2005 Consumers' Choice in Chains: Treats
Cold Stone Creamery

Doug Ducey begins each workday reading customer complaints. Cold Stone Creamery’s chairman and CEO wants to know where the system’s stores may be falling short of expectations and where there is room for improvement.

That long lines are the No. 1 gripe is indication of the brand’s popularity, but Ducey and Cold Stone Creamery’s goal is to keep everyone—customers, staff and operators—happy.

“These are ice cream stores. This is a fun business to be in,” says Ducey. “Cold Stone Creamery stores are places where guests come alone or with people they love looking for enjoyment. We’ve built a culture around making people happy, around delivering high-quality products with great service in clean, appealing stores.

“I think we do a great job, but in building a brand, you always have to ask how you can do it better,” he says. Daily Operational Excellence, which the chain demands from each of its operators, begins with adherence to Cold Stone Creamery’s five core values: do the right thing; be the best, be No. 1; bring out the best in our people; profit by making people happy; and win as a team.

Cold Stone Creamery received the category’s highest scores for food quality and menu variety, which are the cornerstones of the concept. Ice cream, brownies and waffle-cone products are freshly prepared daily in each store. Ice cream flavors include more than 30 Cold Stone Originals to which limited-time specials continually are added.

The chain prides itself on development of innovative flavors. In July, for example, specials included black licorice, fruity cereal, oatmeal-cookie batter, tangerine sorbet and wasabi ginger. Others have been carrot-cake batter, cotton candy, dark-chocolate peppermint and espresso. Having distinctive flavor options helps make Cold Stone Creamery a “breakthrough brand,” the company believes.

However, selecting an ice cream flavor is only the beginning of what Cold Stone Creamery dubs “personalized indulgence.” Customers can choose from an array of mix-ins (such as chopped brownies or candy, fruit, nuts and topping sauces) and watch as the customized treat is blended on the frozen granite stone that gives the chain its name. Ice-cream cakes also are available.

Cultural Continuity
Maintaining a culture based on operational excellence while rapidly expanding is a challenge, Ducey acknowledges. The chain has been opening more than one location a day: 362 were added in 2004 to the 228 open at the beginning of last year.

“We may open a few less this year, but not because we can’t [keep up that pace]. Show me a great brand that ever said, ‘We’re finished growing,’” says Ducey. “But there are some that should have put on the brakes. Managing growth is about finding the right people and putting them in the right places. We have a vision and a road map for how we’ll get there.”

Learning to operate an ice-cream store isn’t difficult, says Ducey. Evaluating potential franchise partners takes a combination of art and science, he adds. “The question is do they want to learn it? We’re looking for entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to make customers happy every day. Whether someone fits our culture is our foremost consideration.”

Keeping that as its main priority will go a long way toward reaching the ambitious goal Ducey has set for the company: being the top-selling ice cream brand in the United States by Dec. 31, 2009.

Gold Winner
Known for freshly blended, healthful smoothies and juices, Jamba Juice says that its most important ingredient can’t be bought or harvested: passion.

CEO Paul Clayton says the more than 500 units’ mission is to deliver positive energy through healthful products, friendly and sincere service and passion for making people feel good. In turn, the company commits itself to providing personal-enrichment and career-development opportunities for its employees, yielding staff retention rates that exceed industry averages, it says.

San Francisco-based Jamba Juice always seeks innovative ways to deliver energy and health enhancements to customers. The energy-category products introduced this year include a variety of beverages with matcha (green-tea leaves).

Crystal Winner
Since Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenberg opened their first ice-cream shop in an abandoned gas station in Burlington, Vt., the chain has won customers with quality products, social conscience and funky names.

Now owned by a multinational corporation but still headquartered in Burlington, Ben & Jerry’s has grown to more than 300 domestic units and dozens more overseas. Its playful, counter-culture spirit remains intact, as evidenced by its latest product line. Marketing promises that Mood Magic blended-ice-cream treats will “bring you to emotional rescue.” Flavor choices include Chocolate Therapy, Apple-y Ever After, In A Crunch and The Last Straw.

Ben & Jerry’s has separate mission statements for its product, economic and social roles, emphasizing its dedication to selling quality products, developing the careers of its employees and improving quality of life locally, nationally and internationally.