When a Ice Cream Company Changes a Formula & Doesn’t Make if Obvious on the Package

Being involved in ice cream manufacturing and now as a ice cream consultant, I like to pay attention to what major brand products are doing and came across an article in the New York Times written over a year ago.  It’s about Bryers making a formula change to their very recognizable brand.

What I find bothersome is when big company decision makers change a brand that had a loyal following for years but don’t make the change obvious to consumers. Bryers (now owned by Unilever) took a tried and true high quality all natural ice cream product, made a recipe change to now legally call it “frozen dairy dessert” while making little change to the package.

Stand about 3 ft. from the freezer case displaying Bryers and see if you can easily distinguish a visual difference in their dairy line of product, step in closer (about 8”) and on the bottom right of the package you will read either Ice Cream or Frozen Dairy Dessert.

The packaging graphics look very similar in look with a black background, high product graphs and contrasting color text usually in white or mint green. As I mentioned earlier, Bryers made a formula change in the early part of 2013 and bet most customers today have not yet picked up on the name choices, which is the major part of my gripe.

Ask Unilever why the change was implemented and they will reply “the customer asked for it,” ask me, it’s because they looked to extract more profit margin from the brand. In the ice cream business to call a product “ice cream” the FDA requires the butterfat content to be a minimum of 10%, if less than 10% the product cannot include the name ice cream (think Dairy Queen). I understand that company’s look for creative ways to squeeze out more profit, but suggest the consumer should easily be able to recognize a change and distinguish between categories within the brand. I believe that If Bryers was proud of the fact they created a “frozen dairy dessert” then they would have made a recognizable image change on the package.

Lastly, from a cost perspective the “frozen dairy dessert” should reflect a lower price point than “ice cream” because of the lower butterfat content and as of Friday, all flavors reflected the same price and wonder if the customer also made that request to Unilever.

See the photos and read the rest of the NY Times article to determine for yourself, if it’s easy to see the design difference between Cookie & Cream (frozen dairy dessert) and Vanilla (ice cream)

Contact Darryl, he will educate you on Truth In Labeling. Be proud of your product and no matter what it contains, make sure it is easily displayed on the label.