Project by:

Dolly Mehta-29
Divya Pardeshi-
 Baskin-Robbins is a
global chain of ice
cream parlours
founded by Burt Baskin
and Irv Robbins in
1953, from the merging
of their
respective ice
cream
parlours, in
Glendale, California.
Headquartered in
Canton, Mass., Baskin-
Robbins is part of the Dunkin’ Brands Inc. family of
companies. It claims to be the world's largest ice
cream franchise, with more than 5,800 locations,
2,800 of which are located in the United States.
Baskin-Robbins sells ice cream in 34 countries,
including Canada, Japan, Mexico, Bahrain, the
United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand,
Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Bangladesh,
 Introduction

South Korea, India, Pakistan, Panama, Taiwan

and the United Arab Emirates.
The Baskin Robbins story in India began in 1993,
when the first store opened in Mumbai. Today it is
spread across the country with more than 300
outlets in 61 cities. Baskin Robbins also caters to
other premium channels like star hotels, leading
airlines, malls, multiplexes and top retail chains
across India. Baskin Robbins is one of the diverse
businesses of the Graviss Foods Pvt. Ltd. It has
an exclusive franchise for the SAARC region. Our
brand analysis is subjected to strategies of Baskin
Robbins in India only. But the brand has a global
presence where it maintains a similar brand
strategy, yet with some small differences.

Ice Cream Industry in India

 The ice cream market growth in India picked up
after de-reservation of the sector in 1997. Of the
total size of Rs 15-16bn, around 30-32% is in the
hands of organized sector valued at Rs 4.9bn, rest

all is with the unorganized sector.

The Indian government adopted a lot of
policy changes for the liberalization
regarding the ice cream industry also and it is
since then that this sector has shown an annual
growth ranging from 15- 20% per annum for last 1-
2 year. In the Budget 2006-07 Excise Duty has
been waived off on ice creams.
In rural areas, kulfis / ice creams made by small /
cottage industry are popular. The market for
organized sector is restricted to large metropolitan
cities. In small towns and villages, there are
thousands of small players who produce ice-
creams / kulfis in their home backyard and cater to
the local market. Almost 40% of the ice creams
sold in the country are consumed in the western
region with Mumbai being the main market,
followed by 30% in the north and 20% in the south.
The sale of ice cream in India is seasonal and the
ice cream makers always bet on the summer
sales. For Amul the summer season contributing
about 40 per cent of the company's overall sales.
Most of the companies are adding that new and

Brand Logo Evolution

innovative products that keep the consumers
excited.

The brand logo has evolved over the years without

losing out its core identity of the “Original 31
flavours”.
Vision, Mission & Objectives
Vision
“The BEST PREMIUM ICE CREAM PLAYER”

Mission

“We exist to thrill customers, define and lead

multi-branding, enrich stakeholder, and build
powerful brand image”

Objectives

Creating Brand awareness

Establishing BR outlets everywhere.
Providing better value to stakeholders
 Segmentation

Demographic :

- All age group

- Higher middle & high income group
Geographic :

- Malls
- High foot traffic area

Targeting:
- Higher middle & higher income group
 New segments

Between kids and youth on the streets and adults

at home, a large chunk of ice cream sales gets
taken care of. Impulse purchase from youth and
kids accounts for 50 per cent of the market. Family
consumption adds another 35 per cent. Fifteen per
cent of the market is in-parlour sale — a new
segment that has showed up in the last few years.
This is dominated by niche regional players like
Naturals in the West, Nirula’s in the North and
premium players like Baskin Robbins and the
home grown Italiano Gelato.
Store that we choose
Menu
 4 P’s
Product
 High and unique flavor range
 Variety of Products viz. Ice
creams, cakes, sundae’s,
shakes .
Place
Price
 Premium price because of
innovative and quality
products.
 Approx cost Rs 50 per
scoop.
Promotion
 We sell fun, not just ice
cream
 In-store promotional
campaigns
 Leaflets in the newspapers.
 Competitors

On our meeting with the, the Zonal Manager of

Baskin Robbins,told us that Baskin Robbins
doesn’t have any direct competition as they are a
premium player. He also told us that theirs is not a
volume based business. But he also accepted the
fact that there is indirect competition from
domestic brands and other local parlours. Let us
have a look at the competition in India for Baskin
Robbins.

Hindustan Unilever, which is owned 51 per cent by

Unilever, has a 14 per cent share of the 100-
million litres and Rs 1,200-crore per annum ice
cream market, which makes it the second largest
player after Amul (38 per cent market share). The
gap is no less than 24 percentage points.
Chart: Market Share of Ice Cream Brands in India
 Promotions

The Spiderman 3 campaign:

The summer of 2007 witnessed an
innovative tie-up of Baskin Robbins with
Spiderman 3 movie in India. Baskin
Robbins promoted Spiderman 3 by
means of a creative promotion. This not
only added visibility but also enhanced
customer interactivity with the brand. The highlight
of the promotion was the co-branded TVC which
was aired on key kids’ channels. The promotion
extended to creating three new trendy flavours
keeping in tune with the characters of the movie-
Web Slinger, Sand Storm, and Green Gobbler.
The elements of the promotion included poster,
standee, cup design, bags, t-shirts, tags, shelf
talker and a Spiderman 3 comic free with every
single scoop of ice cream.

