Ben and Jerry's Premium Ice Cream Products Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream is a brand name company known throughout the world. With superior marketing techniques, Ben and Jerry's has positioned itself as a leader in producing high-quality ice cream. They have successfully targeted their market and achieved a strong customer base there. The mission of their product line is "to produce, distribute and sell the highest quality natural ice cream by incorporating healthy, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the earth and the environment."(1)This company is known for being a monopolistic competitor , because there are still many companies and consumers, just like in perfect competition, but they still have control over the price they charge in their company, because Ben and Jerry's ice cream is differentiated from other ice cream companies and they provide a lot of competition not on prices which will be mentioned later in the article. Ben and Jerry's began in 1963 when Ben Cohn and Jerry Greenfield met in gym class at a New York middle school. As they played together, neither of them realized what the future held and it ultimately changed their lives forever. In 1977, Ben and Jerry moved to Burlington, Vermont, and enrolled in an ice cream making course at Penn State, which required an enrollment fee of only five dollars. After their outstanding performance in the class, the two made an initial investment of $12,000 on May 5, 1978 to open their first ice cream shop in Burlington. (1)The small community of Vermont was considered very important to Ben and Jerry and therefore they made sure that the residents of the area benefited from their business venture. For example, they celebrated the company's one-year anniversary by giving away free ice cream cones to the public. In 1980, Ben and Jerry decided to expand the business and move into an old mill where they packaged their ice cream in pints and distributed it to "Mom & Pop" stores. The company's business continued to grow in 1981 when they opened the first Ben and Jerry's Scoop Shop franchise. (1)Today, Ben and Jerry's has expanded into a multimillion-dollar business and continues to open franchises around the world. Keeping their commitment to "Share the Wealth", these two businessmen have supported many charitable organizations including "1% For Peace", "Support Farm Aid" and "One World, One Hear Festival".," (1)