Pinkberry
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| Pinkberry Corporation | |
|---|---|
| Type | Franchise |
| Founded | January 2005 in West Hollywood |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Key people | Hye Kyung (Shelly) Hwang, President Young Lee, Co-President |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Products | Frozen yogurt style Smoothies Shaved ice |
| Website | Pinkberry.com |
Pinkberry is an upscale franchise of frozen dessert restaurants headquartered in Los Angeles, California. There are currently 50 stores, mostly located in Southern California with twelve in New York City.
The first store opened in January 2005 by Korean Americans Shelly Hwang and Young Lee.[1] The tart, frozen dessert has a groupie-like following who sometimes refer to it as "Crackberry".[1] The company acknowledges its cult-like following by maintaining a "groupie corner" on its website. When the company was the subject of an American Express commercial for a new "Plum Card" aimed at mid-sized business owners in 2007, the commercial stated that "it's amazing how in just three years, [Hwang and Lee] created a cultural phenomenon".
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[edit] History
Hwang's first business venture was to open a formal English teahouse on a tiny residential street called Huntley Drive in West Hollywood, California. However, after the city refused to approve a permit for Hwang and her business partner, architect Young Lee, they decided to go with their second plan, which was a frozen yogurt concept reviving the craze of the '80s.[2] People were soon driving across town and standing in line for up to 20 to 30 minutes to get their fix of "the taste that launched 1,000 parking tickets".[1] The second store opened in September of 2006, and since then, stores have been springing up all over Southern California and also branches in New York. On October 16, 2007, the firm took in an $27.5M investment from Maveron, the venture fund founded by Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, to expand the firm's concept nationwide.[3] Beginning in late 2007, Pinkberry began appearing in advertisements for American Express' new Plum Card, with Pinkberry and the card described by actress Lauren Graham in a voiceover. In an attempt to add an air of exclusivity to its new product, Amex claimed to create an initial run of only 10,000 of these cards.[4] Pinkberry (according to the ad) was issued card #1170.
[edit] Menu
Pinkberry's menu consists of Original, Green Tea and Coffee (introduced in January 2008, for their third-year anniversary) flavored frozen yogurt style desserts, in three sizes: Small (5 oz), Medium (8 oz) and Large (13 oz). Other products offered include Shaved Ice, with fresh fruit or green tea, and two types of smoothies. Pinkberry dessert contains per 1/2 cup 70 calories (for Original), 90 calories (for Coffee), and 50 calories (for Green Tea), zero fat and 5 grams of sugar (1.4 teaspoons). Fruit toppings, cut fresh on-site, include: strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, banana, kiwi, mango, and pineapple. There are also a variety of dry toppings to choose from, including: almonds, carob chips, chestnuts (new topping), chocolate chips, Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, coconut, mochi (rice cakes), yogurt chips, cookies 'n cream, granola, and Cap'n Crunch. Pinkberry has introduced seasonal flavors like pomegranate seeds and lychee for holiday and summer seasons.
[edit] Nutrition facts
A single serving of Pinkberry "Original Frozen Yogurt" is 1/2 cup. All offerings on the menu are larger than a single serving.[5]
| Size | # of Servings | Cups | Calories | Sugar (in grams) | Sugar (in teaspoons) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 1.4 | 0.7 | 98 | 16.8 | About 4 |
| Medium | 2.2 | 1.1 | 154 | 26.4 | About 6 |
| Large | 3.6 | 1.8 | 252 | 43.2 | About 10 |
The following nutrition information applies to a half-cup of original Pinkberry frozen yogurt:
- Calories 70
- Calories from Fat 0
- Total fat 0g
- Saturated fat 0g
- Trans fat 0g
- Cholesterol 5mg
- Sodium 55mg
- Total carbohydrate 14g
- Dietary fiber 0g
- Sugars 12g
- Protein 3g
- Vitamin A 0%
- Vitamin C 8%
- Calcium 10%
- Iron 0%[5]
Pinkberry's Original Frozen Yogurt is fat-free. The addition of toppings adds calories, sugar, and fat.
