The history and market analysis of Baskin Robbins as an advertising case study.

1. BASKINS
ROBBINSBy Hamsa Yogitashri D
MY.MC.I5VCM17023
Submitted to : Sreelakshmi Ma'am

2. Introduction
The brief about company, competitors, unique selling point and
brand positioning and equity.
2
1
3
4
History and Growth
The history of the establishment, logo development and
coverage across.
Advertising strategy
The target market, customer and market analysis, SWOT
analysis and new media advertising.
Marketing Mix
4Ps - Prodcut, price, place and promotion, sales and distribution
and promotion with TV show - Stranger Things.
5
Conclusion
Concluding statements and references

3. ONE
INTRODUCTION

4. Baskin Robbins is global chain of ice-cream parlors
founded by Burt Baskin and Irvine Robbins in 1953,
in Glendale, California. It claims to be the world’s
largest ice-cream franchise with more than 5800
locations, 2800 which are located in the United
States.
Baskin Robbins sells ice-cream in over 30
countries, including Nepal, Canada, Japan, Malaysia
and other. The company’s headquarter is located at
Canton, Massachusetts. There were about 31
flavours in
BREIF
Baskin Robbins. Baskin Robbins is known for its “31
flavours”. Baskin-Robbins® has nearly 7,000 store
locations in over 50 countries outside the US.
You might be surprised where in the world you'll
find us. We're one of the world's most recognizable
brands of ice cream treats and the world’s largest
ice cream specialty chain!
Baskin-Robbins® stores throughout the world dish
out global favourites like World Class® Chocolate
and Strawberry Cheesecake, but also local
favourites, such as Green Tea and Rum Raisin. No
matter where you are in the world, you will find
unparalleled quality and variety at every shop.
The fun theme was supplemented by the ambience
in the stores and the friendliness of the staff, who
allowed customers to sample as many flavors as
they wanted before making their
final choice.
“Where the Fun is Unending & Flavour is King”
The value proposition is strongly supported by the offerings
from Baskin Robbins. Just there needs to be an improvement in
Store ambience to provide that “Fun” element.
USP : 31 flavours for 31 days

5. With the advent of modern trade, Baskin Robbins now covers 500 modern retail stores along with its retail foot
print of 370 outlets. Baskin Robbins will add 100 retail outlets during the year and also grow our modern trade
footprint. Modern Trade now contributes to 15% of their overall revenues and they see this growing to 20 per cent
in the next couple of years. Baskin Robbins has established its leadership in the premium ice cream category in the
modern trade channel.
But competition is in no mood to give up without a fight. Amul too entered the segment this year with its Scooping
parlours where it serves sundaes, thick shakes and an exclusive range of ice cream. It plans to have 1,000 franchises
by the end of the financial year, up from the current 250, and thereon add 1,000 every year for the next five years
and expects retail to contribute to 20 per cent of Amul’s ice cream revenue in the next three to five years.
COMPETITORS
It has entered into Guinness Book of World
Records for creating the “World’s largest ice
cream scoop pyramid” in the year 2000.
#1
FACT
Baskin Robbins is the current Guinness World
Record holder for the largest cup of ice cream in
2005, celebrating its 60th birthday.
#2 FACT
The brand has been associated with various famous
personalities & celebrities over the years such as Pitcher
Phil Hughes, actresses Julia Roberts, Chandra Wilson and
Taryn Manning, actors Randy Quaid, Eric Dane, Ex-US
President Barack Obama and TV host Rosie O’Donnell,
Chef Bobby Flay.
BRAND EQUITY
Chart: Market Share of Ice Cream Brands in India

6. TWO
HISTORY AND GROWTH

7. HISTORY
The Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlors started as
seperate ventures from Burt Baskin and Irv
Robbins owning Burt‘s Ice Cream and Snowbird
Ice Cream respectively. Snowbird Ice Cream
featured 21 flavors, a noval concept for the time.
When the separate companies merged in 1953,
this concept grew to 31 flavors.
Baskin-Robbins is known for its ―31 flavors‖
slogan. The idea for having 31 flavors came from
the Carson-Roberts advertising agency (which
later became Ogilvy & Mather) in 1953, along
with the slogan ― Count the flavors.
During the flashback portion, when we see a
hiegh zoom-out shot of the protesters at Third
Street. A building bearing the name ―Baskin-
Robbins‖ can be seen in the lower left corner.
By 1948 Burt & Irv opened six stores: the first
franchise covering the sale of ice cream was
executed May 20, 1948, for the store at 1130
South Adams in Glendale.
In 1949, there were more than 40 stores in
Southern California when Burt and Irv purchased
their first dairy in Burbank. This business decision
allowed them to have complete control over the
production of their ice cream, and the
development of new ingredients and flavors.
It wasn‘t until 1953 that the ice cream chain
dropped the separate identities of Snowbird and
Burton's and became Baskin-Robbins. A local
advertising agency, Carson/Roberts, advised a
uniform identity and image under the name
Baskin-Robbins 31 Ice Cream.

