Cold Stone Creamery's Story

<back

When Cold Stone Creamery decided to grow their small franchise system they looked to IMS to help them. IMS began working with Cold Stone in 1999 and initial meetings were designed to discover the heart and soul of the company, its founders, leaders and team members. IMS looked at what the company was doing. What it was saying. And what it hoped to become. We talked with the people who made up the Creamery Team. We listened and listened some more. We used our heart and our wisdom of human nature and human needs. From there we developed what IMS calls Foundational Messaging™ that communicates the heart and soul of the company as it relates to the needs and desires of its customers.

For Cold Stone, IMS developed foundational messages that spoke to two levels of customers: the franchisees who own and operate the stores and the consumers who ultimately enjoy the ice cream. These single-page documents that spoke of passion, indulgence and the ultimate in-store experience became the inspiration for the company's evolving brand position and even its vision: that the world will know Cold Stone Creamery as the Ultimate Ice Cream Experience by having 1,000 profitable stores operating by December 31, 2004.

From this document, IMS helped Cold Stone infuse their passion into everything they do. And we did so working with every department in the company. The work is varied but the goal to us is the same: make Cold Stone Creamery come alive for everyone—create moments—and help people experience the essence of the culture and the brand.

Here are just a few examples of the work that contributed to Cold Stone Creamery's rapid growth:

The Cold Stone Creamery Culture Video.  Originally developed in 2000 and updated several years later, this video was the single driver of Cold Stone Creamery's culture and has been the number one tool used by Franchise Development to 1) show prospective franchisees why Cold Stone Creamery is a great opportunity, 2) to communicate Cold Stone's performance expectation of new franchisees and 3) to self-select out prospects who are not up to the challenge. The result is a franchise system that grew almost exponentially and store growth that outpaced the industry.

The Annual Franchisee Meeting.  IMS produced Cold Stone Creamery's Annual Franchisee Meeting for eight years and grew the event from a small meeting of less than 100 people to a four-day extravaganza attended by nearly 2,000 franchisees, managers and crew. IMS infused the passion and the standard of excellence of Cold Stone Creamery by managing the message first and developing the delivery of that message second. IMS managed all aspects of the meeting including pre-event promotion, at-event hospitality, food and beverage, and of course the stage shows that featured nationally-known speakers and highly skilled Creamery executives. The meetings IMS produced were high-energy, highly emotional events that re-energized the franchise community each year and sent them back into their stores charged with excitement for the business and the potential. It reignited them to the higher purpose: making people happy. At the meeting, franchisees and their teams realized they are part of something huge, something growing and something that is alive with every opportunity in the world. The result was 95% and above ratings for all event activities in post event surveys and a meeting that boasted 98% or better attendance year after year. The meeting has been a big contributor to Cold Stone's record-setting growth. Cold Stone had so much faith and trust in IMS, that we managed the meeting budget which was one of the company's largest annual expenditures.

Evolved Store Design.  In 2000, IMS helped Cold Stone Creamery begin one of its most exciting projects: evolving the store design. With the developing brand message of passion and indulgence well underway and an increasing awareness of consumers' longings for experiences, not just food, Cold Stone and IMS set out to transform the way people think of and view an ice cream store. By using character development usually reserved for novelists who are developing the backgrounds to bring their characters to life, IMS helped Cold Stone characterize the brand, the store that ultimately houses that brand and the brand experience. Partnering with Exclaim Design, the team arrived at a preliminary store experience that became the foundation for the ice cream store you see today. One that redefines the category and differentiates Cold Stone from any and all competitors.

IMS was actively involved in the 2007 merger of Cold Stone Creamery and Kahala Corp., guiding messaging and merging of the cultures. Doug Ducey, former president and CEO of Cold Stone said "IMS has helped us discover who we are at the most basic level. They have helped us develop and train that awareness into a brand that is us, a brand that is engaging and a brand that is achieving breakthrough status. They help us keep the message and its delivery fresh yet consistent, year after year, and they have given our brand the depth and the feeling that makes it come alive for everyone it touches. The brand would not be where it is today without IMS."

<back