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2 y2 0 2 , . o8 # o8 , , o8 . P ' N2 N2 % 2 o8 X : Ben & Jerrys Sends Out an S.O.S.: An Analysis of Ben & Jerrys Global Climate Activism
Carly Brooke Epstein, Laura Garcia, Rachel Lynn Kent, Jessica Lou Podolin, & Yan Jin*
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Georgia
Abstract: This case study discusses Ben & Jerrys global climate activism and its Save Our Swirled campaign in 2015. By developing the new ice cream flavor, Save Our Swirled, the company has drawn attention to the worldwide concern of global warming. Ben & Jerrys has implemented multiple other strategies in its campaign, which include partnering with climate change activists, hosting events and writing articles to accomplish the ultimate goal of sending a petition to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Keywords: activism, climate change, public relations campaign, social media, corporate social responsibility, corporate communication, environmental, activist movement
*Contact Author: Yan Jin, Ph.D., HYPERLINK "mailto:yanjin@uga.edu" yanjin@uga.edu.
To cite this article:
Epstein, C. B., Garcia, L., Kent, R. L., Podolin, J. L., & Jin, Y. (2018). Ben & Jerrys sends out an S.O.S.: An analysis of Ben & Jerrys global climate activism. Case Studies in Strategic Communication, 7, 1-35. https://cssc-ojs-utexas.tdl.org/cssc/issue/view/7Introduction
Ben & Jerrys is a well-known ice cream brand that has harnessed its influence and directed energy towards supporting various social missions, including global climate change among many others. Through partnerships with other companies Ben & Jerrys has hosted concerts and food festivals, circulated a petition to prevent climate change, hosted a Free Cone Day with the global warming cause as the focus, published relevant articles about climate change that affects its audience and ice cream, and has driven a Tesla around towns to promote Ben & Jerrys ice cream and green initiatives. Ben & Jerrys public relations team has positioned the brand as a knowledgeable, activist company that cares about current issues. In 2015, this effort was amped up with more frequent blog-style articles published to the companys website and the creation of an ice cream flavor devoted to raising awareness about global climate change: Save Our Swirled (see Figure 1). This case is important for corporate communications managers and CEOs because of the negative impacts that can personally affect every customer and business in the future if no responsibility is taken or no necessary changes are made to save the environment.
Figure 1
Join the Climate Movement! (Source: Ben & Jerrys)
Background
In 1978, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield created an ice cream company in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, which has grown tremendously over four decades. According to its website, in 1980, the supply and demand of the company increased and it began packing its ice cream in pints to deliver to grocery and Mom & Pop stores from the back of an old VW. The first franchised Ben & Jerrys scoop shop opened in Vermont in 1981, and nearly 20 years later, in August of 2000 new changes were made to the companys structure when an acquisition agreement was reached between Cohen, Greenfield, and Unilever. An independent Board of Directors was created in order to provide leadership focused on preserving and expanding Ben & Jerrys social mission, brand integrity, and product quality, because maintaining the companys strong activism model was a concern for the two cofounders when selling their company (B&J a).
The company is now structured with three core missions that guide its decision-making. The Product Mission drives Ben & Jerrys to keep up creativity and produce delicious flavors for its customers. The Economic Mission focuses on managing the company to be sustainable long term for financial growth. The Social Mission, arguably the most important, compels the company to use its brand in innovative ways to make the world a better place. Ben & Jerrys recognizes the importance of improving the quality of life locally, nationally, and internationally, which is accomplished in various ways throughout its global climate change campaign (B&J f).
Ben & Jerrys has become known for its active efforts in many social activism movements, fighting against issues including GMO labeling, LGBT equality, Fair Trade, opposition to the recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), and peace-building (B&J e). In most of these social activism campaigns, Ben & Jerrys strategically engaged its customers with unique ice cream flavors created/renamed and promoted for each specific campaign (see Figure 2). Across the campaigns, Ben & Jerrys often uses humor to interact with its customers, which aligns strategically with the companys playful brand image and corresponds with the fun new/re named ice cream flavors these campaigns center around.
Figure 2
Examples of Ben & Jerrys Social Activism Campaigns Branded with Ice Cream Flavors
Since 2002, Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream has been concerned about climate change. The company has changed its infrastructure, suppliers, and products in order to reduce its carbon footprint and be an even stronger activist through leading by example. Ben & Jerrys has been highly conscious of its carbon footprint and hired a small startup company called CoClear to conduct a life cycle analysis (LCA) study of its products. The company has set a goal to use 100 percent clean energy in all of its sites by 2020. In 2014, Ben & Jerrys identified that each pint of ice cream it makes adds about two pounds of carbon dioxide emissions to the air which is double the amount a car emits after driving a mile on the road (see Figure 3).