[edit] Competitors
The company's success has led to complaints of congestion and littering near its stores and the launching of several competitors including Swirls, kiwiberri, Berri Good, Yogelina, Yogurberry, Red Mango, Yolato and many others. This emergence of competition is fueled in part by companies such as CIELO USA, which manufactures and distributes yogurt powder to businesses aspiring to be the next Pinkberry.[6] This is unsurprising, given industry estimates that a single store receives more than 1,500 customers per day and can bring in $250,000 a month.[7] Many frozen yogurt aficionados suggest that Pinkberry itself is a copycat of the frozen yogurt giant Red Mango, based in South Korea, which recently entered the United States with locations in Westwood Village, Venice, Northridge, Irvine, Palo Alto, Las Vegas and a new location in New York City (on 14th St.)[8]
[edit] Store design
Some attribute the company's success to its appealing combination of low-sugar, low-fat cool dessert in a designer environment with Philippe Starck furniture and Le Klint lighting.[9] A pastel color palette is used for the walls and natural pebbles line the floor. The official website is designed by LA-based design firm Ferroconcrete.[10]
[edit] Controversy
Originally marketed as frozen yogurt, Pinkberry has recently faced complaints that its product does not meet the California Department of Food and Agriculture's definition of frozen yogurt because it does not contain the necessary amount of bacterial cultures per ounce. The Los Angeles Times sent samples of Pinkberry's product to a lab and revealed that Pinkberry did contain active yogurt cultures, but it does not contain the minimum amount of culture to call itself frozen yogurt, according to California state law.[11] According to the Los Angeles Times, Pinkberry's product had only 69,000 bacterial cultures per gram, compared to 200,000 for Baskin-Robbins. The National Yogurt Association (NYA) established its own criteria for live and active culture yogurt. In order for manufacturers to carry their Live and Active Culture seal, refrigerated yogurt products must contain at least 100 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture, and frozen yogurt products must contain 10 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture. This level was based on a survey of leading research scientists involved in clinical studies of the health attributes associated with live and active culture yogurt.[12]
The Pinkberry jingle heard on their website is sung by the 80's musician Tigra, from L'Trimm. Apparently in response to a recent lawsuit against Pinkberry claiming that Pinkberry's product is not "real yogurt", Pinkberry removed all lyrics to this jingle on their website except for the words "Pinkberry", which repeats over and over again at the chorus (prior to this change, the jingle had lyrics that characterized their product as "yogurt", and compared their product as better than ice cream).[13]
The unproven health benefits attributed to yogurt that were previously posted on the walls of Pinkberry (e.g., cures colon cancer, fights yeast infections) have been removed.[14]
Pinkberry appears to have altered its dessert recipe and has now earned the right to call its product real yogurt. Pinkberry officially received the Live and Active Cultures Seal from the National Yogurt Association on April 17, 2008, almost 3 years after the initial "real yogurt" lawsuit was filed.[15]
[edit] Publicity and Advertising
Most of the advertising for Pinkberry has been via "word of mouth." The company has received recent publicity with an advertising spot on a commercial for the American Express Plum Card. The product was additionally spotlighted by Ellen DeGeneres in January 2008 when each of the 600 guests in the audience of The Ellen DeGeneres Show were treated to cups of Pinkberry.[16]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Netburn, Deborah. "The Taste That Launched 1,000 Parking Tickets", Los Angeles Times, 2006-08-04. Retrieved on 2007-01-25.
- ^ Pinkberry's Success Story - Small Biz Scene (usnews.com)
- ^ Pinkberry Raises $27.5M | socalTECH.com
- ^ American Express Launches Plum Card for Small Business Owners — Careersthatdontsuck.com
- ^ a b Pinkberry website
- ^ Steinhauer, Jennifer. "Heated Competition, Steaming Neighbors. This Is Frozen Yogurt?", New York Times, 2007-02-21. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
- ^ Boyle, Matthew. "It Came From Los Angeles", Fortune Magazine, 2007-05-25. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ Los Angeles Business Journal Online - business news and information for los angeles california
- ^ Feldman, Lindsay. "'Pinkberry Concept' of Yogurt Gets Set To Infuse Manhattan", The New York Sun, 2007-02-26. Retrieved on 2007-04-21.
- ^ Ferroconcrete
- ^ Yoshino, Kimi. "Pinkberry passes test, but cold war goes on", The Los Angeles Times, 2007-06-21. Retrieved on 2007-06-21.
- ^ AboutYogurt.com : Live & Active Culture Yogurt : Live and Active Culture (LAC) Yogurt Facts
- ^ Dessert Trend: What's In Pinkberry? : NPR
- ^ "Pinkberry's Legal Jam", LAObserved.com, 2007-06-14. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ "After Three Years, Pinkberry Finally Approved as 'Frozen Yogurt'", seriouseats.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-17.
- ^ Company Doctor: Is Pinkberry a fad or a trend? - Small Business Times
- Yoshino, Kimi. "Pinkberry in Culture Clash", Los Angeles Times, 2007-05-10. Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
- "Mice on the loose in frozen yogurt store", WABC-TV Channel 7 New York, NY, 2007-06-18. Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
- Maese, Kathryn. "Little Tokyo's Cold War", Los Angeles Downtown News, 2007-06-04. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.
