Conclusion

This is officially my last post about frozen yogurt and the economy. So in conclusion, here is a brief summary:

The trend of frozen yogurt is positively affecting the economy by creating employment oppurtunities, curculating more money, and getting more business through effective advertising.

Frozen yogurt is creating employment because there are new frozen yogurt stores opening up all over the place. Each store hires roughly 15 new employees, so that adds up! Great franchising oppurtunities are available for anyone, which means that it is very easy to get started on becoming a franchisee yourself and hiring your own employees. Obviously, a growth in jobs is good for the economy!

Frozen yogurt helps circulate more money in the economy because it is getting people to spend money they possibly wouldn’t have otherwise. Successful companies like CoolBrands and franchises like Menchies and Yogurtini are making more and more yogurt to keep up with the growing trend of frozen yogurt, and so more and more people are buying it and spending money, also good for the economy!

Frozen yogurt is so successful partially because of great advertising. Most frozen yogurt companies do a good job maintaining an inviting and family friendly enviroment and work hard to appeal to kids. Their good customer service is helping keep frozen yogurt successful! And this successful advertising means that more fro-yo is purchased, so there is more money and more jobs and more good things for the economy!

I feel that I have been repetitive but that is because this is a big cycle of good for the economy! Now, I’m going to go eat some fro-yo. Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something!

Happy reading and eating- Erica

Children are key

When it comes to advertising, there is always a certain group the company is aiming to reach. For frozen yogurt, that group is families with young children. Frozen yogurt companies aim their advertisements at this group because they claim to be family friendly companies.

http://www.franchisechatter.com/2012/10/09/fro-yo-files-what-you-really-need-to-know-about-sweetfrog-frozen-yogurt-straight-from-its-head-of-franchise-sales-casey-cooley-part-1-of-2/

In this Franchise Chatter article Casey Cooley, head of franchise sales for Sweet Frog frozen yogurt, talks about his success with Sweet Frog. As the head of franchise sales, he knows a thing or two about advertising. He says that catering to children is key because they strive to be a happy place for young children. Also, the self-serve concept means that it is more fun for children to be able to pick out exactly what they want. Not only this, but have you noticed that all these frozen yogurt shops have really clean and bright displays? Yeah, well that is probably to grab the attention of people, especially little kids. When they see the bright pink or green or blue through a glass window, the kid is going to want to come inside the frozen yogurt shop to see what is going on. And then the parents will want to come inside the frozen yogurt shop to keep their kids happy and tear-free. This method of advertising might not be intended, but it works.

Here is a commercial for the frozen yogurt company Yobe. Notice they use bright colors and happy images here as well to draw the attention of a younger crowd? Effective advertising is what makes the world of business go round! More good advertisements, more customers, more money, better economy.

Bibiliography for this post:
“Fro-Yo Files: A Closer Look at SweetFrog, a Family-Friendly Frozen Yogurt Franchise with Christian Roots (Part 1 of 2).” FRANCHISE CHATTER RSS. Franchise Chatter, 09 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
THRE3TV. “YOBE- TV.” YouTube. YouTube, 18 Nov. 2010. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.

Happy reading and eating! -Erica

Cheesy advertising

Advertising has a lot to do with the success or demise of a company. Companies and stores NEED to have effective advertising in order to be successful. How a compnay displays itself in an advertisement says a lot about a company. You guys should know this and undertand the importance of successful advertising.

That is why it comes as no surprise that frozen yogurt companies have been so successful partly due to great advertisements.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=menchies+commercial&oq=menchie&gs_l=youtube-reduced.1.2.0l4.325002.326794.0.330005.9.8.0.0.0.0.385.1193.0j2j2j1.5.0…0.0…1ac.1.yB_-d9WnxYM

Here is a video from YouTube of a Menchie’s commercial. It is so insanely cheesy I honestly laughed. But, it is effective! Through this commercial Menchie’s is saying “Hey, we are family friendly! We are a fun place to go! We will put you in a good mood! We have good costumer service!” Isn’t that the vibe they were going for? I bet you moms are watching this commercial and subconciously thinking to themselves that they should take their kids to Menchie’s. Or at least that Menchie’s a good family-friendly place to be. Regardless, Menchie’s successfully came accross as a good frozen yogurt place through this cheesy and effective advertisement.

