When two of my fellow classmates and I chose to do our final class project on Pinkberry, we did so from a list of companies provided by our professor. We had never heard of Pinkberry before, all we knew was that upon visiting the website we instantly were transfixed by the naturally beautiful simplicity of the product images. Merely looking at the site is a guilty pleasure for my group members and myself, as we each take turns issuing a statement along the lines of "Man, we are so going there one day." Certainly none of us knew of the obsessed customer base of the company and the word of mouth phenomena that is Pinkberry.
In a recent article in Entrepreneur magazine, co-owner of Pinkberry, Young Lee, likened the word of mouth transfer from customer to customer, to a machine gun. The rapid-fire buzz brought the friends of customers, business partners, and, as it would seem, the world to the obscure location in West Hollywood. The power of the Pinkberry product allowed the company to overcome any obstacles and become wildly successful. This product power is a combination of the sleek stores and customer experience, as well as the very unique-to-the-US-market product.
This product is not unique, however, to the Korean market where supposedly the inspiration for Pinkberry is located. The February 21, 2007 New York Times article on Pinkberry, Heated Competition. Steaming Neighbors. This is Frozen Yogurt?, addresses the competition that the stores have spawned and some of the issues surrounding who came up with the concept first. If you stop to think about it, really the buzz about Pinkberry is to blame for creating other frozen yogurt look-alikes.
Bottom line: People are completely obsessed with this product and that blind obsession has lead to several parking tickets and consumer recommendations. People are not only talking about it in real time, but online through social marketing sites. A Flickr photo search with the query of "pinkberry" results in several hundred uploaded pictures of people oohing and ahhing over their particular frozen yogurt/topping combination or the decor of the store. Blogs discuss the product, while people talk about their devotion to Pinkberry on their MySpace profiles.
In a recent article in Entrepreneur magazine, co-owner of Pinkberry, Young Lee, likened the word of mouth transfer from customer to customer, to a machine gun. The rapid-fire buzz brought the friends of customers, business partners, and, as it would seem, the world to the obscure location in West Hollywood. The power of the Pinkberry product allowed the company to overcome any obstacles and become wildly successful. This product power is a combination of the sleek stores and customer experience, as well as the very unique-to-the-US-market product.
This product is not unique, however, to the Korean market where supposedly the inspiration for Pinkberry is located. The February 21, 2007 New York Times article on Pinkberry, Heated Competition. Steaming Neighbors. This is Frozen Yogurt?, addresses the competition that the stores have spawned and some of the issues surrounding who came up with the concept first. If you stop to think about it, really the buzz about Pinkberry is to blame for creating other frozen yogurt look-alikes.
Bottom line: People are completely obsessed with this product and that blind obsession has lead to several parking tickets and consumer recommendations. People are not only talking about it in real time, but online through social marketing sites. A Flickr photo search with the query of "pinkberry" results in several hundred uploaded pictures of people oohing and ahhing over their particular frozen yogurt/topping combination or the decor of the store. Blogs discuss the product, while people talk about their devotion to Pinkberry on their MySpace profiles.
5 comments:
There's also another company, i think it's called yogen fruz. they've been i canada for like 20 years. i thought pinkberry was good until i tried yogen fruz and went to heaven.
hey, well im a male and my girlfriend offered me pinkberry's yogurt and i refused until she shoved it in my mouth and now i cant get enough. its great. by the way do any happen to know who sings the pinkberry song. catchy tune
DC-
Yogen Fruz is supposed to be AMAZING! I know, I gotta try it.
Tarif-
You know, I finally visited the store and there were a ton of guys. Good taste has no gender segmentation.
And as for the song, I know, I had it stuck in my head for days. I'll check into who wrote it, but if you figure it out let me know!
I am a journalism major at NYU and would really like to talk to you about what you think about frozen yogurt and ice cream etc. I am doing an enterprise story on frozen desserts and need to get user views. Since your majoring in the subject it would be great to have you talk to me.
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