After opening a small ice creamery in the cold of Burlington, Vermont, with best friend Ben Cohen in 1978, Jerry Greenfield would have never expected his business to thrive and grow as much as it did in the years to come. 30 years later, Cohen and Greenfield have used their unorthodox methods of business, which has made Ben and Jerry’s a success.
For the third San Joaquin Valley Town Hall Lecture Series Greenfield spoke to the community and selected California Scholarship Federation (CSF) Merit Scholarship nominees at the Saroyan Theater, Nov. 12.
Starting at Oberlin University, Greenfield studied in pre-med studies, to later be denied by 20 medical schools. After having no luck, he met up with childhood friend Ben Cohen, taking a $5 correspondence course on ice cream making, starting a small college town ice cream parlor.
“I went to college and decided to go to medical school, but I never got in,” Greenfield said. “Ben dropped out of college and then we opened up our homemade ice cream parlor in 1978 in Burlington Vermont. We were about 26 and we thought that we would do it for a couple of years.”
Greenfield has been friends with Cohen since they were 13 years old, attending the same junior high, but recognizes their differences in personality as well as their similarities.
“We’ve been friends for 50 years now,” Greenfield said. “We met in gym class because we were two of the slowest kids in the class. We went through school together and Ben is a very unusual person. He is extremely ant-authoritarian and unconventional and smart. Ben peaked in the 6th grade, he just wasn’t that into school. He loves learning, just not through the traditional methods.”
Starting with the traditional flavors, the Greenfield and Cohen began with vanilla, but grew towards many of the popular kinds made today. Cohen came up with many of the flavors, as well as their big fans of the shop.
“In the old days Ben came up with the flavors, we started with vanilla,” Greenfield said. “But Ben created many of the classic Ben and Jerry’s flavors Toffee Bar Crunch, New York Super Fudge Chunk, Ben made fish food. Some of the flavors are customer suggestion such as: Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey and Chubby Hubby. Now there is a department of people and all they do all day, everyday is come up with new flavors.”
Because of the climate in Vermont, it was hard for Greenfield and Cohen to profit throughout the whole year. In the winter they came up with unique business methods.
“Well the winter came and sure enough people stopped buying ice cream cones,” Greenfield said. “We came up with, what I think in retrospect, was one of the best marketing promotions in the history of Ben and Jerry’s, it was called Penny off Per Celsius Degree Below Zero Winter Extravaganza.”
Along with their own shop, Greenfield and Cohen sold to local stores and gradually started selling pints to bigger chain supermarkets. Haagen-Dazs owned by Pillsbury wanted to limit the company’s distribution of ice cream in Boston, Greenfield and Cohen wanted to file a lawsuit against the company. Instead the company went a different direction.
“We decided if we are going down, we will at least take our case to the people,” Greenfield said. “So we started the What’s the Doughboy Afraid of campaign.”
After years of being in the ice cream business their company began to take off. Prioritizing their focus on the people, socially and environmentally.
“We weren’t business people and we weren’t really thinking about it as careers,” Greenfield said. “We were trying to stay in business and we were working hard and the business finally started to prosper which freaked us out because we realized we were business people and we never had good thoughts about business people.”
Fourteen years ago, Greenfield and Cohen sold their company to Unilever. They still are the face of the company, but have sold their rights.
“Ben and I both work at the company, but we don’t have specific jobs there,” Greenfield said. “The company got sold about 14 years ago and Ben and I get to be Ben and Jerry, but we don’t really make the decisions or do anything. Some people think its good and others think it’s weird, but I really enjoy it.”
The morning session ended with a complimentary ice-cream giveaway. Greenfield offered three different delicious flavors of ice cream for all atendees.
Follow The Feather via Twitter @thefeather and Instagram @thefeatheronline. This writer can be reached via Twitter: @rynnking_ and @_sarapeterson. Follow @SJVTownHall on Twitter.
For more features, read the Nov. 13 article, Broadway Studios displays local cultures, backgrounds.
