They differentiates its products by creating unique

using differentiation strategy. They differentiates its products by creating unique
flavours, using high-quality ingredients, supporting the local community, and
promoting diversity in the workplace (McWilliams & Siegel, 2001). The main
strategy that makes them so different is the Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR). This can be seen when all of the dairy for Ben & Jerry’s in the United
States comes from family farms, primarily in the state of Vermont (Freese, 2007).
Another thing to be looked at is how they differenced their product by offering a
lot of delicious flavour with quirky names and promoting their social activity
through the flavour name (Jerry’s, Our Values : Ben & Jerry’s, 2015). They also
achieve differentiation by small growth business where they start with low capital
and slowly expand their business to maintain their sustainability (Spolsky, 2004).
Their social mission has made them one of the role model among successful
company that is socially friendly to their customers.
Differentiation Strategy
The differentiation strategy is an integrated set of actions taken to produce goods
or services (at an acceptable cost) that customers perceive as being different in
ways that are important to them (Bercovitz & Mitchell, 2007). An organisation
using this strategy will make their product different from those produced and
marketed by competitors. Firms must be able to produce differentiated products

at competitive costs to reduce upward pressure on the price that customers pay
(Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2009). When a product’s differentiated feature is
produced in non-competitive costs, the price for the product can exceed what the
firm’s target customers are willing to pay. When the firm has a thorough
understanding of what its target customers value, the relative importance they
attach to the satisfaction of different needs, and for what they are willing to pay a
premium, the differentiation strategy can be successful (Hitt, Ireland, &
Hoskisson, 2009).
Through the differentiation strategy, the firm made a non-standardized products
for customers who value different features more than they value low cost. For
example, various flavour, high quality ice cream and big chocolate chunks in the
ice cream are among the differentiated features of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (Hitt,
Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2009).
Ben & Jerry’s Differentiation Strategy
Ben & Jerry’s achieves a differentiation strategy by brand awareness, flavours
and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) attributes (Polk, 2014).
Positive Brand image through CSR
Consumers may appreciate the charitable nature of the company (McWilliams &
Siegel, 2001). Ben & Jerry’s has set up a charitable foundation to help support a
variety of projects based in the markets in which it operates. For example, the
company set up a charitable foundation in the UK when it moved into that market
(Jerry’s, Our History: Ben & Jerry’s, 1999). Ben & Jerry’s also demonstrates how
they care to its consumers. Ben & Jerry’s donates 7.5 percent of pre-tax profits to
charity, while the average corporation in the United States donates 1 percent
(Dennis, Neck, & Goldsby, 1998). The organizations that receive the money