Figure 3
A Life Cycle Analysis Study of Some of Our Flavors (Source: Ben & Jerrys)
Ben & Jerrys then analyzed the emissions contributions from each stage in the production of its ice creams, from the harvesting of its ingredients to its manufacturing to the transportation and then to its freezer in retail. The company found that around 40 percent of the greenhouses gas totals come from manure and methane of cows, which provide Ben & Jerrys with the milk and cream needed for its ice creams. As a result, Ben & Jerrys has been working with farms to help reduce its pollution. Ben & Jerrys also started using recycled ice cream byproducts in the Netherlands to power its facilities and began using more renewable energy sources instead of relying on fossil fuels. Ben & Jerrys knows the worlds temperatures have increased by almost 2 degrees Celsius, and the company needs to do its part in counteracting that trend in rising global temperatures. The company shared its findings through one of its blog-style articles graphically, which can be seen below (B&J b).
In 2002, Ben & Jerrys led its first climate justice campaign with the help of the Dave Matthews Band (Hutchings). Ben & Jerrys released a signature ice cream flavor for the campaign entitled One Sweet Whirled, which helped garner attention of the damaging toxins released into the atmosphere that needed to be curbed. Ben & Jerrys goal through the campaign was to get Americans to pledge to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 200 pounds each by the end of 2002. Ben & Jerrys built the website OneSweetWhirled.org, where people could take a personal pledge to live a greener life, write letters to legislators to convince them to pass global-warming-related legislation, and read suggestions on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. During the summer of 2002, Ben & Jerrys took its One Sweet Whirled ice cream on tour with the Dave Matthews Band and served scoops of the ice cream to concertgoers while also convincing them to take a green pledge and learn about global warming (Quenqua).
Although that campaign ended over 10 years ago, Ben & Jerrys has not stopped promoting climate change and making adjustments in order to be a greener company. In fact, Ben & Jerrys revived this campaign at an elevated level in 2015. The company decided to take a similar approach to its first advocacy campaign by releasing a signature ice cream, Save Our Swirled, to alert the publics about global warming and using this ice cream as the center of the campaign and activism efforts. This Save Our Swirled campaign is regarded the companys first truly global campaign because the cause is so relevant to customers around the globe, according to Chris Miller, Ben & Jerrys Social Mission Activism Manager (Raymond).
Research
Threats and Challenges Faced
Although Ben & Jerrys is a successful company, it has a few things to worry about when it comes to its activism. While many customers are pleased that Ben & Jerrys supports an important cause and tries to make a difference, there will always be critics who say that it isnt enough. By openly providing statistics to the publics, Ben & Jerrys proves its issue awareness with actions, contributing to fixing environmental issues via the process of creating its ice cream. In an article, the company explains its plan, We knew that dairy was significant, said Andrea Asch, Ben & Jerrys Manager of Natural Resources, and Now that we have a number, we can set targets and work towards reducing this source of GHG emissions with creative solutions. Its probably going to include technologies that enhance the value and use of manure on the farm, as well as some new approaches on the farm (B&J b).
While it is respectable that Ben & Jerrys is aware of the CO2 emissions that making its ice cream causes, it raises a big questions such as, how it will reduce this number while still using dairy in its products. Even though there is a large market for vegan and dairy free ice cream, not all Ben & Jerrys customers will enjoy dairy free ice cream, so how can the company stay on track with its climate change message and continue to make ice cream? According to the company, Already, Ben & Jerrys is working with farmers on innovations like a separator that makes bedding out of manure, reducing 50% of the methane that would otherwise end up in the lagoon (B&J b). With small steps like these, Ben & Jerrys is heading in the right direction for the journey that the company as embarked on (B&J b).
Another challenge that Ben & Jerrys must keep in mind is the number of organizations and companies it is working with. While it is ambitious and amazing to see one company support and work with so many partners, it can also be a point of concern. While many of the companies and organizations that Ben & Jerrys partners with are working towards the same goal, it is not always easy to keep up with so many partners. On top of maintaining partnerships and having a mutually beneficial relationship, staying involved with every partner and still keeping the Ben & Jerrys message in the forefront can be a struggle. The chance for Ben & Jerrys core message to be lost rises with each new partner that is added to its portfolio. While for the most part its partners are concerned with the same things, each company has different central values and concerns. Ben & Jerrys needs to make sure that its message is among the first things customers think of when seeing its partners involved in joint activism campaigns.
Key Publics
The key publics involved with Ben & Jerrys mostly consist of the customers who enjoy the products, whether these customers were active customers before or after Ben & Jerrys became involved in climate change activism. The place where we interact with our customers most is in the freezercase, said Chris Miller, Ben & Jerrys Social Mission Activism Manager (Raymond). The companys most recent push for climate activism and its partnerships with various organizations, such as Avaaz, the company is able to get its message out to a wide variety of outlets and reach new audiences. These new outlets create a new category of customers, ones who joined the Ben & Jerrys family because of its activism.
Ben & Jerrys does many promotional activities to keep its fans happy and committed to its products. One of the many promotional days is Free Cone Day, where once a year at every Ben & Jerrys store there is a promotion to give out one free cone to each customer who stops by. While people are waiting in line, most locations will have different information about the causes the company supports. Ben & Jerrys holds these types of events to show its customers how much it appreciates them and how the company values their business.
