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Case Study

Dreyer’s slow churned ice cream

By Kamran Kashani and Bryony Jansen van Tuyll

7 pages

November 2008

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Reference: IMD-5-0722

Part of a case series on marketing innovation, the Dreyer’s Slow Churned Ice Cream case study describes how Dreyer’s Ice Cream Company, Nestlé’s wholly owned subsidiary in the US, renovated its existing and successful ice cream brand by investing in an innovative production process that resulted in an improved product with novel consumer benefits. The new “Slow Churned” brand became a runaway success resulting in a huge increase in revenues and market share for Dreyer’s. The marketing team’s calculated “gamble” paid off making the brand the market leader in the low fat, light ice cream segment.

Learning Objective

This case study can be used to 1) show how a technical production innovation can be transformed into a successful marketing innovation; 2) illustrate how consumer research can direct new product and brand positioning ; 3) show how marketing teams need to deal with ambiguity and risks while embarking on an innovation process. The case can be used alone or with one or more of the other cases in the series on marketing innovation.

Keywords

New Product Development, New Product Branding, Consumer Research, Marketing Innovation, Brand Positioning

Settings

United States of America
Nestlé
2003-2007

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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