Ben & Jerry’s: Improving the Website’s Voice, Tone and Messaging

Unsolicited redesign of the Ben & Jerry’s website by Jeff Shibasaki

Part 1: The Challenge

Background

Ben & Jerry's is a Vermont subsidiary of Unilever that manufactures and sells all-natural ice cream with a social conscience and sense of humor.

Problem

Not only does the Ben & Jerry's website suffer from a sloppy layout that emphasizes blog posts over ice cream, but they fail to highlight the company's core values and playful sense of humor with the same personality and messaging that's on social media, in their scoop shops and in their product packaging design. When the voice and tone aren't consistent across all touchpoints, the brand's loyalty, recognition and uniqueness are all affected. After all, the voice and tone are how a brand communicates with the world. Words matter. Messaging matters. Consistency matters.

Scope

While I wrote the web copy and did the entire redesign myself, I've only detailed my process that relates to creating the voice, tone and messaging.

Roles

• Created the voice and tone

• Wrote the web copy

• Created the visual design

Tools

• Dropbox Paper

• Sketch

Copyright

Photos included in my design are copyrights of Ben & Jerry's.

Part 2: The Process

Step 1: Define the Target Audience

Since I didn’t have access to Ben & Jerry’s customer data for market segmentation, I relied on a research paper that I found from Wow Essays that had already defined Ben & Jerry’s target market. I pulled the key details from that article and added that to a table in Dropbox Paper. This helped me understand the audience I was writing for.

Step 2: Define the Business Goals

I imagined Ben & Jerry's business goals involved increasing online orders, catering and deliveries, plus driving more foot traffic to scoop shops and increasing sales at grocery stores.

Step 3: Define the Tone

Based on Ben & Jerry’s social media content, scoop shop messaging and product packaging design, I decided the tone of voice dimensions should be funny, casual, respectful and enthusiastic.

Next, I used those tone of voice dimensions to create descriptors that elaborate on what the tone is and is not. Once I knew the tone I wanted to convey, that led me to start defining the voice.

Step 4: Define the Voice

To define the voice that would drive the messaging, I documented Ben & Jerry's three-part mission, core values and keywords for search engine optimization (SEO) in Dropbox Paper.

Step 5: Write the Copy

Knowing who I was writing for, what the business goals were and the tone of voice that I wanted to communicate all helped me to create a personality for the Ben & Jerry's website that's consistent with their social media content, scoop shop messaging and product packaging design.

Part 3: The Solution

Though not detailed herein, the copy that I wrote also provided direction for translating the Ben & Jerry's voice and tone into a compelling content strategy and visual design that illustrates their dedication to the planet, farmers, cows and everyone in between.

Final Thoughts

If Ben & Jerry’s had established voice and tone guidelines that described what to do and not to do, it would ensure the brand had a unique, consistent, recognizable message at every touchpoint.