Häagen-Dazs is a maker of super-premium ice cream, sorbet and frozen yoghurt. The company was founded in 1961, in the Bronx, New York by Reuben and Rose Mattus. Häagen-Dazs has come a long way since its humble beginning 55 years ago, and is currently the oldest and largest brand in the super-premium ice cream segment and boasts high quality ice cream made with the finest ingredients. It currently owns 900 stores in more than 50 countries. In Singapore, Häagen-Dazs operates 9 stores, located in upmarket areas and also retails its ice cream in single servings and take-home pint sizes through various avenues such as supermarkets, restaurants, cinemas and convenience stores.

Despite being a household name and achieving the largest increase in value sales relative to its competitors (Magnum, Magnolia, Ben & Jerry’s) in 2015, it still lost out to its rival, Magnum, in terms of brand share. Our group’s hypothesis is that the youth segment of the consumer base is an untapped segment that holds enormous potential for Häagen-Dazs, which can be unlocked through the use of currently under-utilised  social media strategies. We arrived at this hypothesis as a result of our preliminary market research which shows that according to Euromonitor, youths were significant contributors to the 5% growth in the ice cream industry in 2015 and that the rising demand for premium ice cream is strongly aligned with consumer’s increasing sophistication with their dessert choices due to increasing spending power. Nevertheless, the luxurious brand image of Häagen-Dazs has deterred a substantial proportion of youths from buying from them, as their ice cream is perceived as “too expensive”. As such, our research question is: How can Häagen-Dazs increase and sustain its level of youth engagement while maintaining its original brand image, which focuses on indulgence and luxury?

Our group aims to utilize both primary and secondary research to test our hypothesis which will help us devise the most effective strategies to assist Häagen-Dazs tapping on the youth segment. Primary research includes online surveys, social statistics collected from social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well as field research. Secondary research that we aim to cover includes analyzing the annual report of Häagen-Dazs along with market research databases and news articles.

After we have conducted our primary and secondary research, we plan to help Häagen-Dazs implement a 3-phase approach to increase and sustain youth engagement level while adhering to its brand image. Phase 1 includes increasing youth engagement with well-planned forms of engagement on various social media platforms to increase better top-of-mind awareness and encourage interaction from our target group. Phase 2 aims to improve brand attitudes and perception amongst the target group via special events. Phase 3 is intended on improving purchase intent of its products.

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