Another sector of Ben & Jerrys customers is the online communities that interact with the company online. While there is not a Ben & Jerrys store in every city, the company tries to reach every available customer with tours and its social media outreach. With the rise of customer interaction happening online, it provides Ben & Jerrys another way to work in conjunction with its fans. By responding to customers tweets, Facebook posts, and emails Ben & Jerrys shows its customers that it cares about what they are saying.
Strategies and Tactics
Save Our Swirled
Ben & Jerrys 2015 climate activism campaign revolved around the introduction of a new ice cream flavor, Save Our Swirled (see Figure 4). This new concoction features raspberry ice cream, marshmallows, a raspberry swirl, and dark and white fudge ice cream cone pieces. If a customer allows the ice cream to melt, it looks like the ice cream cone pieces are melting like the arctic glaciers that are slowly disappearing (B&J k). Ben & Jerrys rolled out this new ice cream flavor at scoop shops in the beginning of 2015, announced a free ice cream tour in March, and released the pints to retail in May. Save Our Swirled, not so subtly abbreviated as S.O.S., sends a message to customers that if its melted, its ruined, and if global warming increases and ice cream melts faster, Ben & Jerrys S.O.S. is sent out with good reason (Raymond).
Figure 4
Ben & Jerrys Wants To Fight Climate Change With A New Flavor (Source: Think Progress)
Ben & Jerrys had to create a new flavor to inspire an entire campaign on an activism issue that matters to it. As a natural social philanthropist company, Ben & Jerrys easily attached itself to the issue of climate change because a rise in temperatures is bad for the globe as well as products like ice cream. Ben & Jerrys notes how melted ice cream put back in the freezer is not the same, and the idea of a melted world is an even scarier idea to the company (Raymond). Therefore, the company felt the need to increase climate change awareness in 2015. Ben & Jerrys introduced Save Our Swirled to educate customers on climate change and hopefully get them to take action on behalf of the cause (Hoffman). By introducing this new ice cream flavor with a social issue attached to its release, Ben & Jerrys wanted to entice customers to buy this new flavor, investigate into the climate change movement, and start influencing climate legislation, like that to be decided at the United Nations Climate Summit Conference in Paris in December of 2015 (Hutchings).
As for the pints of Save Our Swirled, each carton totes the URL HYPERLINK "http://www.benjerry.com/climate" www.benjerry.com/climate, so customers know where to find more information regarding the climate change initiative. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds from each purchase of Save Our Swirled is donated to an organization helping to increase awareness and activism for the United Nations Climate Summit Conference. The graphics on the carton also help to drive home the message of climate change. The iconic Ben & Jerrys cow is featured on the carton wearing a sweater with S.O.S. on the front. The cow is also holding a sign that reads, If its melted, its ruined. The publics see that this ice cream is still a dessert, but more importantly the publics see Save Our Swirled as a teaching movement (Hoffman).
To further introduce Save Our Swirled, Ben & Jerrys started a climate tour, which involved Ben & Jerrys employees driving around the country in a Tesla electric car to serve free scoops of Save Our Swirled (see Figure 5). Teaming up with Tesla was important to the company and its message, since Tesla creates electric cars, which do not contribute to exhaust or greenhouse gases in the air. Ben & Jerrys announced the ice cream climate tour in early March of 2015 (Gayomali). The tour started on April 1, 2015 in San Diego, California, and concluded in North Carolina on November 23, 2015. Since announcing the climate tour, Ben & Jerrys has encouraged customers to tweet the company asking the company to visit their city. Ben & Jerrys created a special Twitter account for the climate tour titled Ben and Jerrys Tour, in which the company and customers have been very active (B&J e). By creating a separate Twitter account for the climate tour, Ben & Jerrys was able to better connect with its customers and better manage the comments and engagement it desired with its fans.
Figure 5
In the back of Ben & Jerrys Tesla are three freezer boxes to distribute free scoops of ice cream. (Source: Fast Company)
Ben & Jerrys climate tour allowed the company to get up close and personal with different customers in different parts of the country. The climate tour was a large grassroots project for the company that helped further engage the publics in the climate change initiative. When serving ice cream out of the Tesla, Ben & Jerrys employees encouraged customers to visit the Climate Action Station part of the car where they could sign the climate petition promoted by Avaaz (Gayomali). This ice cream climate tour helped Ben & Jerrys execute its goal of displaying to its customers its devotion to the climate change initiative as well as getting customers excited and involved in the movement.
Special Events
Ben & Jerrys takes supporting a cause to another level; it doesnt just have its name on a 5K T-shirt, it helps plan and promote huge concerts, Free Cone Days, political rallies, and more. In 2015, the companys famous Free Cone Day worked in conjunction with its global climate change campaign. While customers were waiting in line for their free cone, Ben & Jerrys employees shared educational material regarding the Save Our Swirled campaign; they even served the flavor in the ice cream shops for the first time beginning with this event.
Other events that Ben & Jerry's supports are different types of rallies and protests. For example, Our Generation Our Choice is a demonstration for unity regarding popular issues, including climate change. This rally was a chance for the current generation to have their voices heard and to make the top politicians who were to run for office in 2016 see what matters to the current voting generation. Rallies and demonstrations like these are an important aspect of the promotion that Ben & Jerrys does. Ben & Jerrys are supporting events and rallies like Our Generation Our Choice, Ben & Jerrys supports these events by posting and sharing about them on its blog and its Facebook, as well as being at the events to show support. Ben & Jerrys helps organizations rally and show the government that it needs to start talking about these issues seriously and support them with legislation.
