häagen dazs lied to us
The terroir model is a French denomination strategy that specifies the geographical provenance of a particular product as part of its added value. Validating its origin, connecting the geographical soil to a specific set of traditions, means that customers all over the world associate the terroir model with reliable quality and higher prices. This model exists in the United States as well: lobster from Maine, maple syrup from Vermont, weed from California. But are Americans proud of connecting their products to their provenance in the same way many Europeans are?
There is an obvious historical element embedded within the terroir model. Kingdoms and revolutions have come and gone but the traditions associated with particular geographic settings have remained the same. Soil, as a physical space, allows for the development of local traditions. Eventually, these traditions form heritage, and a region becomes famous for producing a specific item. Because Europe is the “Old Continent,” its producers and agricultural workers have inherited the ability to profit from the amount of time in which they’ve been considered a consolidated community.
The United States, on the other hand, is referred to as the “New Continent,” properly established approximately 300 years ago. In addition to this, the cultural diversity that North Americans enjoy exists because of the migration waves that took place after the First and Second World Wars. This creates a disconnect between culture and geography, meaning soil and place don’t carry the same value that they do in France or the rest of Europe. No war has been fought on American soil. The U.S. doesn’t know what it feels like to have its fields destroyed and its population hungry. The French have fought battles in their homeland, they’ve had their soil taken from them, and it’s only through losing something that human beings recognize the value in it. This is the reason why terroir will never be as important in the US as it is in Europe.
However, the U.S. has developed its own terroir system. Trademarked items, branded and marketed throughout the entire country, strive to instill in customers the same commitment to product as the terroir model. Because geography in the U.S. can’t be connected to concepts of identity as readily as they can in Europe, trademarks build identities for their products through creative ad campaigns. The ice-cream brand Haagen Dazs is a perfect example of this phenomenon.
The name alone, Haagen Dazs, suggests European origin. The packaging, the advertising strategy, they tell the consumer that the ice cream is a Dutch product. However, if you open the “History” tab on the Haagen Dazs website you’ll read:
“Reuben Mattus, a young entrepreneur with a passion for quality and a vision for creating the finest ice cream, worked in his mother's ice cream business selling fruit ice and ice cream pops from a horse-drawn wagon in the bustling streets of the Bronx, New York.”
Haagen Dazs, despite its branding, was created in the United States. Many consumers don’t know this and think they’re paying for overpriced ice cream because it comes from the “Old Continent,” a land of tradition. This example shows how the U.S. relies on branding as its own version of terroir.
Terroir has also made its way into American food culture through the farmers market. At the farmers market, customers shake hands with the people who grow their food, and are willing to pay more because of it. They come to prize produce from specific farms or regions. This hyper local approach seems to contradict every model of U.S. consumption, and it’s an impressive shift away from the Walmart/Costco culture that’s prevalent. But, to what extent do we interpret “local” as terroir?
This leads us back to ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s was created by a couple of entrepreneurs in Vermont. From the start, they worked hard to connect the brand to their home by claiming the milk used in the ice cream came from cows that pasture in the state. But, their product isn’t called “Ice-Cream from Vermont,” as you would expect from the terroir model. The product is Ben & Jerry’s, and Vermont is more of a subordinate reference. This is an example in which the product’s origin merges with a brand identity, which is interesting when one considers that customers outside of Vermont wouldn’t know that cows in Vermont are particularly remarkable unless they tried Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. (Is there an opposite of terroir? Would that be even possible?)
In conclusion, the United States is developing its own unique terroir model through trademarked products. Branding, in some cases, proves itself more effective than verified provenance when connecting a specific product to a specific geographical location. U.S. consumers don’t share the same commitment to heritage and soil as Europeans because of their still new relationship to their land and country. I wonder what would change in the U.S. if people spent the same amount of time cultivating land as they did developing brand identities. I believe the situation comes down to the consumer’s ability to recognize where a product comes from, with or without the denomination of origin being explicitly specified, whether or not that relates to quality is a different story.
Note from the author (2023)
Si alguna vez en tu vida has tenido la osadía de conversar conmigo de branding, sabes que seguro namedroppeado el ejemplo de Haagen Dazs. Me encanta. Este ensayo académico, un tanto businessero en realidad, fue el origen de toda esa obsesión.
Estaba llevando un electivo de historia llamado Food and Culture In The Mediterranean, me sentaba atrás con mi amigo Pat. Fabio, nuestro profesor, un italiano que dictaba clases con three-piece suit, nos dejaba escribir lo que queramos. Yo quise analizar la diferencia entre el branding en Europa y Estados Unidos, pensando en la diferencia entre la denominación de origen y la que debe ser fabricada por un estudio de diseño y un buen equipo de Marketing.
Sobretodo, quise hablar de helados porque siguen siendo mi postre favorito, aunque hoy en día sea intolerante a la lactosa.
