If you're an ice cream shop owner/operator, you may think that upgrading your hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough pieces that have been available for decades, isn't a good business idea because "that edible cookie dough fad has worn off". 

To be blunt, this is a mistake. It fails to recognize what the fad actually was, and will result in you missing out on an asset that can transform your good ice cream shop into a great one. 

There is a wide spectrum of how an ice cream shop can use edible cookie dough to build their brand appeal with consumers. And your competitors are moving into the more lucrative area of that spectrum. 

On one far end of the spectrum is the "boring" area. This is the area where ice cream shops only offer the hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough pieces, either as an inclusion in their ice cream flavors, or as a topping.

This is a tried and proven place to be, as 99%+ of ice cream shops exist in this area, and have for decades. But despite the safety of being in that area, it has gotten boring for your customers.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is the "too far" area. This is the area where an entrepreneur can take their focus on edible cookie dough to the extreme. In a business taken to this extreme, if a customer doesn't want cookie dough, there's not much else being offered in the store that appeals to them. The store only appeals to a specific niche. 

Cookie dough "scoop shops" took it too far!

It is in the "too far" area of the spectrum where the recent cookie dough fad existed. The fad began in January of 2017 when Kristen Tomlan opened up Do - Cookie Dough Confections in Manhattan NY. Edible cookie dough was the entire focus of her shop.

She claimed (and her website still makes the claim even today) that she created the world's first edible cookie dough company. It takes a certain level of ignorance to claim that given she opened 11 months after Cookie Dough Creamery, 6 years after Cookie Dough Cafe, and even 23 years after Cookie Dough Creations, just to name a few of the many edible cookie dough companies that existed for years, and even decades before her. 

She did offer ice cream in her shop, but it was just a flavor or two, kind of like an "oh yeah, we have that too" offering. It was not an ice cream shop. No one would think of her store when they are thinking of where they should go to satisfy a craving for some good ice cream. 

She created social media videos and Instagram posts about her cookie dough focused shop that went viral, not only in New York, but across the country, and even around the world. And within weeks copycat shops began to open here and there. Within months copycat shops were opening up everywhere. By 2018 the fad was in full hype mode. Check out the June 26th, 2018 article: "The Best Edible Cookie Dough In Every State". 

So, while Kristen Tomlan's Do was not the first edible cookie dough company like she claims, she absolutely can take credit for creating the fad of "scoop shops that focused entirely on edible cookie dough". The slew of cookie dough scoop shops that existed everywhere were copycats of her non-ice cream business model. 

But I don't know if being able to take credit for that is something she should be proud of. Because by the middle of 2019 the cracks in the fad she created began to form. And a lot of entrepreneurs who copied her shop ended up over the next few years losing their shirts financially.  

The largest chain of edible cookie dough scoop shops during the fad was called Dough Life. It was originally called Dough Boyz but they had to change it, probably for trademark infringement reasons. They claimed to have over 50 franchised locations across the country, and given the Yelp data available, their claims appeared to be true. But by the end of summer 2019, the corporate arm of the franchise suddenly went silent and just seemed to disappear. And Yelp began to show their locations closing, just as quick as they opened up. The fad was dying. 

What was the actual fad that died?

The fad was not "edible cookie dough" itself. Edible cookie dough has existed for decades (thanks to Ben & Jerry). And it will continue on being a favorite treat of many, especially as it continues to evolve even more. The fad was actually "shops focused entirely on cookie dough", a non-ice cream shop business model that Kristen Tomlan originated and took viral.

The same kind of fad could potentially happen if an Instagram happy entrepreneur opened up a shop focused entirely on French fries. With a similar viral boost added to it, you'd see copycat French fry shops popping up just as quick. And within a year these artisan French fry focused shops would be everywhere. 

And just like cookie dough and anything else, people will try these new shops once. Maybe even twice. But it will die as a fad if the business model can't produce a steady stream of frequent, repeat customers, which artisan French fry focused businesses have proven they can't do. French fry focused shops only work in certain niche places like heavily crowded tourist areas or in sporting event stadiums, which is also where cookie dough focused scoop shops only seem to work too. 

But does the inability of the French fry to stand on its own as the focus of a mainstream located restaurant mean that French fries are a bad product for mainstream located restaurants? Au contraire my French coinsurer! French fries have proven to be a significant business asset for restaurants. A good restaurant can be turned into a great restaurant simply by having great French fries.

The Business Asset of French Fries

Did you know that in the early 1980's Chick-fil-A was struggling so bad that their founder and CEO Truett Cathy went without a paycheck for a year to keep the company afloat? But then in 1985 they upgraded their fries to their now famous waffle fries, sales in turn increased, and the rest is history.

And did you know that Dick and Mac McDonald accidently stumbled upon a way to make better French fries? When they first switched their San Bernadino BBQ stand to a hamburger stand in 1948, they sold prepackaged potato chips with their burgers instead of French fries. It was only after they switched to a burger stand and were open for a while that they realized they needed to upgrade from bagged potato chips. When they decided to ditch the chips and make their own French fries, their sales volume of fries ended up being so much larger than their sales volume of potato chips that they found that they did not have the room to store the amount of potatoes they needed in their small stand. So, they built a custom storage unit behind their stand where the potatoes were actually stored outside. The stored potatoes were protected from animals by nothing more than a system of wire mesh. 