Ben & Jerrys also supports 24 Hours of Reality: The World is Watching, a world-wide event that was scheduled for November 13-14, 2015, but was suspended because of the terror attacks in Paris. This event was meant to be a morale booster; to get people talking about the Paris Climate Conference that would take place in December, to motivate world leaders to take action, and to try to come up with a global agreement to help curb climate change. The event would have been a combination of live music, interviews with politicians and climate change activists, as well as cultural icons that planned to speak out about climate change. With the event being postponed until a later date the message to take action now still stands.
The most important event for this campaign is the 2015 United Nations Climate Summit. Some of the countries where Ben & Jerrys is most popular such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, and others are countries that are going to be crucial in the talks, according to Miller, who also said that wide fan base gives the company access to a powerful grassroots voice leading up to the 2015 talks (Raymond). With these powerful countries planning to be at the United Nations Climate Summit, it is important to get all of the customers to take action and show all governments across the globe that these issues matter.
Blog-Style Posts
Another aspect of Ben & Jerrys strategy to spread the word about reducing human impact on the planet is evident in the blog post-style articles that can be found on the companys website. By posting in this manner, the company is able to directly link to the cause and market itself to the audience exactly how it wants to be perceived. This gives Ben & Jerrys an ideal opportunity to educate its customers about the effects of global climate change and suggest ways in which everyone can take part in vital change. While associating its ice cream with a positive initiative, the company has written frequently in 2015 to accompany other initiatives in this campaign, such as creating Save Our Swirled, touring in the Tesla car, and other special events. The tone of these articles can be described as humorous, ironic, and conversational, but at their core, each article is very educational.
On September 4, 2015, Ben & Jerrys posted an article titled The 6 Absolute Best Things About Climate Change. This piece was entirely satirical as it boasted about cruises to the Arctic now that the ice caps have melted, cheap winter sports gear because as snow decreases so will the sports that require it, expanded oceanfront properties since sea levels will rise, and more. By writing in this manner, the company is able to shed light on the negative effects of global climate change and persuade its audience to take action and sign the Avaaz petition for clean energy by clicking on a graphic in the middle of the article that brings them to the bottom of the page with a space to type in their name, email address, and country (B&J j).
Ben & Jerrys takes its posts to the next level by creating supportive content whether it be graphics or videos to accompany the blog-style articles. For example, an intriguing and creative YouTube video was created and attached to a blog post that urges customers to join the Save Our Swirled movement. This short 1-minute video shows melted ice cream with a voice-overlay discussing the metaphor between ice cream that is two degrees warmer therefore causing a mess for Ben & Jerrys and a 2-degree warming of the planet, which would have an equally dramatic though much more significant impact (B&J c). This multimedia attracts attention to the campaign and is easily shareable across social media platforms, such as Facebook.
In addition, Ben & Jerrys makes its articles interesting and engaging through educational graphics such as the bar graph comparing US Solar Power Generation over time from June 2005 until June of 2015, which can be seen in Figure 6 (B&J g).
Figure 6
Solar Power Is Here to Stay. Get Used To It, Utility Companies. (Source: Ben & Jerrys)
The writers have tapped into creative ways to present a message, such as the article, Ben & Jerrys Flavors We May Lose to Climate Change, which discusses certain crops of ice cream ingredients that are in danger due to climate change. This particular post is enlightening as it details the possible effects on certain key ingredients, such as cocoa, nuts and coffee (B&J i). Photos of these ingredients with a blank pint shape in the center catch the readers attention and help the customers visualize what could really happen in the future (see Figure 7)
Figure 7. Ben & Jerrys Flavors We May Lose To Climate Change (Source: Ben & Jerrys)
While these posts are supported by creative content, the written content is very much littered with statistics to prove the credibility and the validity behind the movement. The global effects are touched on in this particular ingredients blog post because the crops required to make the ice cream are found all over the world.
Many blog posts, but not all, feature a section at the bottom with blanks for customers to type in their information to sign the petition for clean energy. By making it easy for the target audience to complete the action and participate, Ben & Jerrys positions itself for success. It makes sense to include this blurb on all articles, posts and pages that relate to climate change activism because convenience is key when trying to encourage people to sign an online petition.
The company also brings its campaign full circle by promoting and recapping various events throughout the movement in blog-style articles. By including photos from events and expressing gratitude to supporters, Ben & Jerrys is able to send its message to a larger audience and propel its local event, such as the Protect Our Winters Climate Benefit in Washington D.C., to a global scale on the world wide web (B&J h).
Partnering with Other Organizations
Ben & Jerrys has partnered with four organizations who are involved with the climate movement: Avaaz, the Climate Reality Project, 350 and BICEP.
