When I learned that Ben and Jerry launched a new flavor called Schweddy Balls, it put a smile on my face. I appreciated that the brand provided me with an unexpected and fun memory of a classic Saturday Night Live skit. Here’s a brand that knows how to have some fun, even if they risked offending a few people along the way.
And of course they did. “One Million Moms,” an organization affiliated with the American Family Association, says it’s offended by the ice cream’s “vulgar flavor” and in response they’re organizing a boycott. As a marketing and user experience professional I admire the boldness of Ben and Jerry’s management in connecting with their core audience. Connecting with a core audience often comes at the expense of alienating others.
The company made a number of comments to the press, but my favorite was this: “Our fans get the humor.” Ben and Jerry’s is now owned by a British-Dutch Unilever conglomerate, but boy are they good at reinforcing the brand equity that was established in the early days.
What can we learn from Ben and Jerry’s Schweddy (ahem) Balls? A brand needs to form a close personal connection with customers. This has always been the case, but is more so in this era of social media. Shallow, in-personal connections won’t stand up in the long-run to competition. Often deep connections are formed precisely because other groups are alienated. We don’t always admit it, but we form friendships largely because friends like the same things we do, and they dislike the same things we dislike.
Ben and Jerry’s is a company that was started by two Vermont hippies wearing tie-die. They were irreverent from the beginning. They were buying from sustainable farms 20 years before “sustainable” became a P.R. buzzword. With their innovative and in-your-face “What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?” campaign they took on the huge Pillsbury Company when it tried to enforce exclusive distribution (and won). The company has established a reputation for doing things differently, for having fun and being irreverent. Releasing controversial ice cream flavors taps squarely into that brand equity.
Based on years of research, Marketing author and Kellogg professor Philip Kotler boils success in marketing down to two rules, which are basic but tough to implement:
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1) Clearly differentiate your brand’s positioning
2) Get closer to your target customers by adding superior value
This much-talked-about new flavor release allowed the company to further differentiate itself and get closer to their core customers. Nice work Ben and Jerry.