8. The brand logo has evolved over the years without losing out its core identity of the
“Original 31 flavours”. Baskin Robbins logo has evolved though their 65 year long
history. Baskin Robbins log was originally with the number 31 in the middle of the
words Baskin Robbins. This was done in order to incorporate Baskin Robbins branding
of offering 31 flavors and the basic principle behind this being to offer one flavor for
each day of the month.
And in its 60th year of operations Baskin Robbins developed a new logo with adding
the number 31 subliminally within the 'B' and 'R' of the Baskin Robbins logo itself. This
was done in intention of creating a more fun outlook to the logo itself, which as
mentioned above in Baskin Robbins positioning, it would also align itself with the
tagline the co- founder of Baskin Robbins Irv Robbins initially made, "We sell fun, not
just ice cream" ("Baskin Robbins, Our History", n.d.) However even with the
introduction of the new logo we see that Baskin Robbins still uses its initial logo as a
secondary logo.
LOGO

9. DEVELOPMENT
The Company operates in more than 60 countries globally with more than
7,822 Baskin-Robbins outlets worldwide,
which 5,284 are international and 2,538 are based in the U.S. Approximately
32% of Baskin-Robbins restaurants are located in U.S. and rest at international
locations which represent the majority of total international sales and points of
distribution.
It operates in the countries globally through Joint Venture and Master
Franchisee model generating approximately 24% sales from South Korea, 21%
sales from Japan of the total sales from international business in the year 2016
while 12% sales from the middle east region.
Baskin-Robbins has more than 8,000 shop locations in 52 countries, including locations in: Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Canada,
China, Colombia, Curaçao, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius,
Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Maarten,
Taiwan, Thailand, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen.
International locations feature flavors of ice cream popular to the tastes of each country, such as Red Bean, Litchi Gold, Black Currant, Cantaloupe, and Coconut Grove. Baskin-
Robbins began testing a new store format featuring state of the art display cases, original artwork, as well as new product offerings, in late 2018. The "Moments" concept was
first showcased in Fresno, California, followed by El Paso, Texas.

10. NTER TITLE ENTER TITLE
US based ice cream major, Baskin Robbins celebrated its 65th global anniversary on July 31. On the occasion, the brand, which has stuck with below-the-line
activities over the years, took the first step towards above-the-line advertising -- by exploring radio and tying it in with its on-ground activities in India.
On being quizzed as to why Baskin Robbins has, over the years, stayed away from ATL and other media, Uppal shares, "Our international global strategy
promotes Baskin Robbins as 'Your neighbourhood ice cream store'. Thus, our communication was limited to
neighbourhood activities, society campaigns, flyers, newspapers inserts, etc, internationally as well as in India." However, he adds, "The brand has realized
that the customer is evolving and so is media. We are moving towards being media agnostic, where while having a strong focus on BTL, we will slowly move
towards other media formats too, depending on the communication need."
Thus, in the US, Baskin Robbins' communication strategy has begun encompassing print, TV, outdoor, PR and even digital, in addition to BTL. Baskin Robbins
India is following suit with its new campaign. The brand tied up with Radio Mirchi for a number of activities and promotional programming content. Birthday
spots ran on-air through the month of July discussing its 65th-year celebration.
THE PINK SPOON

11. THREE
A D V E R T I S I N G S T R A T E G Y

12. PRIMARY TARGET MARKET
Upper middle and higher income group
The primary target market of Baskin Robbins is comprised of middle (Rs. 150 000 to Rs. 200
000) and higher (Rs. 200 000 above) income professionals and families with toddlers. This
market would possess a relatively high disposable income percentage. The lifestyle of such
individuals would be high value on family time spent, high focus on child centered activities
and they would be individuals who associate a product with brand name, quality over price,
hence having ice cream at Baskin Robbins would be aligned with their social class. Also the
premium loyalty which is associated with the Baskin Robbins brand name, these individuals
with a high profile status class would be subject to a strong attachment to Baskin Robbins and
develop a sense of belonging, which is then in turn passed along to the children. As a result,
the families are adjudged profitable high volume customers.