Its main partner, Avaaz is a global web movement launched in 2007 that focuses on encouraging people around the world to take action on global, regional or national issues to maintain a world people want and deserve. Avaaz campaigns in 15 languages on issues including conflicts with corruption, poverty or climate change. The online activist network takes action by signing petitions, funding media campaigns, and direct actions like emailing, calling and lobbying governments, and organizing offline protests and events (About Us). Avaazs fan base around the world gives Ben & Jerrys an influential grassroots voice when presenting at the 2015 talks. Ben & Jerrys ultimate goal is to get world leaders to commit to transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2050, which aligns with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel of Climate change, focusing on eliminating all carbon pollution in the next 85 years. The petition that Ben & Jerrys and Avaaz have created calls on all local, national, and international leaders to join the climate justice movement by urgently making realistic goals as well as national and local agreements geared towards shifting our societies to 100% clean energy. Copies of the petition have been hand-delivered to world leaders including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and French President Francois Hollande. The petition is featured on the Ben & Jerrys website as well as blog posts. By putting their name, last name and email on the form, people will be agreeing to share their email with Avaaz for updates on the campaign as well as similar campaigns. Avaazs goal is having 3 million signatures to deliver by the summit; the petition has already gathered about 2.36 million.
Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) is a coalition of different businesses who work with policy makers to pass meaningful energy and climate legislation and work towards a low-carbon environment. BICEPs vision is to be able to stabilize the climate while creating new jobs and increasing economic growth (BICEP a). Ben & Jerrys and BICEP work together to bring another voice to the global climate change campaign by using the power of grassroots activism to create positive change. The goal is to pass meaningful legislation by working with customers and pressing the government for climate change legislation (BICEP b).
Climate Reality Project is a nonprofit organization that focused on educating the publics about climate change and clean power advocacy. It promotes making a wide shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy and its goal is to reach net zero carbon emissions, and encourages people to get smart by educating themselves about the latest climate change, to get loud by being local with friends, family and their community, and lastly to get active by taking action and make a change (Climate Reality Project a). It teamed up with Ben & Jerrys in its Im Too Hot campaign that brought ice cream trucks to the major cities of Atlanta, Denver, Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. These four cities are hosting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearings on the proposed Clean Power Plan (Climate Reality Project b). The ice cream trucks promote awareness and give supporters ice cream treats for their efforts of supporting the plan.
Another partner of Ben & Jerrys is 350.org, an organization that supports thousands of grassroots activists and uses online tools to facilitate strategic offline action (350 a). It campaigns in almost every country in the world to discourage the influence and structure of the fossil fuel industry and help develop solutions to the climate crisis that are people-focused. The name for the company derives from the idea of climate safety. It supports events like Pathway to Paris, which is a concert that brought awareness to climate change as a global concern and encouraged a global movement for climate justice (350 b).
Evaluation
Ben & Jerrys climate change campaign has garnered attention from the media as well as marketing and public relations professionals. Hillel Porath, a business-to-business marketer wrote an article on LinkedIn called Business Lessons from Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream, in which he applauded the company for several of its business practices. To begin with, Porath appreciated the way Ben & Jerrys commits to attracting new customers through different types of business and engaging with the publics. Ben & Jerrys creates entire campaigns on social issues like climate change, but at the same time, all of the tactics and engagement employed during the campaign focus on customers and getting the customers to enjoy ice cream while simultaneously investing in a good cause. Porath wrote that Ben & Jerrys has a priority to social responsibilities and issues like global warming, and the company works hard to improve its products and infrastructure to align with the causes it promotes, as well as improve its relationship with its customers and the media through its social activism and care with its business and profits. Porath believed Ben & Jerrys is smart for voicing its opinion on issues that matter to the company, as well as aligning itself with like-minded customers working towards a common goal of climate activism (Porath).
Mike Schoultz, a digital marketer and blogger, wrote an article on Ben & Jerrys called 12 Lessons from Ben and Jerrys Marketing Strategies. In this article, Schoultz wrote how Ben & Jerrys take a creative and unique approach to customer focus in its campaign. Ben & Jerrys does a great job conversing with customers and creating environments in which natural conversation can occur between the company and customers, according to Schoultz. The Scoop Truck stands out as a great marketing tool in the climate campaign, as the truck tour provides face to face interaction between the Ben & Jerrys company and customers, again, in a fun and unique manner. Ben & Jerrys carefully listens to its audiences and tries to create events that meet their needs. For instance, Free Cone Day and music and food festivals are all geared towards the customer and satisfying the customers want for interaction with Ben & Jerrys. At the same time, Ben & Jerrys uses these physical interactions with customers to promote its ice cream, but also the social causes close to its heart. This is done through the promotion of the ice cream Save Our Swirled. This ice cream gives customers a charitable reason to buy Ben & Jerrys, which helps further sales for Ben & Jerrys and creates a better relationship between the company and customers as they work together to do good in the world (Schoultz).
According to Schoultz, the biggest takeaway from Ben & Jerrys campaign is to know your customer and tie that in with what matters in the world. Ben & Jerrys knows its customers care about social issues, like the company, and will buy a product to help promote a good cause. Furthermore, Ben & Jerrys takes a product like Save Our Swirled and then makes a larger impact on the world by donating some of the proceeds to climate activist organizations. By working with climate activist groups, Ben & Jerrys becomes a part of a trending topic and conversation in the world. Ben & Jerrys therefore gets more media coverage and attention, which helps sell products. Additionally, Ben & Jerrys receives positive attention for being involved with issues such as climate change, and this helps the companys reputation and customer acquisition (Schoultz).
