Consumer Goods

People love to shop at places where they feel respected and welcome, and they especially like it when they know the service they're going to get will always exceed their expectations. After all, these are the things that build customer loyalty, one of the most important factors in sustaining a business. Hy-Vee is one such store that people actually like going to. The friendly staff, rich history, and unchanging values help to create a safe haven in our constantly changing world.

The Hy-Vee story is one that begins with a general store in Iowa. Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg founded this quaint little shop in 1930 with the dream of supplying people with basic life necessities. Today that simple general store is known as Hy-Vee, a 200 store grocery chain that can be found all over the Midwest. Hy-Vee is owned by 49,000 employees who work relentlessly to make sure that customers always receive great service and even better prices. This is a company that's staying true to their slogan of "A Helpful Smile In Every Aisle."

The corporate office is still located in Iowa, and it includes a 30,000 square foot meeting center, training facilities, and continuing education resources. Their sales of nearly $5 billion puts them in the top 15 supermarkets in the country, and they've won plenty of customer service awards. For example, in a Consumer Reports survey readers ranked Hy-Vee in the top five nationwide supermarket chains for price, service, and customer satisfaction. The Greater Iowa Better Business Bureau has recognized them with the Integrity Award, and they were also finalists for the Torch Award for Marketplace Integrity. The well known accolades Hy-Vee has received is just one of the reasons people have trusted them for over 75 years.

As unexciting and run of the mill as supermarket chains can be, Hy-Vee is still able to create a worthwhile experience that draws customers back time and time again. The Hy-Vee story is a perfect example of time well spent – for customers as well as employees.

The Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle offers a grand experience for permanent residents and tourists alike. This is a company that arose from nothing to become world famous. How did they do it? By believing in their mission and the experience they create.

The story starts in 1965 when John Yokoyama purchased Pike Place Fish Market. At the time, John was one of several employees of the unassuming fish stand. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to sell the business, John's employer offered him the opportunity to purchase Pike Place Fish. John purchased Pike Place Fish to help make his car payments - amazing how things turned out! Pike Place started as any well branded company does, they decided who they wanted to be. One of the young kids working for John said, "Hey! Let's be World Famous!" this led to talking and to getting excited about being World Famous. John and his team committed to being World Famous, adding "World Famous" to their logo and shipping boxes. So what does being World Famous mean? For Pike Place it means "going beyond just providing outstanding service to people. It means really being present with people and relating to them as human beings." Being World Famous is a lifestyle, a sensibility that all of the employees at Pike Place possess. Bottom line, "it's about taking care of people." And take care of people they do. The Pike Place Fish Market is open, loud, and raw while at the same time being courteous, informative, and friendly.

Going to Pike Place in and of itself is captivating because of its authenticity. From the physical space, to the employees, to the smell, Pike Place is 100% real, no additives or preservatives. And we think they're "world famous" for a couple of reasons. Yes, they have amazing, fresh seafood at incredible prices, but they also offer an experience that money can't buy. The King Crab, Alaskan Salmon, or Rainbow Trout you just bought becomes a starting point for a whole new experience you'll create on your own. Eating is one of the most cross culturally accepted forms of social interaction, and preparing fish is a process oriented activity that breeds communication and creativity. Pike Place is like an Experience Resevoir, they give you the foundational element and then set you free to build your own memories. Who would have thought that an open fish market could create such a holistic experience?

Donald and Susan Sutherland have a passion for ice cream. And not just any ice cream; they're only interested in the finest, smoothest, creamiest ice cream the world has to offer. Frustrated with searching far and wide for the perfect scoop, Donald and Susan opened Cold Stone Creamery in 1988. This one of a kind ice cream shop didn't stay small for long, becoming a franchise in 1995. Today, there are more than 1,000 Cold Stone Creameries in 47 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico, with at least another thousand under development. Cold Stone credits their success to their undying passion for people and ice cream. Cold Stone is definitely, passionately doing something very right.

Cold Stone Creamery offers delicious, customized concoctions that are made fresh in the store everyday. And customers always get exactly what they want thanks to the 'mix-ins' system Cold Stone uses. Here, ice cream gets blended with "mix-ins of nuts, fruits and candy to artistic perfection -- and most importantly to your own exact specifications -- on a frozen stone." Cold Stone knows that once you try one of their frozen creations, you'll be forever committed to the "Ultimate Ice Cream Experience."

