The story of Ben & Jerry’s: the creation of a strong brand personality

The ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s was created in 1978, in Burlington, Vermont. It's central building is located in the North Est of the USA, near to the Canadian frontier. As its name indicates, the company is the result of the association of two friends, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

After taking online courses to learn on how to make ice cream, they end up investing $12,000 to open their first ice-cream store in an old gas station. The store was very successful, to the point of opening other stores a few years later throughout the United States. But this success was not due to chance. Indeed, the two founders have strong personalities and are not afraid to express themselves publicly. It can be said that the brand personality of Ben & Jerry’s is a huge part of their company success.

The values of the brand are clear, they can be easily found on the website of the company and they always seek to stick to it on everything they do. The driving philosophy can be understood thanks to the quotes that the founders, Ben andJerry, once said: "If it is not fun, why do it ?” and “Every company has a responsibility to give to back to the community”. Two aspects can be extracted from these quotes: first, the one of doing the job and always being itself doing it and, the second, one to share the success with people.

Sometimes, a huge brand personality may create some controversy among the public, specially when showing a strong opinion on political, environmental or social subjects. You can learn more about the social activism and claims made by its founders, Ben and Jerry, through the use of the brand, in our related post: "Sweet protests in support of human rights".

312 words

Sources:

https://www.benjerry.com/about-us

https://www.marketing-etudiant.fr/marques/ben-jerrys-marketing.html

https://bnbranding.com/brandinsightblog/small-brands-big-attitudes/