Typed paper copy of your answers to the following questions.

Responses should be written up as:

1. Answer…
2. Answer…

And so on. That is, do not write up as one long essay.

Assignment

To do this assignment, you will need to physically visit the frozen food section of a large, mainstream grocery store such as Ralph’s, Albertsons, Pavilions, or similar. Convenience stores, healthy food stores, etc., will not work.

Your answers should be based solely on what you observe and your own “thinking” skills (critical thinking, creative thinking, reasoning, logic, etc.).

Please do NOT conduct research on the internet.

Please do NOT attempt to meet with or interview store personnel.

Please have fun with this assignment – it’s ice cream.

Questions

1. In a typical southern California grocery store, what percentage of annual sales can be attributed to ice cream and frozen novelties (such as ice cream bars, packaged ice cream cones, etc.)? How did you come up with your answer?
2. Based solely on what you observe in the store, did you visit the store during a busy season or a slow season for ice cream sales? Please explain your answer.

For #3 and 4, please consider the packaged ice cream category (we’ll ignore the novelties for the moment).

3. How have the ice cream manufacturers segmented the ice cream market?

4. How many different brands of vanilla ice cream can you buy? Isn’t vanilla ice cream vanilla ice cream…why would the grocery store sell multiple brands of vanilla ice cream?

For #5 – 9, let’s focus on the super premium[1] packaged ice cream category.

5. How do you know that the section you’re looking at represents the “super premium” packaged ice cream category?

6. What brands of super premium ice cream does the store carry? How do the brands differ from one another…why might a given consumer buy one brand over another?

7. What is being done with package design to tell you about the product…to convey its brand image and/or personality?

8. What is being done with the package to stimulate trial, or encourage repeat purchase?

9. What is being done with pricing and promotion to stimulate trial, repeat purchase?

10. Eating "healthy" is a growing concern in the US. How have the super premium ice cream suppliers addressed this concern?

11. For a typical southern California grocery store, what percentage of packaged ice cream sales (please ignore ice cream novelties) are represented by the super premium ice cream category? How did you come up with your answer?

12. Did this assignment make you hungry for ice cream?