The History of Dovel Society

1. Summary

The history of Dovel society started in 1934 by Thomas Dovel in New-York.

Originally, the company served only soft ice cream cones and milkshakes.

However the company developing other products such as the ice cream cake.

In 1998, Dovel owned and operated over 300 retails stores in the U.S. Canada,Puerto Rico and China and had granted franchise right to over 600 others.

He sells mainly in  supermarkets and his business figure was 600 million in 1997

1. Segmentation

3 most attracting segment :

-Middle & upper class Chinese Professionals (1,5 -2,3 million)

The are professionals aged from 25 to 45 who apper as early adopterseven Chinesse people remain conservative. It is the geatest segment currently growing.

They account for 70% of ice cream cake purchases .

-Little Emperors (1,5 million)

The law requires  one child policy, most families are focused on their unique child and spend more than 60% of their income for his/her desires.

They are responsible for 20% of purchases.

- Strong expatriate community (100 000)

About 10 per cent of Beijing Dovel’s annual sales came from Beijing’s 100,000 .

These were mainly foreign business and embassy employees (and their families) who were living and working in Beijing. The vast majority of these people lived in and around two large embassy districts that were located on the east side of the city. In contrast of many local residents, “expats” often lived in more comfortable surroundings in terms of both living space and the availability of amenities

1. Targeting

Dovel is strongly involved in the market of the  children  from 5 to 12 years old because the chineese population is composed of a lot of children under 15 years old.

Moreover, the chineese market was not used to eat dairy products but the governement has just started advertising campaigns in order to majencourage the population to eat it. That something promising for the future of the ice cream market

1. Positioning

Dovel  has to adopt the same policy of its three main competitors which are BaskinRobbins, Haagen Dazs or  Cold Stone. Yet, it must manage to have a large and deep  assortment in diversifying its professional and   private customers

1. Marketing mix

Price :

Dovel should mainly keep their prices on the same level of  its competitors’ prices  like Haagen-Dazs and Baskin Robbins.