The Paanchvi Pass campaign:

Baskin Robbins successfully captured the
attention of the kids by entering into a tie-up with
‘Paanchvi Pass’, a popular reality show telecast in
2008 by Star Plus and hosted by Shahrukh Khan.
A special Paanchvi Pass flavour was
created to make it appealing to the
customers and add excitement to the
entire campaign. A gift was assured
to any customer who walked into the
store and purchased a Panchvi Paas
flavour and 3 lucky draw winners got
a chance to meet the biggest
Bollywood star, Shahrukh Khan. The promotion
helped Star Plus take its message to niche
audience across the country. The activity provided
tremendous on ground visibility for Star Plus and
Baskin Robbins in terms of wall visuals, tent cards,
danglers, posters, t-shirts, cups, shelf talkers and
a quiz book. Besides, it got good publicity and
generated enthusiasm among the kids.

MTV Roadies 6.0:

MTV Roadies -a cult following

among youth has now associated
with Baskin Robbins for promotion of
the programme and for the
integration of the brand with its
content. The promotion makes a lot of sense for
both the brands because the target audience of
Roadies is synonyms with the target audience for
Baskin Robbins. The audition promotion was done
in selected cities in India where the Roadies
audition was carried out-Mumbai, Delhi,
Bangalore, Kolkatta, Ahemdabad, Chandigarh.
JTQ-‘Jump the Queue’ passes were given to those
lucky draw winners who purchased Baskin
Robbins ice cream worth Rs. 250/-. Promotion was
done through posters, banners, standees and the
JTQ passes. Interactive games during the
auditions were incorporated which included wild
games centered on ice cream.

Other Promos:
 Baskin Robbins National level Junior Cricket
7s tournament
 ‘Yo Yo Masters Road Show’ for Delhi’s
children and adults, organised by Cartoon Network
Enterprises, was held in Baskin Robbins store in
Connaught Place, Delhi on July 2007.
  Sponsored lucky coupons for ‘Monsoon
Masti’ festival organized by Rajiv Gandhi
International Airport Limited, Hyderabad held on
July 2009.
 Distributed free passes for “Amaze 2008”,
B-School fest, organised by the Indian Institute of
Planning and Management (IIPM) in Bangalore.
 Sold tickets for Rock Concert Rock ’n India,
designed along the lines of international rock
festivals, held in Bangalore in March 2008.
 Recently in March 2009, Pizza Hut & Baskin
Robbins launched an offer that provides Pizza Hut
patrons an opportunity to sample a range of
Baskin Robbins ice creams, on placing pizza
delivery orders.
 Communication
Strategy

Baskin Robbins is a youthful, dynamic brand and

they are open to good ideas. If there's a property
or event or opportunity that has the potential to
capture the fancy of today's generation they are
ready to advertise/sponsor. The outlets sport a
funky and vibrant look to attract young people.

In India, 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.
 SWOT Analysis
Strength Weakness
Good brand image Not all stores sell the
Exclusive innovations same product range
Exclusive flavors Initial investment for
Free testers to every one opening a store is high.
Sells only in stores not
in super markets

Opportunity Threats
Untapped new Intense Rivalry
geographical markets Strengthening
More product government rules &
innovations and product regulations
range Recession Period
Substituting raw Increasing price of raw
materials to reduce cost materials
Gelato & ice crush
 Survey

Baskin Robbins is one of the premium ice cream

brands in the world. Its differentiating strategy from
other ice cream brands or their brand identity is
providing customers with 31 different varieties of
flavour and its premium quality. But how the
customers perceive the brand is different and was
evaluated by a questionnaire and interview
process.

The questions asked during the interview are :

a) How often do you have ice cream in a

month?
b) How do you experience having ice cream in
Baskin Robbins store?
c) In your opinion what attribute is
differentiating Baskin Robbins from other ice
cream brands?
d) Did you ever come across the brand name
in some promotions or ads or any other
communication medium?
e) What will come to your mind immediately if
you hear the name Baskin Robbins?
Some of the inferences and key opinions extracted
from this process are:

Most of the customers want ice cream parlour or

store to be a better hang out place. They would
like to have ice creams with different flavours
during chat with their colleagues or girl friends and
spend some time in a high end sophisticated
premium parlours. They consider tasting a variety
of ice creams as a great experience.
The key insight derived from probing the
customers is,
“I want to taste unique treats in a premium
ambience”
Baskin Robbins’ proposition fits into this customer
insight. But after the analysis we found that, they
provide premium offerings with different world
class flavours but not the experience. Customers
who go there for repeat purchase is due to the
addiction to the flavour taste. But, in providing
experience of having ice cream in their parlour is
really pathetic. Most of the customers don’t
value the store as a premium store which Baskin
Robbins claims.
Some of the attributes which customers think of
Baskin Robbins are premium, young, feminine (an
influence from Pink colours they project), soft,
tender and different flavours. Customers would like
to take young colleagues or girlfriends who are
very peppy to this ice cream store. Even though
this brand lives for more than sixty years, they
maintain youthfulness in the brand which is
amazing.

The essence which customers expect from the

brand is that “different premium offerings daily”.
Customers want to show or communicate to the
world that they are different and premium.
Communication happens when the customer
meets the brand. It came out that there is not
frequent communication in the form of TV ads or
print ads or any other promotions. It’s mostly by
word of mouth and the purchasing point /store
where the customers come across this brand.
Before coming to the store customers make up
their mind to try different taste daily and hang out
in the store which is premium. They
communicate that they are different but store is
lacking a premium ambience. This goes in a
negative way of communication to the customer.
Most of the store is located in high class
residential area. Customers think Baskin Robbins
did not leverage in terms of store ambience as
most of the stores are so cramped and do not
have a place to sit and have the ice cream. This is
a sort of negative communication, which should be
immediately addressed since other ice cream
brands have started eyeing the modern retail
format.
Suggestions
 Value Position

“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.

Conclusion
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. Selective
advertisements in premium magazines, lifestyle
television channels, malls, airports etc would do
well. The brand can position itself as a premium
alternative to other mass market brands like
Kwality Walls, Vadilal, Amul etc. 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.