Keeper of the Corporate Counterculture

There’s no question that Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield will forever be hailed as pioneers in the annals of frozen desserts. But four years ago, they scooped themselves up a place in promotion marketing history as well.

The childhood buddies took Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. from a Burlington, VT, gas station in 1978 to a public offering by ’85. They wanted to ease out and turn over control of day-to-day operations, but hiring a search firm would not do for the pair whose most popular flavor, Cherry Garcia, bore tribute to the fabled leader of the Grateful Dead. No, the ice cream counterculturists opened the post up to the nation at large: “Write us a letter telling us why you should be chief executive officer of Ben & Jerry’s and win the job.” The winner, a Detroit acquisitions consultant named Bob Holland, stayed with the company for two years before handing over the helm to current ceo Perry Odak.

“Bob had a lot to do with setting the new direction of the company,” says chief marketing officer Larry Benders. No Dead-Head, Benders finds inspiration in the jazz-infused pop of Donald Fagen. His business grounding wasn’t learn-as-you-go entrepreneurialism, but Fortune 500 fast track. A graduate of Yale and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Benders ran the Johnson’s Baby Shampoo brand at J&J, Grey Poupon mustard at Nabisco, and was vp of new products at Coors Brewing before joining Ben & Jerry’s in 1997.

“I was charged to take a new look at how we go to market,” says Benders. “We needed to attract new users.”

Benders and his marketing team started with the basics. Ben & Jerry’s homey packaging wasn’t cutting it in the age of black Rayon bellbottoms. “Research showed that consumers were having a hard time identifying flavors,” he says.

Packaging with bolder, more unified graphics and color photographs of ingredients launched last year. Ben & Jerry’s wacky flavor names remained intact, but descriptors were added for consumers who might be new to the brand (or old ones who’d sampled one too many Thai Sticks). Cherry Garcia, for instance, now carries the subtitle “Chocolate Ice Cream with Cherry Chunks.”

Benders, the classic brand scholar, had to take the rough edges off the brand, but not at the expense of Ben & Jerry’s playful, funky soul. “Take our newest flavor, Bovinity Divinity. It’s completely goofy. That’s the kind of culture we have here. No one else can do that but Ben & Jerry’s.”

Though he has no plans to put his job up for grabs in an under-the-lid game, Benders is keeping alive the company penchant for offbeat promotions. To introduce its new Dilbert-inspired flavor last April Fools Day, Ben & Jerry’s representatives paid airline commuters’ fares and handed them ice cream samples for the trip.

Throughout last summer, a revived radio ad campaign stoked consumer desires for individual flavors, and dip wagons plied the beaches and resorts with free samples.

Flavor is the primary marketing theme Benders is dishing out to the faithful. The company Web site has a Flavor Graveyard that lists retired varieties, and a steady stream of letters pours into South Burlington headquarters from fans demanding the return of old favorites. Last year, Ben & Jerry’s complied, bringing heavily requested flavors back for limited-time tours.

Benders also helped strike a blow for the company’s vaunted social conscience, repackaging the entire line in recycled paperboard. “We’re not making a big deal of it promotionally,” he says. “There’s just no reason any longer to use bleached paperboard.”

Bender, his wife of 17 years, and his four kids look to be Vermont residents for some time to come. Sales shot up 20 percent in 1998 to $209 million dollars, due partly to a successful Japan launch, but mostly to domestic increases. Company research showed that pints of Ben & Jerry’s appeared in one million more households in ’98 than they did in ’97.

The forecast for a smooth ’99 is in. This month, Ben & Jerry’s introduces Frozen Smoothies – fat-free, 300-calorie, all-fruit concoctions that are ready to slurp after a zap in the microwave.

Mr. Classic Brand Manager appears to be having a smooth sail as well. “Ben and Jerry created something just amazing,” he says. “I feel lucky to have a turn at the wheel.”