Promoting Pop Culture

Alex Owens

Dr. Streb

Promoting Pop Culture

April 28, 2016

Mister Softee:

        Mister Softee, bringing relief to hot summers and hungry bellies in the form of ice cream and popsicles since 1956. Mister Softee is an ice cream truck company best known for its catchy jingle playing when driving through neighborhoods selling it’s products. According to it’s website (https://mistersoftee.com), “Mister Softee is the largest franchiser of soft ice cream trucks in the United States.” The genius idea that became Mister Softee Inc. saw its first light in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the year of 1956 when two brothers, James and William Conway, decided to sell ice cream in its most mobile fashion. Not long after it’s beginning, James and William Conway moved their company to Runnemede, New Jersey. Runnemede is currently where the headquarters of Mister Softee reside in 2016. Despite the appearance, the Mister Softee website ensures that its trucks are made of high quality, rust free, metal material, in which contains the fabled high efficiency electro freeze soft serve machines that create the ice cream. Mister Softee quickly became a popular sensation.

        Mister Softee’s popularity first spiked when green ice cream was being served from an ice cream truck on St. Patrick’s Day. Now, Mister Softee, according to its website (https://mistersoftee.com), currently has over 350 franchise operators with the current number of soft serve trucks being more than 600 in 15 different states. From a small business beginning in Philadelphia, Mister Softee expanded rather quickly, while selling franchises to willing takers with agreement that no Mister Softee route will intersect with another. Mister Softee was once relatively regional but has expanded a great amount since its beginnings. The furthest a franchise has traveled from its main headquarters is China.

        According to the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/nyregion/15softee.html?_r=0), who appeared to contain the most information about the Chinese franchise, Mister Softee operates in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. Suzhou is located in Mainland China. Turner Sparks with the help of Alex Conway, the grandson of the company’s founder, James, operate this franchise. Turner Sparks was working in China as an English teacher when him and roommate Conway realized that where they lived contained a lack of soft serve ice cream. There was no translation of “Softee” into the area’s native language, Mandarin, so in Suzhou, Mister Softee is simply known as “Mr. Soft Heart” after the translation. Mister Softee China, or Mr. Soft Heart, began in 2007. This franchise, however, is not your traditional American Mister Softee.

        In China, the idea of a truck selling ice cream was beyond strange to its law enforcers. The eccentric idea caused Turner Sparks to jump through very many hoops in order to become established in Suzhou. After clearing all the requirements, “Mr. Soft Heart” trucks were given a very specific route with no wiggle room to diverge. The original Mister Softee jingle is still used, however, it can only be used while parked in contrary to the rules in New York, where Mister Softee can only play his jingle while driving. Sparks and Conway did not just create new trucks, but they also created Mr. Soft Heart kiosks in business districts of Suzhou. At first, the Chinese franchise was not at all popular with the people. The problem was later realized to be what original made Mister Softee so popular, the ice cream. Sparks and Conway were serving American style ice cream that was unusually sweet to the Chinese. In order to find success, new flavors would have to be created to suit the taste of their new target populace. Using all Chinese products aside from the imported American milk, new flavors have been created such as: green tea ice cream, red bean ice cream, kiwi sundaes, and milk tea floats. Since then, the franchise began to boom and in 2008, they began to think expansion. Since then, the only recent article is from an online magazine article dated April 2013. The article says Mr. Soft Heart now has 11 trucks operating with more plans of expansion. Since this article, no others have been produced about the Chinese branch of Mister Softee.

        The most recent article on the Internet from a website called www.eater.com is based around a driver who talks about how working as a Mister Softee driver has become “steady, but slow.” Kids no longer play outside like the generations before would. Summers have become so hot that people would rather stay in a place with air conditioning. Along with that, ice cream has had a new competitor rise to take its crown as top frozen treat.

        Www.bizjournals.com has calculated frozen yogurt to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 20.5% from 2016 to 2020. These numbers are based off an analysis of 5 large businesses along with 25 data exhibits. According to the IDFA or International Dairy Food’s Association’ website, www.idfa.org, from 2013 to 2014, ice cream was on a slow growth of a mere 2.1%. An article from www.mintel.com, which noted the same slow increase in ice cream as the IDFA, also discussed possible trends that may be to blame for the slow ice cream sales and rising sales in alternative options for ice cream.

        Mintel suggests one of the problems to the sluggish ice cream sales is due to the “better-for-you options,” such as frozen yogurt. Mintel claims that consumers appear to be buying less ice cream due to the current rise in health concerns and not because of its rising price. They also propose the lack of flavors found in ice cream in comparison to the frozen yogurt market could cause consumers to hop the fence. While the flavors in ice cream have expanded throughout time, it cannot compete with the wide array of frozen yogurt flavors, which extend from birthday cake batter to various American candies to fruit and vegetables. Mister Softee fails in the category of variety with only vanilla and chocolate soft serve available for consumers, though some say that is all you need. www.forbes.com also agrees with Mintel on the growing health concern being the blame for the rise in ice cream alternatives. Forbes continues on to report drops in sales in companies such as Baskin Robbins who was reported to have fallen from $570 million to $496 million between 2009 and 2011. Also noted on the list that has taken a decrease in sales is the delicious, “high-class” seeming, Coldstone Creamery.