This is a case study presentation based on the campaign Haagen Daz did to bring awareness to the decline in the honey bee population.

1. Haagen Daz and
Honey Bees
Allie Robinson, Caroline Hill, Regan
Baumgartner

2. Honey Bee Crisis: How it Began
● 2003: All of the Honey Bees in Uruguay died
● 2007: US recognized decrease in bee population
● Countries across the world have recognized the decrease since then
● The cause has been identified as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
● Prediction: Human life on earth will no longer exist 60 years after the
extinction of honey bees

3. Haagen Daz and Honey Bees:
● 40% of Haagen Daz natural ice
cream flavors include ingredients
only provided by honey bees
● HD realized many of their natural
ingredients are dependent on the
bee population
● Haagen Daz became the first
business to publicly recognize
CCD as a threat and show
support for the honey bee
population

4. Nature of the Crisis
● This is considered a crisis because they recognized that
the extinction of honey bees would not only affect their
business but life on Earth as we know it.
● Knowing this information, they knew that they could
not just sit back and not do anything about this
problem

5. Target Audience of Haagen Daz:
● Males and Females ages 35-54
○ Specifically those who are
active, have children, are
highly educated, and live in
urban & suburban areas
● Younger generations (aged 15-35
years)
● People who follow trends
● People who value quality

6. Haagen Daz’s Crisis Response Strategies
● PR team talked to employees in their ad
department that were concerned about
CCD to get more information
● Launched a campaign in 2007 called
“Haagen Daz Loves Honey Bees”
https://www.haagendazs.us/save-the-
honey-bees
● Donated money to several research
projects that were working on finding the
cause of the decline of honey bees
● Created “Bee Board”
● Created a new flavor, “vanilla honey bee”
and donated a portion of the sales of that
ice cream to CCD research
● Sponsored an ice cream social on Capitol
Hill for National Pollinator Week

7. What Haagen Daz Did Well:
● Using the knowledge that their
employees already had on the
CCD subject to get a better
understanding of the issue
● Funding research projects that
are trying to find the cause of
the CCD in honey bees
● Making sure that the target
audience is aware of what the
company is passionate about

8. What Haagen Daz Did Not Do So Well:
Nothing! We think they did everything right and covered all their bases
● Conducted primary & secondary research before the campaign began
● Clearly defined their target audience & set measurable and realistic
goals
● Campaign execution touched on every aspect of the issue possible
○ Donated money
○ Advisory Board
○ Brand Ambassadors - beekeepers and scientists
○ Media Outlets - initially announced plan on CNNMoney.com
then other outlets picked up story from there
○ Sent out seed packets to those interested in creating “bee
friendly environments across the country”
■ Also created print ads like this one that could be ripped
out of magazines & planted
○ Capitol Hill Ice Cream Social

9. Our Recommendations for Haagen Daz
● One of our recommendations is to continue to raise
awareness about the bee epidemic. Their original campaign
was done in 2016 and since then they have not been making
ads based on this campaign.
● It would make sense for them to continue producing ads
based on this campaign to bring even more awareness of
the severity of this situation.

10. What We Would Have Done….
● We would have done essentially what
Haagen Daz did
● They educated themselves on the
matter before coming up with a way
they could help stop the issue
● they spread awareness to their
consumers of a growing issue
● they donated some of their own money
to research
● made sure that they included their
employees input in what they were
putting out to their consumers
● Very transparent on why they were so
passionate about this issue

11. Discussion Questions
1.Do you think taking a preventative approach to this crisis
was the right move on Haagen Daz’s part?
2. Based on the information provided, do you think they
should have done something differently?

12. Any Questions?

13. References
Customer insight. (2013, December 10). Retrieved from https://brandauditicecream.wordpress.com/2-
customer-insight/.
Shannon's 473 Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/srostick473/case-study-haagen-dazs-love-
honey-bees/
Jiang, D. (2011, July 9). Haagen-Daz and Honey Bees Case Study Summary. Retrieved from
https://crisiscomms.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/haagen-dazs-and-honey-bees-case-study-summary/
Luig, L. (2012, July 6). Häagen-Dazs / Honey Bee Case Summary. Retrieved from
https://crisiscomms.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/haagen-dazs-honey-bee-case-summary/