated the customer. Next, Ben & Jerry's sells the customer. The third column in the simple layout features another product shot, this time for a less familiar product — a "'Wich," or Ben & Jerry's version of the venerable ice cream sandwich. With that comes an invitation and a link to proceed further, as there was with the factory tour. Clicking the link reveals exactly what the 'Wich is made of — and the surprising fact that they are available at 7-Eleven locations. One can assume that Ben & Jerry's fans, who are used to taking pints home, will be thrilled to be able to stop, 'Wich up, get back in the car, and drive happily to their next appointment munching a genuinely good ice cream treat rather than the foam-core-and-cardboard slabs they might otherwise settle for during busy hours. This seems a brilliant strategy on every level.

Also not to be missed is one element on the left-side menu: the Flavor Graveyard. There are dozens of discontinued flavors — flavors that many consumers never heard of, in product lines they may not have known existed. One example: New York Super Fudge Chunk® Original Ice Cream Peace Pops™. Many of the dead flavors sound wonderful, and Ben & Jerry's has cleverly provided a way to request their resurrection. They have also provided a haunted house game to play — a delightful bit of interactivity that keeps the visitor engaged.

Back on the home page, the final column is Ben & Jerry's Schoolhouse, their version of FAQs — clever, complete, and again featuring an invitation. But there is more: the top banner is accompanied by several clever buttons, including, naturally, a Gift Shop button. Here, something truly distinctive signals just how upscale this brand is: customers can order six pints of Ben & Jerry's to be mailed to themselves or as a gift. The cost is $54.94, but it includes dry ice and a gift card. A cheaper alternative — printing out gift coupons — is also offered. Other gifts range from clothing to mugs, including a toothpick holder that resembles a shot glass.

The Unprincipled Sleazeballs Business Concept

In the 1983 film The Big Chill, a main character mentions that he does not want to become an "unprincipled sleazeball." And yet, unprincipled sleazeballs are useful to have around. Politics, for example, is full of them. While people cannot hire a politician for every little situation requiring the presence and actions of an unprincipled sleazeball, one could conceivably hire actors and actresses to play the part when the need arises.

When would a person need one? For instance, when taking a car in for repairs: only large, imposing individuals and other mechanics can be confident of receiving fair treatment at auto repair shops. An unprincipled sleazeball could certainly make a more lasting impression on a mechanic supervisor than, say, a soccer mom. This business concept is a referral service for actors and actresses who are ready, willing, and able to play the role of "unprincipled sleazeball" for non-actors who need someone to get down and dirty with anyone from the auto mechanic to the neighbor whose dog barks all night. It is a service to actors — who are chronically underemployed — as well as to an unsuspecting public that has been taken advantage of more than once by sleazeballs in positions of authority or service.

The website will be designed to appeal to an upper-middle-class audience — those least likely to behave like sleazeballs in public because such behavior was schooled out of them, and yet who genuinely need someone to negotiate an increasingly unforgiving world on their behalf.

Conclusion

Both websites — one real, one imagined — illustrate how digital presentation must align closely with the intended audience's values, expectations, and sense of humor. Ben & Jerry's succeeds by combining warmth, ecological credibility, and interactivity to serve a well-defined upscale consumer. The fictional Unprincipled Sleazeballs concept applies the same logic in reverse: it targets the same upscale demographic but sells them something they would never do themselves, wrapped in a tone that is equal parts irreverence and reassurance. In both cases, the website is not merely a storefront — it is the brand experience itself.

Works Cited

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc. Ben & Jerry's. Accessed 8 February 2004.