http://www.franchisechatter.com/2012/10/31/fro-yo-files-registered-nurse-turned-frozen-yogurt-franchisee-rick-green-talks-candidly-about-tcby-and-shares-some-of-his-most-effective-marketing-tactics/

In this Franchise Chatter article (linked above) with TCBY Franchisee Rick Green, he talks about some effective advertising he has done to be successful. He actually will take little samples of the fro-yo to companies in the same area as his TCBY to spread the news about his store and let them see what he has to offer. Good idea, right? This is a sneaky way to advertise and lure people in as new customers. It also showcases his great customer service.

It is throught effective advertisements like these showing the customers family friendly and good customer service attitudes that frozen yogurt places like Menchie’s and TCBY continue to be successful. This is how they are getting more business and getting more money around, AKA helping the economy once again.

Bibliography for this post:
“Fro-Yo Files: Registered Nurse-Turned-Frozen Yogurt Franchisee Rick Green Talks Candidly About TCBY, and Shares Some of His Most Effective Marketing Tactics.” FRANCHISE CHATTER RSS. Franchise Chatter, 31 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
“Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt.” YouTube. YouTube, 06 July 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.

Happy eating and reading! -Erica

More than leg warmers

It is hard to describe fro-yo without using the words “latest trend”. Everyone loves it! Especially with the current health craze going on, frozen yogurt is a decadent but healthier dessert. Much like how in the 80’s the fad of leg-warmers meant that a lot of people bought leg-warmers to fit in and therefore put more money into circulation that wasn’t there before, frozen yogurt is doing that today.

Above is a YouTube video from Daily Iowan TV, which appears to be the student news station for the University of Iowa. They are talking about a frozen yogurt place in town that a lot of the students love to go to for entertainment with their friends. Also, it fits well with the tight budgets of college students. Frozen yogurt appeals to people of all ages, from college students to families.

Speaking of family friendly, that is one of the goals of Menchie’s. In another interview with Franchise Chatter, CEO Amit Kleinberger says, “A frozen yogurt franchise is part of a growing billion-dollar industry. It’s a concept that appeals to the entire family.” Menchie’s works hard to be involved in the community and keep up the appeal to a diverse customer. Frozen yogurt is the latest fad or trend currently, similar to what leg warmers were, but it seems to be so much more than that in the long run. The health benefits from the pro-biotics in the frozen yogurt and the endless possibilities of combinations and the friendly enviroment are truly what keep the company running. As Kleinberger says as well, it is these things that matter more in running a compnay than the specific numbers. Menchie’s and other frozen yogurt places are obviously doing something right, just look at thier success!

So in conclusion, being part of the “latest trend” means that frozen yogurt appeals to a diverse population and therefore continues to be successful, making more money, therefore circulating more money in the economy. And everyone stays happy!

Here is the link for the Franchise Chatter interview with Kleinberger:http://www.franchisechatter.com/2011/05/23/exclusive-interview-with-amit-kleinberger-ceo-of-menchies-one-of-the-fastest-growing-frozen-yogurt-franchises-in-the-world/

Bibliography for this post:
“Exclusive Interview with Amit Kleinberger, CEO of Menchie’s, One of the Fastest Growing Frozen Yogurt Franchises in the World.” FRANCHISE CHATTER RSS. Franchise Chatter, 23 May 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
Uiszat. “Frozen Yogurt Trend PKG.mov.” YouTube. YouTube, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.

Happy reading and eating! -Erica

Increasing is nice

You know how I said in my last post that despite problems with currency exchange that CoolBrands was still a successful company? Yeah, well I wasn’t exaggerating.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=0d6ffcd1-d38f-4edb-b9f7-022d638c2e8b%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=25&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=n5h&AN=6FP3390098929

Above I inserted the link for an article from the Toronto Star from December of 2003 talking about how CoolBrands in the prior year gained a lot of important business in the US from companies like Godiva and Haagen-Dasz. From their successful year, their quarterly earnings were higher than expected. Much higher. CoolBrands had an increase of $5.7 million in net profit from the same period the year before (2002). Their quarterly revenue rose $67.6 million dollars from the year prior, a jump of 78%. All of these numbers are better displayed in a chart that I created, also inserted above.

