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Häagen-Dazs

Häagen-Dazs

Overview

Häagen-Dazs invented the premium ice cream sector in the 1980s and has been an iconic brand ever since. However, over time competitive pressure and strategic uncertainty meant it had lost leadership, direction and confidence. The brand was also suffering from falling consumer penetration.

Its once iconic advertising had become a series of lame jokes and price promotion was its only effective tactic. It was struggling to justify ongoing marketing support, despite the fact most consumers remembered the brand fondly and there was a hardcore base of loyal brand advocates.

There was an urgent need to find a consumer insight and strategy that would give the business renewed confidence to invest in the brand.

Creative Facilitation Skills

We reviewed all the marketing from the great and successful period around the early years of the brand’s launch. Working with the brand team we de-bunked the myths that had grown up around the brand’s success.

Then we reviewed the essence of the brand’s appeal with a clinical psychologist. Using psychological models not previously used in marketing, we identified the 14% of the total population for whom Häagen-Dazs could have special, personal appeal and the 20% to whom it would appeal strongly.

The model allowed us to identify precisely why the Häagen-Dazs brand was so successful with this group and build communication, distribution and promotional strategies designed to re-connect with the brand’s core. Importantly we could be categorical about what was on-brand behaviour and what was not. Thus, ending the speculation and uncertainty about what lay at the heart of Häagen-Dazs’ earlier success.

Result

Following our work with them, the business renewed its investment in the brand.

A new, three-tier distribution channel was adopted which recognised:

  • The opportunities that would underpin volume growth
  • New channels that would increase consumer penetration and support the brand’s image
  • New iconic opportunities which would not add significant volume, but which would burnish the brand

The key measures of volume, penetration, brand awareness and iconic status all returned to growth.

The brand outperformed its stretch targets achieving greater than 50% volume growth in five years.

Taking proven models from psychology and using them to gain a new depth of insight into a target audience can transform market place performance.

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How We Can Help

A corporate strategy understands a company’s strengths and how they use those to drive forward. We provide workshops to challenge current thinking, develop new models, build action plans and once the strategy is implemented, we are on hand to respond to queries.