13. SECONDARY TARGET MARKET
Teenagers, young adults and students
The secondary segment of Baskin Robbins target market is composed of teenagers, young adults and
students (School and university) within the Colombo city suburbs consisting of both genders and all
ethnicities ranging from the ages of 18-24 and 25-30. These individuals would be having active social
lives, and it will be an important aspect as per our research suggests that this segment of the market
enjoys socializing, leisure and entertainment mainly in Colombo urban areas. While most of this
demographic appear to be similar, college students would be the prime segment to focus on. Hence
these students could be viewed as marginally profitable low to high volume customers with latent to
premium loyalty as they would be spending most of their income on social activities and
entertainment. Hence they would feel the need to create a strong relationship or attachment to
Baskin Robbins, as it is a premium product and a hot spot for this segment to satisfy their self-esteem
needs. Also this market would follow up the potential for positive word of mouth and due to the fact
that peer influence is high for this segment of the market, it would undoubtedly result in the growth
of the customer base of Baskin Robbins.

14. CUSTOMER ANALYSIS
As a part of QSR, it offers varieties of Ice-creams, premium flavours delighting the taste buds.
Its customers are majorly from cities or urban areas who are in age group of 10-40 years and
want to taste ice creams made with pure cow’s milk available along with an array of sundaes,
milkshakes, and cakes.
MARKET ANALYSIS
The QSR industry faces several bottlenecks while some companies do have an advantage over others due to the type of
business model i.e. franchised or company-owned outlets or mix model. Since Baskin-Robbins operates in categories and
subcategories such as hard-serve ice cream, soft serve ice cream, shakes, floats, malts, frozen yogurt and cakes, the
specialty store is driving the Ice-cream sales globally for over more than 65 years.

15. STRENGTH
• Location Proximity
• Strong brand awareness
• More than 1000 flavours of ice-cream in the
library include low fat and no sugar ice-cream
• Provide several services for different age
groups
WEAKNESS
• Expensive compared to competitors
prices
THREAT
• The number of competitors increasing
including the traditional competitors
• Emerging competitors with cheaper
alternatives
OPPORTUNITY
• Market for expansion
• Can push sales to hotels and resorts in the
nearby localities
• Provide party packs

16. NEW MEDIA ADVERTISING
Email Marketing
As soon as customers migrated into the online world, Internet marketers have attempted to collect and organize emails for potential prospects. Many business-to-business
marketers depend on email marketing as a primary way to connect with customers. At industry tradeshows, IBM consultants can often be seen exchanging email information
with their prospects.
Social Media Marketing
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter offer a unique opportunity for savvy businesses willing to invest in customer engagement. Social media marketing is still in its
infancy but is growing up rather quickly. Companies like Southwest Airlines have departments of over 30 people whose primary responsibility is to actively engage with
customers on social media.
As commerce has propagated to the Internet, a new form of marketing
has emerged. From online banners to those annoying pop ups, online
marketers have attempted to get their customers attention any way they
can. Most online strategic marketing efforts today are a mix of growth
hacking strategies ( A/B testing taken to the max) and a variety of
awareness tactics that drive attention. A very effective online marketer is
the insurance company Geico who simply asks their users to enter their
zip code for an instant quote on a better savings.

17. FOUR
MARKETING MIX

18. PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION
Price covers the actual amount the
end user is expected to pay for a
product. How a product is
priced will directly affect how it sells.
This is linked to what the perceived
value of the product is to the
customer rather than an objective
costing of the product on offer. If a
product is priced higher or lower
than its perceived value, then it will
not sell.
The marketing communication
strategies and techniques all fall
under the promotion heading.
These may include advertising,
sales promotions, special offers
and public relations. It is important
to differentiate between
marketing and promotion.
Promotion is just the
communication aspect of the
entire marketing function.
The product is either a tangible
good or an intangible service that is
seem to meet a specific customer
need or demand. It is key to
understand those problems that
the product is attempting to solve.
The benefits offered by the product
and all its features need to be
understood. The potential buyers
of the product need to be
identified and understood.
Place or placement has to do
with how the product will be
provided to the customer.
Distribution is a key element of
placement. The placement
strategy will help assess what
channel is the most suited to a
product. How a product is
accessed by the end user also
needs to compliment the rest of
the product strategy.

