Ben and Jerry's Swat Analysis

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             Ben and Jerry's set up an international department and started to explore the world's promising markets. .
             The work team at Ben and Jerry's have overtime developed varied types of general "teamwork" concepts and team specific structures unique to specific department needs. At any one time there can be a variety of interdepartmental teams working on specific long-term or short-term projects. In general, there is no company wide policy, standard or definition for what a work team should look like or how it should function. .
             Macroenvironmental Forces.
             Economic.
             There is an ongoing vanilla shortage, which will keep vanilla prices high for some time to come. The shortage is due to a cyclone in Madagascar, floods in Mexico, and a lack of rain in Indonesia. The shortage is expected to go on for at least another year. (Reporter, 2001).
             Social.
             The public is being made more and more aware of the need for a lower fat diet. One would think that this would be a negative for the ice cream industry. Ben & Jerry's, along with all of their competitors, has recently been forced to develop new lines of ice cream. Ben & Jerry's is taking these new lines, like Low-Fat Ice Cream, No-Fat Ice Cream, Low-Fat Frozen Yogurt, and No-Fat Frozen Yogurt, as a challenge. They are trying to come up with the most original flavors, while trying to maintain the quality, richness, and taste that have made them successful. Ben & Jerry's also takes great care to use milk and cream that come from cows not treated with rBGH, an artificial growth hormone.
             Technological/ Political-Legal.
             Ben & Jerry's is gradually switching over their containers from the traditional cardboard to the ECO-Pint, an environmentally friendly, unbleached paperboard. They are beginning with their #1 selling flavor, World's Best Vanilla. The unbleached packaging material had to meet environmental, commercial, and FDA requirements. A global search was launched to find a material that would bend properly to the rounded shape, as well as, withstand the transporting process and temperatures.