In an online publication called Marketing Week, professional Alison Millington wrote of the success of Ben & Jerrys and its climate change campaign. Millington started by stating that purpose-led messages need to go more organically, in which she meant that a social campaign must produce a natural conversation rather than a forced course of action. She thought Ben & Jerrys is very authentic in its campaign, and that other companies should take note and follow suit. Millington writes you have to walk the talk and talk not only about the things that benefit you but also the things that you still have to improve, and Ben & Jerrys serves as a great example of a company who adheres to this philosophy. Ben & Jerrys walks the talk by changing its infrastructure and ice cream ingredients in an effort to reduce its carbon emissions and be a leader in the climate change movement. Additionally, customers ask Ben & Jerrys questions about its clean energy use or the carbon dioxide emissions created when producing a carton of ice cream, and Ben & Jerrys openly and honestly answers these questions. The company always states the present situation of the company and how the company is changing to better accommodate the customers wishes and improve the environment at the same time. Millington referenced Ben & Jerrys transparency and carbon footprint reports in her article as positive attributes of the company that lead to success of Ben & Jerrys climate change campaign and sale of Save Our Swirled (Millington).
Ben & Jerrys has taken its campaign of climate change on social media, especially Twitter, and has gotten positive feedback in return (see Figure 8). According to Summer Bedards USA Today article, Ben & Jerrys is the top ice cream brand to get people buzzing on social media. The statistics show that the company takes 54% of conversation around ice cream brands. Ben & Jerrys, being an ice cream company, has an image of being sweet, fun and appealing to all parts of the population. It used this image to its advantage and created a social media page that is colorful and non-traditional. Ben & Jerrys uses its Twitter to talk about issues that it cares about, with the majority of its tweets being about climate justice. Ben & Jerrys has a strong presence on Twitter with almost 300,000 thousand followers. One of its tweets, posted on October 21, shares their partnership with New Belgium Brewing Company on fighting climate change one pint at a time. This post received over 100 retweets and nearly 200 likes on Twitter. Between the two days of November 16th and 17th, Ben & Jerrys had 7 out of 10 tweets regarding climate justice. Its social media tone and activity on Twitter mirrors its activity on Facebook.
Figure 8. @benandjerrys (Source: Twitter)
In sum, Ben and Jerrys has engaged with numerous publics, teamed up with environmental groups, and employed creative awareness tactics like a unique ice cream flavor for global climate activism. The companys corporate communications managers did a great job making a connection between a worthy cause and the Ben & Jerrys brand. With the consistent efforts to make the world a better place, Ben & Jerrys aligns with organizations focused on the same goals. Ben & Jerrys, along with its partners, focused its efforts on global climate activism through the Save Our Swirled campaign. By creating a specific ice cream flavor, sponsoring multiple events, and so much more, Ben & Jerrys has successfully promoted a petition with Avaaz, to be presented at the United Nations Climate Summit Conference, with a lofty goal to keep global temperature from rising 2 degrees Celsius by demanding leaders to work toward 100 percent clean energy and completely phase out carbon pollution by 2050 (Cowan). In her article, Ben & Jerrys Churns Climate Change Concerns Into Its Newest Flavor, Samantha Cowan mentioned the global reach of the campaign by stating, As the campaign heats upand, hopefully, the planet cools downpints of Save Our Swirled will head to Europe in September and Asia by years end, so each world leader can have a scoop before making any big decisions at Decembers summit. Ben & Jerrys has high goals set for its Save Our Swirled campaign and although the company will always face challenges, it is refreshing to find a company gearing its influence towards important social activism movements.
Analysis and Discussion
While hundreds of companies and brands claim to go green, only small partition of them have convinced their environmentally-conscious customers that these CSR efforts and activism claims are more than a pass fad. The exceptions, such as Patagonia, excel in their activism campaigns because they send out genuine and compelling messages, which are actualized in consistent and impactful actions, led by the companys core values. In examining Patagonias CSR efforts, Moscato (2016) lauded how the company drew from commercial acumen but also grassroots organizing, moving its CSR initiative closer to a form of social and environmental activism (p. 99), which shed light to the key lessons for any companies that are engaged with activism campaigns against environmental issues: CSR practices need to be integrated with grassroots activism approaches, driven by a companys core value and business purpose. What makes Ben & Jerrys activism efforts in the same league with Patagonia, demonstrating CSR campaign effectiveness in the landscape of CSR efforts across industries, are at least two-folded: First, unlike many other companies or brands, which simply launch a cause marking campaign, out of convenience, to connect with their environmentally-conscious consumers, Ben & Jerrys genuinely incorporates its core values about the environment into action on a variety of levels; Second, Ben & Jerrys has consistently, throughout the past decade, put a serious effort to bring an environmental focus to the forefront in marketing, product development, consumer engagement, partnerships with nonprofits, advocacy, and various forms of public affairs communications.