19. SALES AND DISTRIBUTION
The method of distribution or place adopted by Baskin Robbins is a high
foot traffic area in the Colombo suburb of Kolpity, which is based on one
of Colombo's busiest roads. (Galle Road) And the fact that it is uniquely
placed in close proximity to several universities and schools as well as
several business organizations has made it a high foot fall region. Hence
since the trend or behavior pattern of the target market of Baskin Robbins
is concerned of social class they would want to be associated and be
seen in the main Baskin Robbins outlet by their peers.
Our consultancy recommends Baskin Robbins to embark on moving in to
the menus of the major hotels in Sri Lanka, such as Cinemon Hotel Chain,
Hilton Hotel, Galle Face Hotel etc. and even open small outlets in high
end consumer malls such as, Crescat Boulevard and Odel, all places
which are associated with the social class of the target market of Baskin
Robbins which pursue social status symbols, and would therefor
potentially want to associate Baskin Robbins to represent their social
class
Distribution channel could be defined as the
pipeline which is used to flow goods and
services from the vendor to the consumer.
("Business Dictionary, Distribution Channel",
n.d.)

20. In Stranger Things 3, bad boy-turned-hero Steve
Harrington works at fictional ice cream parlor Scoops Ahoy.
Now, the real ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins is bringing
the shop to life.
Baskin-Robbins and its agency of record, Atlanta-
based 22squared, has partnered with Netflix to open
Scoops Ahoy, to give Stranger Things fans a physical place
to interact with the show. Netflix first reached out to
Baskin-Robbins over LinkedIn, and asked the chain to pitch
ideas to them.
A total of five elements were developed for this campaign.
First, the shop had to be built. On 2 July, a Baskin-Robbins
store in Burbank, California and another in Toronto
uncovered a facelift.
From the sign out front, to the bow booth inside, to the
smallest details on the menus, every piece was made to
look and feel like the fictional 1985 store, including
uniforms for employees. The shops will remain open for
two weeks as Scoop Ahoy.
PROMOTIONS
Apart from the sales of ice creams, Baskin Robbins enjoys great patronage among high end
institutional clients ranging from the best five-star hotels in the country, to the premier airlines,
high end retailers, corporate parks and campuses, cruise companies, the best restaurants and
clubs, and of late, all the multiplexes, which is fast becoming a separate business channel in this
country. Around 35% of their sales are from institutional sales. In the coming years, the brand
plans to aggressively penetrate into the smaller towns apart from consolidating its present
market in the major cities and metros.
Stranger Things’ ‘Scoops Ahoy’ brought to
life by Netflix and Baskin-Robbins

21. A 15-second commercial was made to promote USS Butterscotch, a limited-time offer
flavor being sold in Baskin-Robbins stores nationwide. The Baskin-Robbins R&D team
took the flavor name from the show and created the flavor. “22squared purposely made
it like a local TV ad from the 1980s, complete with bad acting, bad camera moves, and
4:3 aspect ratio,” said Curt Mueller, senior vice-president, creative director at 22Squared.
“Part of making this world feel believable is making every communication feel like it’s
from 1985. Oh, and look for a very special number at the end of the ad.”
The Scoops-Ahoy ice cream yacht was then built, and manned by Scoops Ahoy
employees, who gave out free USS Butterscotch ice cream at select California locations.
The campaign utilized social media to get the word out.
The fun continued when fans discovered Morse code hidden in select Baskin Robins
items and commercials. The code translated to a phone number (1-888-273-9152) that,
when called, prompts the caller to enter a password, which prompts the caller to play a
mystery augmented reality game.
David Nagel, senior director of consumer engagement, Baskin-Robbins,
said: “Netflix and the Duffer Brothers [co-creators] went to great pains to
bring an 80s authenticity to the show and we’ve worked tirelessly over the
last 12-plus months to extend that authenticity into our own work so super
fans will feel like this is all a real-world extension of their favorite show.”
Matt O’Rourke, chief creative officer, 22squared, added: “Working on this
campaign has been an awkward walk down memory lane.

22. FIVE
CONCLUSION

23. CONCLUSION
BASKIN-ROBBINS was one of the first ice-cream companies to undertake
marketing in a big way.
From the ages of one to ninety-nine, people visit Baskin-Robbins
anticipating the pleasure of enjoying their favorite ice creams served
any way they want. Because of our dedication to being “America’s
Favorite Neighborhood Ice Cream Shop”, Baskin-Robbins stores are
visited by over 300 million happy customers year after year. A number
that continues to grow as Baskin-Robbins spreads throughout the
world.
Baskin Robbins is doing well with excellent quality offerings. All that has
to be changed is the communication strategy.Baskin Robbins has to
create more touch-points for the prospective customers to interact with
the brand. But caution has to be taken that the premium brand doesn’t
get depicted as a mass market brand. Also more visibility can be created
by maintaining premium ice cream parlours with excellent ambience
that would generate Word-of-Mouth, the most powerful form of
positioning the brand.
REFERENCE
• www.business-standard.com/india/
• www.baskinrobbins.com
• www.businessworld.com
• www.ukessays.com
• www.entrepreneurial- insights.com

24. THANK YOU