Ice cream war between Unilever and Nestle

I bought three flavors of Magnum ice-cream bar last week as soon as I found there was a promotional discount for Magnum in Ralphs near my home. Positioned itself as premium ice-cream bar, Magnum is as delicious as Haagen-Daz, and in my home country Magnum is more accessible to local grocery stores and supermarkets than Haagen-Daz, which is mostly seen in high-end and even luxurious shops. This kind of familiarity motivated me to buy Magnum more often than Haagen-Daz, and made me take a look at Magnum’s history in US.

        Magnum was just imported into US in March by it’s parent company, Unilever, the large conglomerate who owns Klondike, Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto, and other brands. Since them Magnum has made outstanding performance. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Americans has now consumed more than 100 million Magnum bars. However, Unilever still cannot overtake US’s ice-cream leader, Nestle, who owns brands such as Häagen-Dazs and Dreyer’s.

Who is Magnum’s biggest competitor? To my surprise, it’s not Haagen-Daz, it’s Skinny Cow (though their ice-cream bar businesses are all owned by Nestle ). It’s a low-fat brand and a Skinny Cow Fudge Bar usually contains 100 calories and 1 gram of fat, while Magnum’s flavors like Double Caramel and Mochaccino, has 240 calories and 16 grams of fat. However the fact that Skinny Cow has gone downhill since 2010 shows that after a tendency of pursuing diet food, more people has come back to care about the taste itself. “The focus on the diet brands had dragged the market down.” According to an a market research analyst, Chris Brockman.

I also find the future of Magnum in US very promising according to some online comments. The blogger from Netherlands felt thrilled when he found out Magnum finally entered US after missing this brand for such a long time. Since US is an immigrant country, there are people all over the world. Magnum has expanded into more than 50 countries before it entered US, I believe that lot’s of people who are familiar with Magnum before will feel as excited as me or as the blogger from Netherlands: http://adailyscoop.com/magnum-ice-cream-now-in-us-and-as-tasty-as-ever/

Another reason I feel confident about Magnum is, American people’s eating habits of ice-cream has shifted from half gallons and pints to European style’s cones and sticks. As an international brand originally made in Denmark, Magnum could fit such shift and  continue to threaten Nestle’s market share. What’s more, Magnum also invented a mini- bar product line (smaller bars with 150 calories), in order to cater to some people’s need of keeping diet.

Boyle, M.(2012, August 23), Unilever Wants to Be America’s Ice Cream King. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-23/unilever-wants-to-be-americas-ice-cream-king