Jake‘s Ice Cream is changing junk food forever, flipping the industry with quality & ice cream
This is a first post in the series Brand Stories; A marketers quest to find brands that change the world. Follow the action.
Born out of a love for natural food products, Jake’s mission is to turn junk food on its head and make delicious food people not only want, but need.
As entrepreneurs do, Jake Rothschild built a company around an incredible product — ice cream. Not just any ice cream…award winning ice cream. Ice cream that makes you salivate; that transcends the meaning of junk food and would bring the most die hard Dairy Queen fan to their knees. Atlanta’s Jake’s Ice Cream is serious about ice cream and, more importantly, so are its customers.
A Challenge
Jake used that passion for ice cream and making people smile to grow his business fast. Jake’s Ice Cream went from one Atlanta shop to ten stores between 1999 and 2003 using a franchising business model, with plans to expand nationally. Although there’s some significant benefits to franchising, it didn’t sit well with Jake. The problem, as Jake notes in hindsight, was, “the customer experience and quality of service declined the further away I got from being a part of the core business,” said Jake. “Jake’s Ice Cream grew too soon, too fast.” Although sales were steady, Jake’s stores had lost the ‘mojo’ or quality experience Jake wanted from his brand.
“To me, the most important thing a brand can do is make a customer feel something. Something very intentional and real. Without that, why do business at all?” says Jake. “When you become a franchisor, you become a policeman. Your work is less about pleasing customers, or even empowering other entrepreneurs (franchisees), simply because you need standards and protocol for operations.”
Luckily for Jake’s Ice Cream, and for Jake himself, he was able to recognize this problem and revamp his business to save his brand.
The Brand Solution
“The power has shifted from companies to customers… [because] people are not focused on products but on meaning,” — Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
Branding has become, as Marty Neumeir puts it, designing a customer and their experience. Brands all over the world are creating products instead of creating customers. This has created a shift in focus from product features to customer emotions, needs and ultimately intangible values, setting the stage for Jake Rothschild’s tastiest ice cream in Atlanta.
Jake downsized his business following his revelation. After dismantling the franchising portion of his business, Jake and his partners got down to work on what he wanted his brand to become. Downsizing included honing in on customers experience and how ice cream fits into their life and image of themselves. This may sound a little hokey when talking about ice cream, but tell that to the cult-like following Jake’s has amassed since.
Jake looked at aspects of his business model that didn’t align with his brand objectives and purpose, and simply cut them out or changed them. Instead of ten stores, he stuck with one. Instead of relying solely on selling from his shop, he started selling high quality ice creams to other businesses like restaurants. Most importantly perhaps, was Jake’s dedication to supporting the mission behind the madness of brand creation. Jake focused on the intangible aspects of his business that “…connects emotionally with customers through qualities such as immediacy [or] personalization…” (Marty Neumeier), or in Jake’s case, authenticity and surprise.
Jake’s Ice Cream shop disrupts customer expectations through their various inventive flavours, leaving them needing more. Most of their flavours now come from the customers that enjoy them the most, such as Mexican Hot Chocolate and the ever popular Slap Yo’ Mama. Authenticity is considered an annoying buzzword these days due to overuse and a dilution of the definition, however it very much applies to Jake’s Ice Cream. By using fresh ingredients for all-natural, wholesome ice cream, Jake’s has committed itself to quality. Unlike larger ice cream makers, Jake’s is aiming to grow its sales revenue with high impact ice cream, not cost cutting.
Jake’s Results
After the switch to a brand-focused strategy, Jake was now the ‘Willy Wonka’ of his own ice cream laboratory creating such ice creams as a new dairy free diabetic-friendly ice cream, Joyscream. Jake started pitching larger B2B customers and now serves ice cream from JFK to LAX and SFO. Jake’s Ice Cream has seen success again and again, with features in local newspapers and being recognized in the Top 10 Dessert Places in Atlanta by TripAdvisor.
Today, Jake took the lessons he learned from Jake’s Ice Cream, and other successful businesses he owns, and created a business incubator in Atlanta, Georgia. The incubator takes fledgling food product companies and teaches them about purpose, authenticity and the art of serving customers. The incubator then gives the businesses space in the Irwin Street Market, a local hub of food that people talk about, and changes their piece of the world.
