A Story About Ice Cream, Innovation and B2B Marketing

A number of years in the past, our B2B marketing agency in Atlanta was serving to a serious healthcare consumer with a mission associated to an inside innovation initiative.

The purpose was to solicit revolutionary concepts from throughout the corporate, they usually needed to encourage staff to acknowledge issues and recommend options.

Whereas this system was in growth, their veteran HR Director expressed doubts that something can be executed with the concepts as a result of she stated the corporate had executed the same program as soon as earlier than. Not one of the submitted solutions have been credited to staff or applied.

She balanced her skepticism with optimistic enter, together with a wonderful story involving Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I appreciated the story a lot that I’ve since googled it and couldn’t discover something to substantiate or deny its authenticity. Fact or fiction, it’s a terrific story, nonetheless.

Have you ever heard the Cherry Pits Inspector story?

As you could know, one of the vital fashionable flavors of ice cream ever launched by Ben & Jerry’s is Cherry Garcia. An sudden consequence of that recognition was what grew to become generally known as the worst job place in all of Ben and Jerry’s – the Cherry Pit Inspector on the road once they have been working Cherry Garcia. Everybody hated the job as a result of it was so painfully boring. There have been hardly ever any points with cherry pits, and staying vigilant was mind-numbing. It was turning into much more of an issue as a result of individuals have been doing all the pieces attainable to keep away from that task as phrase unfold that it was nearly thought-about a punishment.

Somebody regarded on the downside from a special angle. What if we flip the perceived punishment right into a acknowledged reward?

Ben & Jerry’s determined to begin providing a REWARD for every uncommon pit found. The place quickly grew to become so fascinating and “enjoyable” that there was a ready record for the newly partaking task of Cherry Pit Inspector. To place this in content material advertising and marketing converse, they gamified it. Even executives have been signing up for a shift and searching ahead to discovering a number of cherry pits. A punishing job place grew to become a spotlight of the operation and a shared expertise for a lot of engaged staff. The worth of the reward was past financial as a result of the popularity was particular, too. The position of the Cherry Pit Inspector grew to become one which was revered and valued by all staff.

Does your B2B advertising and marketing program have tedious and demanding assignments that nobody needs and everybody avoids?

Suppose your division is like most B2B advertising and marketing departments. In that case, you could want extra workers and time. Whether or not your title is Advertising and marketing Director or Advertising and marketing Supervisor, you in all probability put on many hats. Together with delegating assignments, you possibly can solely generally throw cash on the downside.

I’ll use a easy instance for example my level:

Optimizing a fancy set of touchdown pages is assigned to a person whereas others are engaged on extra thrilling components of the mission. For this situation, it is going to be another person’s flip subsequent time.

As soon as the work is accomplished, they get a tangible and fascinating reward for doing a wonderful job on an undesirable task. It may very well be dinner for 2, film tickets, a day off, particular recognition, or a number of pints of their favourite ice cream.

Subsequent time, it’s extra probably that you just’ll have volunteers.

The overarching message is discovering inventive options to make even essentially the most tedious advertising and marketing duties extra pleasurable and rewarding, enhancing worker engagement and advertising and marketing outcomes. The Cherry Pit Inspector story is a metaphor for the transformative energy of constructive reinforcement and artistic pondering within the office.

When making scrumptious ice cream or crafting advanced B2B marketing campaigns, tedious duties and difficult conditions can result in insightful observations, good questions, and nice concepts.

Earlier than publishing this put up, I requested my AI device about it. See the reply beneath. Does that imply it’s true in spite of everything? Though AI turns into more and more intuitive day by day, I’m unsure it has changed our potential to contemplate human nature and first-hand observations to flip the script for options just like the Cherry Pit Inspector.

Me: Are you aware the story in regards to the cherry pit inspector at Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream?

ChatGPT: Sure, the story of the Cherry Pit Inspector at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is fascinating and speaks volumes in regards to the firm’s dedication to high quality and buyer satisfaction. Ben & Jerry’s, identified for its revolutionary and chunk-filled ice lotions, confronted a problem with its Cherry Garcia taste, loaded with actual cherries. The issue was that cherry pits or pit fragments may often find yourself within the ice cream, posing a threat of dental harm to customers.

To handle this challenge, Ben & Jerry’s employed somebody as a “Cherry Pit Inspector.” This individual’s job was to examine the cherries for pits to make sure that none made it into the ultimate product. This dedication to product high quality is exclusive within the meals trade, demonstrating Ben & Jerry’s dedication to making sure a secure and pleasurable buyer expertise.

Whereas it would sound like a unusual or uncommon job, it underscores the lengths to which some firms will go to take care of the integrity of their merchandise and defend their customers. Ben & Jerry’s has been identified for its social duty and revolutionary approaches to product growth and making certain product security and high quality.

What are you able to do to make the hardest job features inside your B2B advertising and marketing program extra rewarding – and enjoyable? Give me a name and let’s speak about it. I’m certain we will help create a narrative with a constructive final result for you too.