So if you're in the mood for something cold and creamy we encourage you to check out Cold Stone Creamery, an ice cream shop that's dedicated to serving an evolved product with an old time feel. The unique granite stone and imported Italian ice cream cabinets that proudly display their one of a kind ice cream, along with the ever-present welcoming reception from employees all work together to make the Cold Stone Creamery experience complete. The Cold Stone Creamery brand is strong, standing alone in a classic market where innovation isn't always welcome (when was the last time the ice cream cone was redesigned), and have proven that giving customers exactly what they want is always a recipe for success.

Most people don't think of grocery stores as being fabulous places. They generally just serve the specific purpose of purchasing food. Publix is a supermarket that's disrupting the notion of a traditional grocery store, proving that grocery shopping can indeed be an enlightening experience.

Publix was founded by George W. Jenkins 76 years ago in Winter Haven, Florida. They currently have over 800 locations in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee, and have grown to be a Fortune 500 company. Publix is one of the fastest growing privately held, employee owned companies in the country, and they're always working hard to please their customers. For the twelfth year in a row, Publix Super Markets are the highest-ranking supermarket for customer satisfaction according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Not only is Publix a nice place to shop, but they also have some pretty cool programs like Apron's and Green Wise.

Apron's is all about enjoying food and making cooking fun. Whether you're taking cooking classes hosted by culinary experts or downloading easy recipes from their website, Apron's wants you to know that preparing good food is within everybody's reach. Their GreenWise program features a market along with a magazine dedicated to helping you live healthier. GreenWise products are free of artificial ingredients, additives, pesticides, and growth hormones, and provide a cost effective alternative to national brand organic food products. Inside the monthly GreenWise Market Magazine you'll find health news, diet and exercise plans, and articles about what you can do to live better. The magazine can be found online for free, or you can pick one up at any Publix GreenWise Market (the print version contains coupons).

Publix is a good example of a business that builds success from the ground up. Employees have the best in mind for their customers because they really care, and customers love going to Publix because they know the employees do care.

What do you do if you're a leading international company looking to sustain growth while innovating for the future? Follow the Danone way! Danone is a unique company that tirelessly researches healthier, tastier foods for its consumers while providing a fascinating melting pot for their multinational and multicultural customer base. As emphases shift, Danone is staying on top with a foundation built on truth and sincerity, community, and responsibility.

Danone has enjoyed significant growth recently thanks to their three core values: a strong health/well-being positioning, new consumption opportunities including time and places, and the dynamic growth of emerging countries. Danone's web site offers videocasts that consult you on your health, growth, and energy that are personalized to your specific needs based on results built off of a diagnostic survey. Danone even has an online pediatrician who offers suggestions for protecting children from illness's prevalent to particular seasons and climates. From relaxing exercises to proper alimentation, Danone helps people get on track by providing them with healthy alternatives to fast food and unhealthy meals.

One of Danone's new programs, entitled "Danone and You," provides three different sources for making healthy meals, living right, and having a healthier life. This program includes a guide that teaches specific health principles, a magazine that features practical counsel for good recipes and meal plans, and a website where users can follow a recipe by watching a video. Danone's focus is building people's personal abilities and educating them on what makes a healthy lifestyle so that they can make their own decisions in the future.

Danone recognizes people's desires to lead healthy lives and subsequently continue to develop organic products and other smart food options. A large part of their success can be found in their balance between sustainable marketing methods and innovative approaches to selling. Today nearly 31% of their sales come from emerging markets. This brings them close to their target goal which is to have 40% of their business come from emerging markets and 60% of their sales from developed market fields. This division ultimately creates a balanced presence that means Danone benefits from both the high potential of developing economies and the steady demand of more mature markets. By being so actively involved in the lower tier of the market (developing countries), Danone assures a healthy position in many new fields of interest. Danone calls this attitude "curiosity," it is their level of awareness, looking ahead and being attuned to others, and refusing to accept ideas and models that have already been "set in stone".

