Monday, March 3, 2008

Ben & Jerry's in Facebook













Ben & Jerry's has joined the Facebook revolution and is taking a different and more aggressive approach than Owater. Rather than simply create a static page for Facebook members to become a fan of, Ben & Jerry's opted to mimic an application's behavior: allowing its "fans" to recruit their friends when joining the application. The gimmick? You get to send your friends different flavors of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. That's virtual ice cream of course.

Any thoughts?

8 comments:

Kate Serafini said...

This is definitely a good way to promote Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I know that a lot of people have the “Happy Hour” application which allows Facebook-ers to buy drinks for their friends. I believe a lot of people would add this application as well. I think it is a good idea, and a smart marketing gimmick.

Dianna S said...

I think this is a good approach for Ben and Jerry's to use Facebook as a Social media. I think this will definitely benefit the company. An account on Facebook, is a great way for B&J to promote their brand and their long list of favors.

Out of curiosity, I tried looking for the application on Facebook, but no results? I don't think I would add it to my Facebook application, but I know a few of my Facebook friends who may (because they add anything).

Nicole St. Jean said...

I just checked out Ben & Jerry's on facebook, some interesting statistics:

Ben & Jerry's has:

1 "People"
274 "Groups"
22 "Events"
1 "Application" (which i clicked on and couldn't add?)

Haagen Dazs has:
16 "people"
180 "groups"
8 "Events"
1 "Application"...which came up in the key word search but was actually a PET PEEVE APPLICATION:
(see below...)

Application:
My PeevesDeveloper: Bingo Inc.
Description: Learning about someones pet peeves could be the difference between getting laid and getting paid or bring at home, broke, alone with a pint of Häagen-Dazs. List your pet peeves and learn your friend's!Users: 1 daily active user (1%)Matches:Application Description

Is Ben & Jerry's really differentiating them selves from competitors such as Haagen Dazs or are they just simply following suit?

Ben Frechette said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ben Frechette said...

I think this is a good way to not only promote Ben and Jerry's ice cream, but also the flavors individually. I don't think I would add it either but i'm not a big ice cream guy, I'm sure Ben and Jerry fans will.

David CHan said...

I think its a good idea to promote Ben and Jerry's ice cream on facebook. ALso you could come out with individual sites for there flavors. The brand has alot of personality and with facebook they could be very creative. I believe loyal fans would add this application. Overall, its a good marketing concept and worth a try.

Kristyn-Anne said...

I have mixed feelings about this...on the one hand it is a good way to expose their name, logos, flavors, etc. and get people talking about their ice-cream - it will definately get them good exposure. On the other hand, to some Facebook users (myself included) such applications are similar to pop-up ads in the sense that they are a nuisance that is just X'ed out as soon as it is seen, and some people might get aggitated by the brand. I do think, however, that it would work for them more than against them, as I feel users like myself are outnumbered by people who like and use the applications. Eventually though, more people may feel bombarded by apps/advertisements.

Vanessa F said...

Along with most others, I also think this was a good idea for Ben & Jerry's. Joining the 60+ million people logged onto the social networking site we know as Facebook will only help generate business for the ice-cream company. Not only developing its own page, but also creating an application where friends can send each other ice-cream's online is a good approach, as I have never seen a company create such type of interactive application yet. Being an innovator is important because its takes a lot more to interest the averagew consumer today than it did 5 years ago.