When analyzing how Ben & Jerrys handles its climate justice campaign, one learns how a company can integrate its brand and products while still displaying its corporate social responsibility. According to the company, We live in a world where the effects of climate change are increasingly real; from melting ice caps to rampant forest fires, it can no longer be denied that man-made carbon pollution is affecting our fragile planet. The scientific evidence is settled; global warming is real and already impacting people around the world. The question now is, What are we doing about it? (Ben & Jerrys). Ben & Jerrys teaches students and PR practitioners how a company can attain corporate social responsibility in a fun, creative way that positively highlights both the company and the social cause.
Throughout its climate activism campaign, Ben & Jerrys has provided statistical reports and articles detailing the companys carbon footprint and the measures Ben & Jerrys is taking to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Ben & Jerrys tells its audience about the accumulation of greenhouse gases at each stage of production for its ice creams from the harvesting of ingredients all the way to the freezer case in retail stores. The company also openly shares scientific research on global warming. Ben & Jerrys also writes online articles on its website that reference climate organizations and provide scientific data and figures in order to divulge all the known facts on the climate change issue.
Ben & Jerrys wants customers to care about the environment and reduce their carbon emissions. Ben & Jerrys serves as a great role model in this endeavor. When the company drove across the country on a Save Our Swirled ice cream tour, Ben & Jerrys employees drove a Tesla, an electric car, so as not to pollute the air. When Ben & Jerrys quantified the amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced with the creation of each pint of its ice cream, Ben & Jerrys changed its infrastructure, ingredients, manufacturing, and transportation to reduce the companys carbon footprint. Ben & Jerrys continues to strive to be a greener company and has set a goal to use 100% clean energy by 2020.
The customer wants fun engagement with Ben & Jerrys and does not want the company to bombard them with boring facts about global warming. In listening to the customer, Ben & Jerrys creates lively blog-styled posts that incorporate some satire and humor into the issue of global warming and the increased melting of Ben & Jerrys ice cream. Ben & Jerrys partnered with companies to host events that centered around global warming, but still had the traditional fun street fair of music, dance, and food. The customers also told Ben & Jerrys where the company should stop on its climate tour, and Ben & Jerrys responded appropriately. Additionally, whenever someone commented or posted on a Ben & Jerrys social media page, the company gave attention to those comments and suggestions and told the customers what Ben & Jerrys is doing in the meantime to hopefully reach the publics goal in the near future.
Ben & Jerrys is aware of the increasing trend and movement towards veganism. The company knows that vegan ice cream can also help reduce global warming as a dairy-free ice cream does not need cows to produce the product. As Ben & Jerrys has already identified, cows contribute significantly to global warming because of the methane gas they emit. Customers have recently been asking Ben & Jerrys via the company social media pages to consider making a vegan ice cream. Ben & Jerrys, already planning for tomorrow, told those customers that it has been working on a vegan ice cream and hopefully the company will be able to release a vegan product soon. Ben & Jerrys also manages for tomorrow by simply joining the climate change movement. The entire movement is about current actions to prevent future disaster. Scientists know the forecast for the future if carbon dioxide emissions remain high. When people participate in climate movement activism, they are planning for tomorrow by changing their actions today. Ben & Jerrys does this as well. The company commits to using clean energy and reducing its emissions.
Ben & Jerrys never stops thinking about its audience. The company constantly plans events, develops new ice cream flavors, or improves its infrastructure and supply chain with its customers in mind. Ben & Jerrys does not reach out to the publics for solely a sales push or only in times of crisis. Ben & Jerrys interacts with customers like a dear friend. The company advises the publics on smart lifestyle changes to prevent increases in global warming and the issues that come along with a rise in global temperatures. At the same time, Ben & Jerrys shares fun, new ice cream flavors and ice cream events and interactions with the publics. Ben & Jerrys employs several public relations tactics daily whether it be interacting with customers face to face in a scoop shop, on the company website via its blog posts, or on the company social media pages. Ben & Jerrys cares about its public relations.
Ben & Jerrys values it customers. Customers are responsible for creating several ice cream flavors. They also told Ben & Jerrys they wanted a vegan ice cream, so the company set to work on developing one. Ben & Jerrys tries to make its customers happy because the company knows happy customers translates into good sales and a good reputation. Every year Ben & Jerrys hosts a Free Cone Day, where they give customers free ice cream. The company also hosts or sponsors several food and street festivals. Customers can therefore enjoy Ben & Jerrys ice cream while at a community event, often for a good cause like raising awareness for climate change. When Ben & Jerrys wanted to get involved with the climate change movement, Ben & Jerrys developed a new flavor of ice cream. The company could have simply advocated for the cause by voicing its opinion, but with the customers in mind, Ben & Jerrys wanted to develop an ice cream flavor for the cause. By creating a special ice cream flavor, Ben & Jerrys makes its customers happy and generates more profits to donate to climate activist groups. In pleasing its customers with the Save Our Swirled ice cream, customers are happy to share the message of global warming and the corporate social responsibility Ben & Jerrys assumes. Customers too join in the climate change movement, and before long, the customers represent the Ben & Jerrys brand and character.
