Answer

ANSWER

Ben & Jerry’s—Japan

Haagen-Dazs had been the main competitor to Ben & Jerry. What kind of pros and cons would the existence of Haagen-Dazs in Japan bring to Ben & Jerry when entering the market?

The presence of Haagen-Dazs would serve both as an advantage and disadvantage to the entry of Ben & Jerry into the Japanese market. As the main rival and the competitor in the super-premium ice-cream at home, the path that Haagen-Dazs had followed into the Japanese market would be relatively similar to what Ben & Jerry’s would. Their existence then would act as a source of experience for the latter in their bid to penetrate the highly profitable Japanese market. This would be true in terms of the pricing, collaboration, distribution and marketing. On the other hand, the presence of Haagen-Dazs in this market meant that a huge share of the market in Japan had already been taken over, and so Ben & Jerry’s would have to find it extremely difficult to break into this market themselves (Hagen, 2021). Combined with the pricing policies, this would serve as a huge setback for Ben & Jerry.

Ben & Jerry’s already entered several European countries, and they can develop the strategies to improve the sales in those countries, so why should the company consider entering Japan?

The entry of Ben & Jerry’s into the European market in particular was marked by a number of challenges from the outset. The most obvious one was the foothold that European food giants like Nestle and international conglomerates like Haagen-Dazs already had there. In the United Kingdom for instance, the latter products were already a household name. The other reason why the exploration of the European market had hit a snag for Ben and Jerry’s was because of the relatively little market study and understanding that made them make certain strategic blunders from which a recovery seemed very unlikely. In the UK for instance, the company went in with no knowledge on consumer tastes and preferences in terms of packaging, limited understanding of pricing or even the acceptable ingredients (Hagen, 2021). Once these blunders were made, it was only fit that an alternative be provided somehow. The Japanese showed promise due to the relative affluence of the population and a large share of the market that offered promise for Ben & Jerry’s. There was room for them to develop strategic partnerships with Japanese giants.

What are advantages and risks for entering the Japanese market with Seven-Eleven?

One of the advantages of entering the Japanese market with Seven-Eleven is the guarantee that the products by Ben & Jerry’s will find room on shelves all over Japan. This would be vital for the visibility and popularity of their ice-cream products (Cavusgil et al., 2020). The strong distribution channels that Seven-Eleven have would also be an advantage to Ben & Jerry’s who would not have a distribution guarantee for their products (Hagen, 2021). In addition, Seven-Eleven has been a force in the Japanese market, with a fuller understanding of the market sensibilities. This understanding would be vital for Ben & Jerry’s as it wades into the unique Japanese market. The major risk for this partnership would be that owing to the strong presence of Seven-Eleven in both the Japanese and American market, there would be the potential that Seven-Eleven would eventually control the ice-cream maker (Hagen, 2021). This would deal a blow to Ben & Jerry’s whose survival then would have to rely on a strong identity case with Seven-Eleven. The impact would be that the target market which Ben & Jerry’s had worked so hard to wrestle from the hold of several Japanese players would be less enthusiastic to embrace them (Cavusgil et al. (2020) leading to less profitability in the long run.

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