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//(image source: haagendazs.com)//


 * Introduction **

With a vision to produce the world’s finest ice cream, Reuben Mattus established Haagen-Dazs in 1960 (Haagen-Dazs, 2008). Haagen-Dazs, a global phenomenon, is a popular ice cream brand enjoyed by consumers all over the world. Starting out with three flavors, the brands innovations has since reached new heights with an extended product line sold in 50 countries (Haagen-Dazs, 2008). Since the beginning, Haagen-Dazs has sought to use natural foods with recipes that call for ingredients all over the world. In order to protect Haagen-Dazs “pure ingredient” promise, the company has extended its role of being a premium ice cream provider to becoming a social advocate for the Honey Bee Crisis, which we will discuss in the following paragraphs. If you want to learn more about the Haagen-Dazs company in general, please click on the following link [|__http://www.haagen-dazs.com/__]


 * What is the issue or cause the organization is targeting? **

In 2008 Haagen-Dazs established a program called Haagen-Dazs Honey Bees or “HDHB”. According to HDHB, the cause seeks to raise awareness of and prevent the extinction of honey bee populations (HDHB, 2008). “Over the last three years more than one in three honey bee colonies has died nationwide posing a serious risk to our natural food supply” (HDHP, 2008). Scientists are calling the phenomenon CCD for Colony Collapse Disorder, which is when all of the bees in a colony abruptly disappear, disserting the hive because of poor nutrition and invasive termites (HDHB, 2008). With nearly 100 percent of Haagen-Dazs flavors relying on honey bee pollination, this crisis directly effects the company making their involvement that much more important.

To spread awareness of this indefinite crisis, the HDHB campaign provides several ways for people to help out the cause. One way is a portion of their honey bee-built flavor sales are directly donated to helping out the cause. Another way is their “create a bee garden” and “beemail” campaign provides consumers with information on how to educate their fellow neighbors and community about the matter in a fun and entertaining way. They also donate and encourage direct donations to Penn State University and UC Davis, the two leading facilities for honey bee research and preservation. The company also has a “bee store” with profits donated directly toward honey bee research, and a philanthropic foundation that provides any non-profit 501©3 organization that holds an event supporting the bee cause with Haagen-Dazs ice cream (HDHB, 2008). To directly illustrate the importance of this cause with their brand, Haagen-Dazs has placed the “Haagen-Dazs loves honey bees” icon on all cartons and packages that include ingredients made possible because of honey bee pollination. As one can see, Haagen-Dazs has made an immense effort on supporting this cause and with the recent explosion of digital, social and mobile media Haagen-Dazs has further implemented new methods to promote the honey bee crisis. //(By: Lindsay Haworth)//

Haagen-Dazs worked with a social media company called Experience Project to promote and make aware of the "Help the Honey Bees" campaign through social media. The main objective was to reach out to a broader public, in hopes of raising awareness to the campaign. Because Haagen-Dazs worked with EP’s marketing accelerator model, it helped targeting the right groups of people and communities who were already involved in conserving the environment. "As a marketer, we want to tap into evangelists and people who are passionate about something," said Tonya Iles, interactive manager for Haagen-Dazs (Kaye, 2009). There were several social networking projects to fight for this cause: T he Plant a Flower Help a Honey Bee challenge, Help The Honey Bees Facebook Application, and the 7-Day Go Natural Challenge. “The Plant a Flower Help a Honey Bee” challenge required the participants to take a photo of themselves planting a flower then to upload the picture onto a social media platform; this allowed the participants to enter to win a year’s supply of Haagen-Dazs. In addition, the “Help The Honey Bees” Facebook Application was designed to show support for the honeybee revolution. Participants had access, via Facebook, to find out more information on how they could get involved and help the Honey Bees. Furthermore, the “7-Day Go Natural Challenge” was a challenge for the participants to eat all natural foods for seven days. Haagen-Dazs offered prizes and coupons for those who showed support and participated in the seven day challenge. These methods of social networking helped further the message of the campaign, and people from all over the world showed support for the honeybees.
 * What methods are being used to promote this cause? **

Haagen-Dazs added EP’s TwitCause in order to further their campaign and raise money through tweets; the brand donated $1 per tweet, up to $1,000 a day, to University of California Davis to help fund honeybee research. “The campaign drew more than 56,000 unique users and added almost 12,000 new supporters,” announced Haagen-Dazs (Egolf, 2009). The progressiveness of the campaign showed in the results, as it yielded more than 277 million media impressions across more than 1,000 unique news placements (Ketchum, 2011). In addition, due to the involvement of the social cause, Haagen-Dazs also benefited from the honeybee campaign, as it experienced the largest single base-line sales increase (5.2%) in more than a year. “Haagen-DazsLoves Honey Bees” won the 2009 PRWeek Award for Cause-Related Campaign of the Year and an honorable mention for Campaign of the Year (Ketchum, 2011) //(By: Sophie Lee)//
 * What has been the result so far of this effort? **
 * Evaluating the effort. **

Since 2008 Haagen-Dazs has done its best to preserve bees and their honey. This campaign has created a positive brand for their company. It has created a positive brand because the campaign is not run for publicity purposes or to increase revenue but to create awareness and help. Since Haagen-Dazs products relies on honey bees is the perfect campaign for them, they take and give back by preserving their main product source. In addition to their twit campaign they have also donated more than $500,000 over the past two years to scientific research that will help save the honey bees (EP Julio, 2009). The campaign struggles with lack of action by other organization and a lack of funding. They want people to understand how many flavors and foods are affected if honey-bees were not around to pollinate various vegetation. According to their interactive campaign website, “Honey bee pollination is required to produce one-third of all the natural foods we eat.” In a survey conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation, on behalf of the Haagan Dazs Brand, it was found that “while consumer awareness of the honey bee crisis increased in the last year, largely through the brand’s education efforts, the study revealed that only a little more than half of consumers are aware of the crisis. And only one in six is aware of something specific that they can do to help the honey bees.” Overall, Haagen-Dazs has done a great job thus far in launching this one of a kind campaign.


 * Conclusion **

Haagan-Dazs is a global company known for their flavorful ice cream. Upon realizing the importance of honey-bees to their own products, Haagan-Dazs launched a campaign to spread awareness of this importance in hopes to save the thousands of destroyed honey-bee colonies every year. Haagan-Daz has used social media and marketing techniques to spread awareness. The company has also donated money to research facilities in order to assist in better understanding honey-bees, as well providing a safe-haven for these glorious insects. The campaign has drawn supporters from many walks of life and has helped the company expand their brand even more.

//(By: Arielle Ticknor and Ivan Uriarte)// **Video** [] //REFERENCES //

Egolf, K (2009, November 10) Haagen-Dazs Extends Social Media Effort. Retrieved from <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">__http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1710115/haagen-dazs-re-ups-social-cause-campaign-honey-bees-again__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)

Kaye, K (2009, December 30) Haagen-Dazs Re-Ups Social Cause Campaign for Honey Bees, Again. Retrieved from <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1710115/haagen-dazs-re-ups-social-cause-campaign-honey-bees-again__]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EP, Julio. "We're Saving Honey Bees This Week On Twitcause : I Follow Twitcause Story & Experience." Experience Project - Personal Stories about any Life Experience. N.p., 5 Nov. 2009. Web. <http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Follow-Twitcause/770206>.