Danone not only offers a unique online community to their users, they also emphasize the education and development of their workers. Many of their employees have the opportunity to receive educational certificates, making their experience much more valuable than just another job. Danone believes that there can't be sustained economic performance without personal and professional development for individuals. This attitude of progression, passion for development, and learning pervades every aspect of Danone's business and is recognized by customers who remain attracted to their investment in the needs of our world.

Dylan Lauren has always loved candy. So much that she's devoted 10,000 square feet of retail bliss in Manhattan to it. Dylan, and partner Jeff Rubin started Dylan's Candy Bar in 2001 as a candy wonderland that can rival the likes of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. In addition to the wide array of sweets (the grandest selection in the world), Dylan's Candy Bar attracts customers using an appropriate soundtrack of songs like "Brown Sugar" and "I Want Candy," scents of chocolate, and an old-time candy shop feel on the first floor.

Founded upon the principles of elevating a simple candy shop to a world-class destination, Dylan's Candy Bar merges the worlds of art, popular culture, and fashion with candy. This swanky New York candy retreat offers more than 5,000 varieties of candy, from imported and elegant specialty goods to novelty items. In addition to the mouthwatering varieties of sweets, Dylan's Candy Bar flagship store features a café, a private party room, nostalgic shoppe, candy spa, and lifestyle boutique filled with unique, candy related gifts.

Dylanscandybar.com extends the candy store's sweet adventure online with an unparalleled shopping experience that has something for everyone. Imaginative, interactive and inviting, dylanscandybar.com is a virtual playground for the young and young at heart! An all-around aesthetic delight, this colorful, magical emporium is guaranteed to melt the hearts of even the most sophisticated shoppers.

Dylan and Jeff have found a way to take people (even youngsters) back to the good old days. Creating nostalgia is a good way to win customers, because people just need to be reminded of the simpler things in life every once in a while - and it can't get much simpler than a handful of M&M's. By creating an experience that triggers a strong mental (and even emotional response), Dylan's Candy Bar is sure to be a winner in candy, retail, and tourism markets.

Food Facility is a "working prototype restaurant where the central kitchen is replaced by kitchens of existing take-out restaurants in the area." Sounds cool, doesn't it? Basically, Food Facility is a social/dining experiment with a twist of performance art. Designer Marti Guixe sees Food Facility as the opportunity to deconstruct the idea of a restaurant, thereby altering the foundation of what we perceive to be a traditional cultural and culinary experience.

Food Facility centers around two main players, the Food Adviser and the Food DJ. Simply put, the food adviser advises you on the quality and estimated delivery time of the different take-out dinners available and will place the order for you, while the Food DJ receives the order from the scooter delivery boys and will do away with the abundance of wrapping materials before the food adviser serves it to you at your table. What you end up with is a full service dining experience that parallels "the virtual possibilities promised by search engines like Google or Yahoo."

While this idea seems a bit avant-garde to most, it's actually not new. For example, in 1990, the legendary Supperclub (Netherlands) and Chef Thor Vos organized an evening where the food was ordered from various take-out restaurants, including Mc Donalds. And in China, select street corner vendors work in the same style, selling food that's ordered from little take-out kitchens in the neighborhood. The only thing they provide is chopsticks, a small plastic kitchen table and a chair.

So where does the performance art aspect of Food Facility come in? Food Facility was set up like an exhibit in that it ran for a limited time (November 4th through December 11th) and was only open Fridays and Saturdays from 6 to 10 PM. Restricted timeframes often encourage a sense of immediacy, illustrating to potential patrons that this is a transient experience not to be missed. The unique customer experience Food Facility offers makes them stand out in the overly saturated market of restaurants, proving that there's always room for innovation.

Consumers across the world are getting "health-wise," and becoming much more aware of what they eat. We all want to enjoy the lifestyles that we work so hard to create, and this means getting healthy and eating right. Nowhere is this more prevalent than amongst sports enthusiasts who are benefiting from new research into nutrition and how we can maximize its benefits.

One of those enthusiasts was Gary Erickson. During an intense bike ride in the early 90's Erickson decided he was sick of the run-of-the-mill energy bars that tasted like cardboard. He realized that it is really hard to enjoy nutrition that has the taste and texture of saw dust, so Erickson borrowed his mom's kitchen and emerged triumphantly two years later with the organically satisfying Clif Bar - a nutrition bar that's packed with nutrients, derived from natural products, and tastes fantastic. Since then the Clif Bar Company has expanded to include nine high-energy products, including energy drinks and gels, designed for people involved in a variety of activities.

