Jeni's Splendid Failure: How An Ice Cream Juggernaut Was Born From Collapse

Sometimes failure can lead to your biggest success

Photo by Elza Kurbanova on Unsplash

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Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams is a wonderfully successful company. Started in 2002, the company now enjoys over $100 million in yearly revenue, and is scaling at a 30 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

However, much of the success of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams is due to lessons she learned in failure. Prior to starting Jeni’s, Jeni Britton Bauer ran an ice cream stand in Columbus, Ohio called Scream. Scream existed from 1996-2000 until Bauer was forced to close the stand due to lack of sales.

I wanted to spend some time looking at Scream, and some of the lessons that Bauer learned from running the ice cream stand that led to her enjoying massive success with her current company. Too often, we reject failure, without understanding that often, what first appears as a failure can actually be a catalyst for later success.

The Failure of Scream: Was it Really a Failure?

When Jeni first launched Scream, she was driven by passion but lacked a deeper understanding of what truly makes a business resonate with customers. Her initial venture was more about creating interesting flavors than creating meaningful experiences.

Jeni came from an art background at THE Ohio State University, and as such, she approached Scream as her art studio, moreso than as a viable business. She delighted in creating exotic flavors with esoteric ingredients (for example, adding essential oils to ice cream to create aromatic scents).

While her unusual flavors did indeed win her fans, she didn’t yet possess the business savvy to understand how to leverage her talents. For instance, one of her early flavor creations, Salty Caramel, was an instant hit, beloved by customers. But Jeni was still viewing herself more as an artist than an ice cream maker. So she would prefer to create new flavors to ‘show off’ her talents, while her customers just wanted more Salty Caramel because they loved it.

The business struggled, ultimately failing to capture the hearts and imaginations of her potential customers.

But within that failure lay a pair of transformative insights: First, Jeni learned to approach ice cream as a business more so than artwork. For instance, when she relaunched her ice cream business in 2002, one change she made was to put a focus on flavors that customers loved. Roughly half her store inventory would be devoted to customer favorites like Salty Caramel. The other half would feature Jeni’s newest flavor concoctions. So this hybrid approach gave Jeni a way to stretch her artistic muscles with trying out new flavors, while also providing the favorite flavors that customers loved.

The second insight was that food is more than just a product. It's a narrative, a connection to place, people, and process. And it’s an experience. Part of successful branding is rooted in delivering a consistent experience. Such as giving customers their favorite flavor versus her ‘experimental’ flavors, which Jeni loved, but her customers just wanted their favorites.

The Birth of Brand Storytelling

Emerging from Scream's ashes, Jeni reimagined her approach. She realized that customers don't just want to consume a product; they want to understand its origin, its journey, and the people behind it. This revelation became the cornerstone of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

Her new strategy was revolutionary: each ingredient would have a story. No longer would ice cream be a simple dessert, but a narrative experience. She began tracing ingredients to specific farms, highlighting the practices of local producers, and weaving complex tales around each scoop.

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Connecting Through Ingredients

Take, for example, her commitment to grass-grazed milk. It's not just about flavor—it's about showcasing the relationship between farmers, animals, and land. Customers learned about sustainable farming practices, the impact of diet on milk quality, and the intricate ecosystem that produces their favorite treat.

This approach transformed ice cream from a commodity to a conversation. Customers weren't just buying a product; they were participating in a larger story about food, sustainability, and community.

This focus on narrative and deeper information on ingredients and processes had several advantages. First, it gave customers a reason to become more invested in the products. A higher level of understanding leads to more interest in the end product.

Second, by providing more information, Jeni is helping to establish her expertise as an ice cream maker. And that leads to the third advantage; Jeni is educating customers on the product and ingredients, and that helps justify the product’s price point.

Lessons for Content Creators and Entrepreneurs

For Substack writers and entrepreneurs, Jeni's journey offers profound insights:

1. Authenticity Matters: Your audience craves genuine stories, not marketing speak. Don’t be afraid to pull back the curtain on business processes. Loyal customers will LOVE behind-the-scenes information. Almost like a Backstage Pass.

2. Invite Participation: Transform your audience from passive consumers to active collaborators. One of the lessons Jeni learned from closing Scream was to spend more time listening to her customers, but also talking to other business owners. Before relauching her ice cream shop in 2002, she took time to talk to other businesses in the market area she wanted to join, and learned how she could contribute to the larger business community she wished to join.

3. Trace Your Ingredients: Whether you're creating content, products, or services, share the behind-the-scenes process. This helps establish value and connection with your customers.

4. Build Community: Success isn't about selling; it's about connecting. Seek out ways to engage directly with your audience. Substack gives you a wonderful way to do this directly. As you read advice from successful Substack writers, note how often they stress the importance of constantly engaging with readers.

Practical Implementation

How can you apply these lessons?

• Share your creative process. What works for you as well as what hasn’t. This helps your readers become more invested in your writing, and it adds to your credibility. Plus, it enhances the value of the content you create.

• Invite audience suggestions. This is a great way to inform and improve your writing.

• Provide transparency in your work.

• Make your audience feel like partners, not just consumers.

Conclusion: Consider the Value that ‘Failure’ Can Create

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams is a wonderfully successful company in 2024, but much of that success is due to lessons learned from the closing of Jeni’s first attempt at an ice cream stand in 2000. Jeni accepted and addressed her errors with Scream, course-corrected, and applied new solutions when she relaunched her ice cream shop.

The takeaway here is, don’t let a ‘failure’ cripple your dreams. With the right attitude, you can often take a setback and use it to spring forward in a new direction!

Thank you so much for reading! Big week ahead, on Tuesday we have Marketing and Movies: The Book of Eli, and on Thursday we have Marketing and Music: Taylor Swift Gives Her Fans A Merry Swiftmas.

That’s all next week. I hope your weekend is wonderful and I will see you back here in 5 days!

Mack