CoolBrands is a very successful company with a great background story of two brothers working hard. From their quarterly (and just in general) increases in revenue and profit due to growth, the CoolBrands company can continue to expand and serve more people. And like I’ve been saying, more business and more product means more that the customer will buy, so more money is being circulated throughout the economy. Yippee!

Bibliography for this post:
“CoolBrands Quarterly Earnings Climb 63%.” Toronto Star 25 Nov. 2003, Business sec.: D02. Toronto. EBSCO. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.

Happy eating and reading! -Erica

Exchanging goods, exchanging profits

Alright, so now that I have given you some background information on CoolBrands we can get more into the nitty-gritty details. Since CoolBrands is a Canadian based company but does a lot of business around the world (about 80 countries total like I said before), they have to deal with the difference between currencies. I didn’t realize before that this would play into how much money a company makes, but it does if you think about it. I always assumed money is money, but that’s not necessarily the case I am beginning to realize…

Inserted is a chart comparing Canadian dollars to 1 U.S. dollar (USD) for this past month. Since CoolBrands does a lot of business in the United States, it would be helpful to their company for the USD to be worth about the same as the Canadian dollar. If it is worth less, then any business done in the United States would not make them as much money as if it were done in Canada, but if the USD is worth more, then they will actually be making more money. The exchange rate between countries is something that affects a lot of companies and is closely watched.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=5c843f0d-a845-4347-996d-211becccef41%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=25&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=n5h&AN=6FP0254580651

Here is an article from the Toronto Star in 2004 talking about how due to the exchange rate between the USD and Canadian currency, CoolBrands didn’t make quite as much money as expected. In fact, if the exchange rate had remained consistent with the year prior, according to CoolBrands, the annual revenue would have been 11% higher. Even though that blows for CoolBrands, this is a problem they will consistently have to deal with and they are still successful despite this setback.

Basically the point I am trying to make in this post is that even though the exchange rate can cause problems for some companies, they are still creating a product that consumers continue to buy and therefore are putting money into the economy. So you know what CoolBrands, deal with your little exchange rate problems, because we, as your customers, still love fro-yo and are going to buy it no matter what.

Bibliography for this post:
“Canadian Dollars (CAD) to 1 US Dollar (USD).” Canadian Dollars to US Dollars. Exchangerates.org, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2012.
CoolBrands Feels Pressure from Exchange Rate.” Toronto Star 01 Dec. 2004, Business sec.: C03. Newspaper Source Plus. Ebsco. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.

Happy reading and eating! -Erica

CoolBrands is a cool brand

Now that I have covered about how fro-yo creates employment oppurtunities I can move on to the second part of my thesis regarding the benefits of frozen yogurt on the economy! I am going to talk about how the frozen yogurt trend is putting more money in circulation in the economy, which is a good thing. I’m going to be doing a lot of talking about CoolBrands, a frozen yogurt and ice cream company based out of Canada. So let me give you some background:

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/coolbrands-international-inc-history/

Above is the link for an article I found detailing the history and growth of CoolBrands International Inc. I’ll share some facts with you now too. CoolBrands was founded in 1985 by brothers Aaron and Michael Serruya when they were only 19 and 20 years old! They liked the frozen yogurt concept and worked hard to create their own franchise concept. They finally opened their first fro-yo shop in 1987 called Yogen Fruz. They have been very successful, opening 100 franchises in only three years, and now they have nearly 5,000 franchises in 80 countries world-wide!

Inserted is a graph I created showing how spread out the Yogen Fruz stores are around the world. I went to the Yogen Fruz website and counted how many states or provinces Yogen Fruz stores were in in each country and that’s how I created the pie chart. I only included 18 countries in the pie chart though because it would be nearly impossible to include all 80 countries in one chart! Also, it was hard to find all of that information. But I think you get the idea. I awknowledge that some countries have a lot more states or provinces than other countries and so it looks like they have a lot more Yogen Fruz shops than other countries when they really don’t (Canada really has more Yogen Fruz shops than the US), BUT I still think this is a pretty accurate display showcasing how diverse and spread out Yogen Fruz shops are. It’s pretty incredible.

