A New Flavor of Competition: Perceived Effectiveness of Haagen-Dazs’ Blue Ocean Strategy in Delivering Satisfaction and Brand Loyalty Based on Consumers’ Postdecision Behavior

Abstract

Traditional corporate strategies plan product or service offerings by looking at ways of beating competition, hence the term "competitive advantage”. They seldom take into account the importance of the market, particularly in gaining purchasers through satisfaction and loyalty. The Blue Ocean Strategy, on the other hand, defies conventional strategic thinking by creating a unique offering that delivers value not only for its buyers but also for the company, thus making competing with others irrelevant. It is unknown, however, if this offering also delivers positive postdecision behavior among its consumers. No related studies had ever investigated a corporate-level strategy, more so the Blue Ocean Strategy. To facilitate an investigation, the international brand of ice cream, Haagen-Dazs, whose corporate strategy is a Blue Ocean Strategy, was chosen by the researcher as the focus of the study. To address this gap in knowledge, the researcher sought to answer the following question: “How effective is Haagen-Dazs' Blue Ocean Strategy in delivering satisfaction and brand loyalty based on consumers’ postdecision behavior?” To answer this question, the study determined how Haagen- Dazs created a Blue Ocean Strategy and investigated if consumers were satisfied with Haagen-Dazs based on their postpurchase evaluation of product attribute importance and product attribute performance and if brand loyalty was present among consumers. A quantitative descriptive study was used to explicate the consumers' postdecision behavior consisting of their postpurchase evaluation and purchase behavior. The researcher attended a Blue Ocean Strategy Forum which focused on a case study of Haagen-Dazs to determine information about the Blue Ocean Strategy used by the company and conducted an interview with the management to obtain information about Haagen-Dazs in the Philippines. A one-shot survey was used as a data gathering technique to find out how satisfied the consumers were and if brand loyalty was present among them. After reading sufficient consumer research literature, and based from the product profile of Haagen-Dazs acquired from the previously-mentioned forum, the researcher prepared a questionnaire which was pretested on 20 customers from Haagen-Dazs Rockwell Center, Makati City. Ninety customers who both purchased and consumed any of Haagen-Dazs’ ice cream products were drawn purposively from three Haagen-Dazs branches located in Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa City; Glorietta 3, Makati City; and Shangri-la Plaza, Mandaluyong City, and were given the questionnaire. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher arrived at the following conclusions: By eliminating television advertisements, by reducing the number of distribution of cafes and the availability of Haagen-Dazs ice cream in the supermarket, by raising the brand’s image associated with hedonism, ambient and print advertisements, and the product’s quality and its price, and by creating a prestigious, aspirational brand, a brand of ice cream targeted to affluent adults, and a cafe-type ambiance, Haagen-Dazs created the Blue Ocean Strategy. Consumers were satisfied with Haagen-Dazs based on their evaluation of the importance and performance of the product attributes, and based on their purchase behavior, there was brand loyalty among the consumers because of the presence of commitment purchase behavior, repeat purchase intent, and brand preference. Finally, the main problem was resolved: the Blue Ocean Strategy used by Haagen-Dazs was effective in delivering satisfaction and brand loyalty based on consumers’ postdecision behavior.