Not only is eating a Clif Bar a great way to satisfy those afternoon snack cravings (the ones in which you usually end up downing a whole bag of potato chips accidentally), but it's also a good way to help support the environment, seeing as how Clif uses lots of recycled packaging and clean energy to help power it's factory. The main attraction of Clif Bar is its use of organic, natural ingredients that provide raw power for health conscious snackers. Cyclists and runners can't get enough of these awesome products, but the rapidly growing number of health conscious people is being drawn like bees to this healthy, diet friendly range of snacks. Even groups like the Peace Corps have started using Clif products because the nutrition value is so high. It's not surprising that Clif was recognized by Inc. Magazine as the fastest growing private company for four straight years starting in 1997.

Clif has certainly been successful in changing the way people think about nutritional supplements, and are setting new benchmarks in the industry. But they're also changing the way people think about healthy treats, illustrating that healthy can taste great. Clif has also built a powerful corporate experience that builds on the strong socially responsible brand they have. The facilities of the Clif Bar Company embrace a healthy lifestyle, with yoga classes, dogs, and a climbing wall encouraging employees to remember that life should be fun! They have also set up a program where employees can participate in various service organizations. Outside of this they are involved in the organization of sports events. They have launched some unique sports events, and also run nutrition seminars. They also arrange Clif experiences where enthusiasts can participate in specially organized adventures such as sea kayaking in Belize. All of these experiences, as well as Clif's focus on sustainability, in business and in the world, has made them a highly respected innovator in the field of nutrition. And as always this focused strategy is helping to keep clients flocking back in ever increasing numbers.

You know you want to eat more fruits and vegetables, drop that ten pounds of Extra Holiday Goodness, and dedicate yourself to a healthier, happier lifestyle. Well sure, that sounds great, but where do you find the time? Thanks to Jamba Juice it's easier than you might think. Jamba Juice was started by avid cyclist, Kirk Perron, fifteen years ago when he longed for a healthy treat to satisfy his entire being after long bike rides. Sadly, there wasn't anyone who could provide fulfillment for his nutritional needs, so he decided to do it for himself. Jamba Juice offers a variety of smoothies, juices, and blends all ready to be "boosted" with extra vitamins for a personalized dose of peace of mind. Yet it is not just health that is drawing droves of people to Jamba (after all, just look at the lines at their stores), but also a tantalizing taste experience. Jambalicicous!

In addition to the tasty goodness that Jamba offers, they also host a variety of races, triathlons, and athletic youth programs dedicated to physical health and wellness. Jamba Juice has found a profitable way to make health fun and easy. No more unsatisfying wheat grass shakes, and no more joint damaging runs on that rusty treadmill that has been acting as a laundry depository for the last few years. We like Jamba Juice because they focus on flavor just as much as they focus on mind, body, and community wellness. The Jamba Juice brand communicates that a healthy lifestyle is hip (and tasty), and is a good example of a company that stands for something greater than just the products and services they offer.

If you think all sandwich shops are the same, think again. Which Wich is proving that the fast food industry doesn't have to be tired or boring, in fact it can be fun, on trend, well designed, and tasty. Which Wich arose from the need Jeff Sinelli had to create a unique brand of hot sandwiches, simple, to the point sandwiches that satisfied people's hunger in a time friendly format. And that's what Which Wich is today, a sandwich shop that's committed to "creating the best hot wiches available anywhere." Which Wich has a huge selection of more than 40 varieties of sandwiches, all made to order just for you.

Part of the reason this company is one to pay attention to is because of their unique ordering system. Which Wich features preprinted menus on sandwich bags that each customer fills out according to his or her own tastes. Each menu consists of 10 different categories including bread type, cheese, meat, and spreads. And while this is a time efficient way to get the job done, it also lends itself to a fun, fresh, interactive experience. Which Wich has one price for all of their sandwiches, regardless of how you choose to dress up (or dress down) your selection. They promise that their restaurants are as appetizing as their food, and feature modern, environmentally responsible design elements with a mix of tunes produced by Aware Records. Which Wich strives to tickle all five senses and is continually working to make sure that each new customer comes back for more.