So this post is to give some background for the upcoming posts about how buying fro-yo is putting more money into circulation for the economy. Get excited. I think you can still see where I am going with this concept though. Similar to Menchie’s and Red Mango, the growth of CoolBrands and thus Yogen Fruz means they are expanding to a wider audience, so more is being bought, so more jobs are created, so even more stores are opened, so even more fro-yo is purchased, so more money is going around in the economy! It’s a never ending cycle of joy and prosperity.

Bibliography for this post:
“Yogen Fruz Frozen Yogurt 2010.” Frozen Yogurt and Smoothies at Yogen Früz. Yogen Fruz, 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2012.
“CoolBrands International Inc. History.” History of CoolBrands International Inc. – FundingUniverse. Funding Universe, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2012.

Happy eating and reading! -Erica

Yogurtini and Red Mango

This is going to be my final post about the employment benefits frozen yogurt brings to the economy, so pay attention. Again, I will breif on how easy it is for anyone to become a “franchisee” so with that and the rise in popularity of frozen yogurt, there are lots of employment oppurtunities popping up!

Above is a link for a YouTube video called “Yogurtini Franchise Opportunities”. In this video a couple of owners talk about the benefits of being a franchisee in the Yogurtini company. They talk about how helpful the Yogurtini company was from helping them to choose location, to helping them advertise. David, one of the franchisees in Lee’s Summit, MO, talks about how the Yogurtini compnay always answers when he calls a couple of times daily. Although the frozen yogurt business does not consist of many counterparts, every person in the company works well together to keep the business successful.

http://www.franchisechatter.com/2012/10/02/fro-yo-files-what-really-sets-red-mango-apart-from-all-other-frozen-yogurt-franchises-according-to-founder-dan-kim/

Here is the link for an article from Franchise Chatter about the success that the fro-yo company of Red Mango has experienced. In just 5 short years since their first store opening, they opened their 200th store this year. Crazy, huh? Red Mango was founded by Dan Kim in 2007 here in America after Kim had seen the success that frozen yogurt companies were having in his native country of Korea. Obviously it has been pretty successful for him here in America too! In a previous post I talked about how rapidly Menchie’s had grown due to their great success, but they aren’t the only ones. Frozen yogurt companies in general are very successful because of the popularity of the product. So with the increasing demand leading to increasing success in addition to the ease of becoming a franchisee, lots of new employment oppurtunities are available! And it’s pretty obvious that employment is good for the economy.

Bibliography for this post:
“Yogurtini Franchise Opportunity.” YouTube. YouTube, 24 Mar. 2011. Web. 09 Dec. 2012.
“Fro-Yo Files: What Really Sets Red Mango Apart from All Other Frozen Yogurt Franchises, According to Founder Dan Kim.” FRANCHISE CHATTER RSS. Franchise Chatter, 02 Dec. 2012. Web. 09 Dec. 2012.

Happy reading and eating! -Erica

Cameron Garner: making fro-yo by day, creating jobs by night.

Today I am going to continue talking about how frozen yogurt is so kindly giving us jobs. In my previous posts I mentioned job creation under the context of the ease at which someone can open their own fro-yo shop under one of the main franchises and how rapidly new frozen yogurt stores are opening up around the world. In my last post about Menchie’s I talked about all the jobs being created by opening all these news Menchie’s locations. I am going to talk about that again today.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/smallbusiness/1108/gallery.hiring_small_business/3.html

Above I included the link for an article I found on CNN Money from August of 2011 about Menchie’s. This guy, Cameron Garner, is awesome. He co-owned three Menchie’s stores at the time this was written and by the end of the year (2011) he planned to finish up construction on three more and own six total. That’s not all though! By the end of 2012, he hopes to have 10 locations! That’s a lot! And his stores aren’t even all in the same state. His locations will be between Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Through all of his success and new store openings, he has been on a hiring spree. Woohoo!