Ben & Jerrys almost always interacts with its customer base through humor. The company has a very playful persona, which corresponds with the wacky flavor concoctions the company offers. Ben & Jerrys good-humored personality can easily be seen on its website. Ben & Jerrys continually writes blog-styled posts about its ice creams and climate change. Although Ben & Jerrys is dealing with a major issue of global warming, Ben & Jerrys manages to talk about the environmental issue in a satirical or humorous way, that still manages to drive a serious message. For example, the company has an article on its website called The 6 Absolute Best Things About Global Warming. In this article, Ben & Jerrys jokes about the melting ice caps, which will increase arctic cruises and low-cost ski equipment due to the fact that not many people will be skiing when all the snow melts. This article reads somewhat humorous, but readers also know the important message Ben & Jerrys is conveying.
The company remains patient when overhauling its infrastructure and asking retail stores to do the same. Ben & Jerrys knows that major changes cannot arise overnight, but the company takes persistent steps to make sure that major changes occur over time. Ben & Jerrys lobbies local and national governments as well as the United Nations. Through all of its activism work aimed at getting the governments do something beneficial for the environment, Ben & Jerrys remains calm and patient. The company does not anger or act unprofessionally in the face of officials. Ben & Jerrys instead repetitively keeps a steady push on the government but does not burst into a rage over policies or the lack of government efficiency and support on matters like global warming.
Discussion Questions
Q1: How does Ben & Jerrys develop its ethos as a credible speaker on climate change?
How does Ben & Jerrys manage to be a comrade in the struggle against climate change?
How are Ben & Jerrys climate commentaries beneficial to the customers and appreciated by the customers?
How does Ben & Jerrys manage to educate the publics on global warming without nagging or annoying the publics?
Note: Ben & Jerrys overhauled its infrastructure and sourced higher-quality ingredients in order to be a greener company. Ben & Jerrys, as a company, reports and analyzes its carbon footprint every year. The company constantly works on reducing that carbon footprint and aims to use 100 percent clean energy by 2020. The fact that Ben & Jerrys works with customers to improve the environment is crucial. Ben & Jerrys serves as a positive role model and leading example in the climate change movement. Ben & Jerrys customers would not be as responsive to the activism call-to-action Ben & Jerrys sends in regards to stopping global warming if the company itself did not make changes to help the environment. Without Ben & Jerrys acting on its words and calls-to-action, the articles and social media posts by Ben & Jerrys would strike the publics as annoying, hypocritical and irrelevant if the company itself does not also act on its words.
Q2. What non-traditional public relations tactics does Ben & Jerrys use in its climate activism campaign?
Note: Ben & Jerrys uses non-traditional public relations tactics to communicate with its customers because these non-traditional sites of engagement better align with the character of company. Ben & Jerrys operates with a playful demeanor and uses a friendly tone in its communications with customers. Ben & Jerrys therefore does not use traditional media outlets such as newspapers and press conferences to inform customers about the climate change movement and Ben & Jerrys role in the movement. Instead, Ben & Jerrys partners with other climate-focused activist companies or other food companies to host events that promote both Ben & Jerrys ice cream (Save Our Swirled) and the climate movement. The company also communicates with fans over social media and through Ben & Jerrys corporate website, which posts blog-styled articles about the company, its ice creams, and global warming. These non-traditional communications methods work well with Ben & Jerrys message, tone, and company culture.
Q3. How does Ben & Jerrys tie its product (ice cream) to the climate justice movement?
Note: Ben & Jerrys incorporates its company and products into the climate justice movement by creating a special flavor of ice cream that benefits the movement. Ben & Jerrys released Save Our Swirled to scoop shops and retail in early 2015. Throughout the remainder of the year, Ben & Jerrys drove around the country on a Climate Tour, giving free scoops of Save Our Swirled to the publics. The company also hosted events which featured Save Our Swirled. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Save Our Swirled ice cream was donated to a climate change activist group. Ben & Jerrys profited from the involvement with the climate movement through its sale of a new flavor of ice cream. The company also proved to its customers that it assumes corporate social responsibility for its impact on the environment. By attaching itself to a cause, Ben & Jerrys appeal to customers increased.
Q4. How does Ben & Jerrys integrate social media into its campaign and also use it as a forum to converse with customers on climate change?
Note: Ben & Jerrys frequently posts on its social media accounts in order to engage and converse with its customers. Ben & Jerrys posts about festivals and events at which the company will serve Save Our Swirled ice cream. Additionally, Ben & Jerrys posts links to its blog-styled posts about global warming and the impact on Ben & Jerrys. Sometimes Ben & Jerrys simply links to climate articles or other climate activist groups. The company has also written social media posts about the Avaaz petition in an attempt to get Ben & Jerrys customers to sign the petition. Lastly, Ben & Jerrys created a special Twitter account dedicated to the Save Our Swirled Climate Tour. Customers tweet Ben & Jerrys to make a stop in their respective cities. Customers frequently post on the Ben & Jerrys Facebook page and tweet the Ben & Jerrys accounts. Ben & Jerrys does a great job responding to customers and implementing the ideas the customers suggest via social media.
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