Through a semiotic analysis of the target markets, Labbrand helped Häagen-Dazs to discover potential opportunities of its gifting products.

China Culture Research – THE HOUSE OF ICE CREAM

Häagen-Dazs is an American ice-cream brand whose first retail store was opened in 1987 in New York. With over 30 years’ experience in its industry, the business now has franchises throughout the United States and many other countries.

China Culture Research – THE CULTURE OF GIFTING

Häagen-Dazs planned to reiterate its success in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in Singapore and South Korea where it was believed to have a huge potential through developing products employing the “gifting” concept that was proved to be a success in the Chinese market. In order to achieve this, Häagen-Dazs needed to build a culturally strong and relevant product concept that will increase the frequency of the gifting motivated purchases and to strengthen the concept of “gifting.”

DISCOVERING THE OPPORTUNITIES IN APAC

The research project was divided into two phases: qualitative research and semiotic analysis. The focus group discussion conducted by Häagen-Dazs team raised some questions for the second phase.

The crucial phase of semiotic analysis was designed to answer important questions such as the meaning of gifting in Singaporean and South Korean cultures, how it is communicated in relevant categories, key market trends, and what are the opportunity areas that Häagen-Dazs can leverage.

Through a semiotic analysis of the target markets, we identified four key quadrants that represented different emotional motivations of consumers’ gifting behavior. By deploying the semiotic square, we developed a new gifting ideation framework to define key gifting occasions. After a workshop with the Häagen-Dazs team for co-creation and further analysis, we assisted Häagen-Dazs to discover potential opportunities of its gifting products.