These are two graphs that I created about all the jobs that are being created through Garner. The first graph shows the jobs that 55 jobs were created total between his first three stores and now with the addition of a fourth store, he will have created 73 jobs total. Keep in mind that these are full and part-time jobs, hiring people of all ages, which is even better! The second graph shows the growth in jobs that can be expected through his next store openings. The article says that for each location Garner will bring on 12-18 more employees. So for the purpose of this graph, I went with 15 jobs per location, a number that is right in the middle. Way to go Cameron Garner!

So to conclude this post, I talked about Cameron Garner’s success through the Menchie’s franchise. His success is benefiting others by creating jobs- at least 100 by the time all ten of his stores open! Job creation is obviously a good thing and helps the economy, so fro-yo is helping the economy yet again!

Bibliography for this post:
“Hiring: Yes. No. Maybe So.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 11 Aug. 2011. Web. 07 Dec. 2012. .

Happy eating and reading!

-Erica

Menchie’s is everywhere

Hello everybody! So back to talking about how the trend of frozen yogurt is helping the economy. Last time I talked about how frozen yogurt is creating employment through the ease of opening your own store through one of the franchises. Today, I will talk about that more and how these frozen yogurt companies are expanding as a result.

More specifically, today my focus is going to be on Mechie’s. Some background information for you: Menchie’s opened their first store in 2007. Menchie’s was started by Dana and Adam Caldwell and the word “Menchie” means a joyful person in Yiddish. Since their opening, Menchie’s has won several awards for their success in the frozen yogurt market. In July 2010, Restaurant Business Magazine ranked Menchie’s #1 on their Future 50′ list rating Menchie’s as the fastest growing restaurant franchise with a 748 percent growth.

Inserted are a couple of graphs I made documenting Menchie’s growth through their number of locations. The first graph is about the number of stores total for each year and the second graph breaks that up into number of states and countries. You might notice the graphs skip 2011. That is because although I assume there was growth in the year of 2011 and many more locations opened during that year, I could not find any data as to how many exactly. But you get the point nonetheless. Basically the graphs show that Menchie’s is steadily growing as a business. Since their business is growing so much, that means their employment oppurtunities are as well! With every store that opens, that is maybe 15-20 more jobs available. Menchie’s had the goal for the year of 2012 of adding 120 more locations and being in all 50 states. With 2012 coming to a close, I don’t know whether or not they have reached that goal. But if they were to meet the goal and indeed open 120 more locations this year alone, and let’s go on the low side and say 15 jobs per store, that would be 1,800 new jobs! In this year alone! By one frozen yogurt company! I think you get my point.

http://www.franchisechatter.com/2012/11/14/fro-yo-files-menchies-ceo-amit-kleinberger-explains-what-differentiates-his-frozen-yogurt-franchise-from-all-others-in-the-category/

Here I just included the link for a website called Franchise Chatter. Here they have all sorts of articles and interviews for people looking to open a store with a franchise. They can go to this website and get all the information they need to compare and contrast franchises and figure out which one is the best fit for them. Lucky for me, on Franchise Chatter they have a thing called “Fro-Yo Files” where they compare and contrast a bunch of frozen yogurt franchises. This link should take you to an interview Franchise Chatter had with Amit Kleinberger, the CEO of Menchie’s. He briefly talks about the growth of Menchie’s and what he thinks makes them so successful. I will go into parts of this article more in-depth in later posts, but what I wanted to mention here was that by the end of 2011, Menchie’s was the largest self-service frozen-yogurt company IN THE WORLD. Crazy, right?! Kleinberger attritbutes Menchie’s success with the good customer service they are known the give. Regardless of how it’s done, Menchie’s is obviously doing something right.

That is all I have for this post. But to summarize: I’m saying that Menchie’s rapid growth is creating jobs because the more stores that are open, the more jobs that need to be taken up by people of any age. Pretty simple, right? Fro-yo is the best. Happy reading and eating!

Bibliography for this post:
“Menchie’s.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Oct. 2012. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.
“Fro-Yo Files: Menchie’s CEO Amit Kleinberger Explains What Differentiates His Frozen Yogurt Franchise from All Others in Its Category.” FRANCHISE CHATTER RSS. Franchise Chatter Fro-Yo Files, 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.

-Erica