Earlier this week Blue Bell Creameries returned after a months-long hiatus that was prompted by a listeria outbreak, which The Center for Disease Control and Prevention ultimately connected to 10 cases, 3 of which resulted in deaths. In that time, the Brenham, Texas-based company shuttered its 4 production facilities to clean and update its equipment and now it’s slowly returning to Texas shelves and people are people are flocking to stores to get some. KWBU’s Carlos Morales has more on what's driving Texans’ true blue loyalty.
Walking into H-E-B, shoppers stroll through the freezer aisle and stop in front the freezer aisle and read a note. It lets customers know that the grocery store is expecting Blue Bell to return to Waco sometime from mid- to late-September.
One of those customers carefully perusing the ice cream section is 65-year-old retiree Michael Mallott. For him ice cream is just ice cream – it’s all the same. But his wife and daughter-in-law, he says, have their preferences: Blue Bell.
“They were totally ecstatic when they heard that it was coming back to the stores," Mallott says. "They told me I had to go out and find some right away just because it was Blue Bell ice cream and that was the best ice cream in the world."
Mallott says they don’t seem too worried about any health scares, or the potential of another listeria contamination. But why's that? Is it some intrinsic Texan quality to love Blue Bell?
To find out just how Blue Bell Ice Cream was able to weather the storm of a listeria outbreak and why Texans are so forgiving, we turn to Chris Pullig. Pullig is a professor and chair of the marketing department at Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business.
“I think what really made the Blue Bell brand successful in surviving this crisis was really this beloved, heritage-based associations that are not related to the functionality of the product per se," Pullig says. "But they make it to where we’re much more likely to forgive the brand and research shows that brands that are loved are more likely to be forgiven.”
And that’s what Pullig’s research has found. One article, published in the Journal of Academy of Marketing Science looked at a brand’s ability to endure negative publicity. And with Blue Bell, Pullig says, it’s the brand’s outside outside associations, like fond memories of having the ice cream as a kid that have insulated the brand from harm. Ultimately, we buy things for 3 reasons: For the benefits or the functions the product serves; for symbolic benefits, that is, it makes us feel good about who we are; and also for hedonic reasons.
“These are, you know, reasons just based on pleasure," Pullig says. "So, one of the things we like about Blue Bell, for example, is it has these flavors that maybe are kind of whimsical or reminds us of our childhood – so those are reasons we buy the product as well. When you think of a product like a Blue Bell, it actually hits on all of those products – it definitely, flavors are great, it tastes good, and for the most part it’s reliable.”
That reliability was called into question in several months ago when a listeria contamination was found at the company’s production facilities. On April 20th Blue Bell voluntarily recalled all of its products and eventually closed its facilities to undergo cleaning and equipment updates, which led to roughly 1,400 full-time and part-time Blue Bell employees being laid off.
The company’s return to stores in Texas and parts of the Southeast is part of a 5-phase plan – which Waco is part of Phase 2. But with only one production plant operating right now, it’s going to take some time before it returns to the Heart of Texas.
In a video posted on the creamery’s website, Ricky Dickson, the vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Bell said operating one production facility has limited the ice cream’s complete return.
“It’s like trying to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool with a garden hose. It can be done, it’s just going to take some time," Dickson says.
And time, has been another invaluable benefit for the company's gradual return.