On April 14th, Ben & Jerry's opened its 1st Japanese outlet store, on the ground floor of Omotesando Hills - a fancy shopping mall in the heart of Tokyo, Omotesando.
I think for icecream lovers, it's a good news. But for Ice cream companies, Japan is becoming more & more of a battle field.
Japanese ice cream market has been taken over by another American ice cream maker Buskin&Robbins AKA "31" (opened its 1st shop in Japan in 1974(!) ), only lately followed by yet another American company Cold Stone Creamery (1st shop in Japan opened in 2005). Also Haagen Dazs has been ubiquitous in convinience stores and supermarkets, though I don't often see independent shops.
I don't know how Ben and Jerry's is gonna manage to spread over Japan, invading its very strong rivals' territories...
But for me Ben&Jerry's taste and ingredients they're using are far better than, at least, 31's (they overuse artificial flavors and colors...yuk) so as an icecream lover I'm secretly wishing luck for Ben& Jerry's.
I think Ben&Jerry's gotta change it's name.
I have an impression that we Japanese tend not to like long names, or we just can't remember and say it right.
31- catchy enough ( we call them "sah tee wan")
Cold stone creamery- too long! difficult to shorten (we call them more like, " the one where people mix and sing, but what was the name again?" that's why it's never gonna be wide spread...
Haagen dazs- there's some premiumness about its name.
Ben&Jerry's- a bit too long. At best I think we gonna sh orten like "Ben Jeri" or something like that, which could help branding.
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| polish ice cream maker Grycan. oh I love Grycan. |
Having said that, I love them all! :-)
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