It was not until 1955, when Ray Kroc built his first location of McDonalds in Des Plaines, IL that everyone realized that the McDonald brothers had accidently stumbled upon a better way to make French fries. When Kroc and his staff in Illinois did everything they were taught to do by the McDonalds brothers, the French fries they produced were not the same.  In fact, they were down right disappointing. They were not the crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside fries that the McDonalds brothers were making out in California. This was a disaster in Kroc's eyes and he wanted a solution ASAP!

After many resources were brought in to investigate the problem it was realized by a 3rd party food scientist that the McDonald brothers storing their potatoes outside, with the desert air being able to circulate around the stored potatoes, was the key to creating better French fries. With Illinois not having the same climate as the California desert, Kroc had to create a system in his building's basement to aerate the stored potatoes in a similar fashion before they could be made into the same well loved product the McDonald brothers were making in California. As Kroc admitted in his biography, the most important product that drove McDonalds' success was their crisp and fluffy French fries. So every McDonalds location in the Kroc franchise system was doing this for years in their basements until they switched to processing facilities to do it for them. And again, the rest is history. 

Cookie dough is to ice cream shops as French fries are to fast food restaurants. Cookie dough, nor French fries, should ever be the entire focus of a business (even at McDonalds and Chick-fil-A). But both French fries and cookie dough are business assets that can absolutely turn good businesses into great ones. 

How is edible cookie dough a business asset similar to French fries?

Earlier I talked about two sides of the cookie dough spectrum. I mentioned the "boring" area, and the "too far" area. What I didn't mention is that in the middle is the "exciting" area. And currently 99%+ of ice cream shops do not exist in the "exciting" area. They're missing out! They still exist in the "boring" area.

For every single one of them, the opportunity exists for the owner/operator to do what Truett Cathy intentionally did for Chick-fil-A, and Dick and Mac accidently did for McDonalds, and turn their good businesses into great ones, simply by moving their cookie dough offering out of the boring area of the spectrum and into the exciting area. 

Improved Texture

First of all, texture is just as important to edible cookie dough as it is to French fries, as well as pretty much any food you can think of. Every food has an optimal texture for your customers.

French fries existed for decades before methods were discovered to improve the texture of French fries. Once those methods were discovered, if your business didn't adopt the new method for improving the texture, your competition now had an advantage over you. 

And the same is true of edible cookie dough. When Ben & Jerry created the first edible cookie dough in the 1980's for their new ice cream flavor, they just accepted the natural texture that occurs when cookie dough is refrigerated (or frozen). And that texture is hard, stiff, and crumbly. 

We lived with this hard, stiff, and crumbly texture of cookie dough for decades. Neither Ben & Jerry, nor any other company copying what they made, had deviated from this natural hard, stiff, and crumbly texture of cookie dough when refrigerated.... that is until Cookie Dough Creamery in 2016. 

Before launching Cookie Dough Creamery, at the request of her husband Rob, Kelly discovered a way of making edible cookie dough with a texture that is better than the hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough we've been consuming for decades. The cookie dough made with Kelly's Famous Cookie Dough Mixes maintain a soft texture even when refrigerated. This simple change produces the experience the majority of consumers want when they eat edible cookie dough.

The Kelly's Famous Cookie Dough Mixes soft texture replicates the customer's experience of sneaking a spoonful from the bowl behind mom’s back when they were a kid. When they did that, the cookie dough was soft. They could push it with their tongue up into the roof of their mouth. They could feel, and even taste it in their cheeks. That is the texture most people want to experience from edible cookie dough. 

So the first step of moving into the exciting area of the edible cookie dough spectrum is improving the texture. You could accomplish a soft texture by simply serving it at room temperature like mom's was in her kitchen, but your local health department will likely balk at that. Most local health departments want anything that contains raw dairy (butter) kept refrigerated. Or you can easily offer soft when refrigerated edible dookie doughs thanks to Kelly's Famous Cookie Dough Mixes.

The second step to move into the exciting area of the edible cookie dough spectrum is determining what to offer. 

Improved Offerings

Your new cookie dough offering could simply be just replacing those hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough pieces you offer as a topping or an inclussion, with just one flavor of edible cookie dough that you make fresh in your store. Just that one step takes you out of the boring area, and into an area that your customers at the very least will find interesting and appealing.

Some restaurants have regular customers simply because of their "house made salad dressing". Having a quality "house made edible cookie dough" instead of the hard, stiff, crumbly pellets you have now is showing that you care about the products you serve your customers, and you aren't just checking a box on your order with your supplier to get a factory made product that every other ice cream shop also serves.

Making edible cookie dough fresh in your store with Kelly's Famous Cookie Dough Mixes can be done at a cost that could be less than what you are paying for those hard, stiff, and crumbly pellets. Doing it just for the increased profit you will produce should alone be a reason to do it. The fact that your customers will appreciate it is the icing on the cake. 

You could take it further and offer three or four different cookie dough flavors as toppings. Now it's creating excitement in your customers eyes. The customer can now customize their experience.

Maybe that's as far as you want to go into the exciting area of the spectrum. Just a few toppings and nothing more. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's your shop. It's your brand. You know your customers best. 

But other ice cream shop owners may decide to not just offer those three or four made fresh in house cookie doughs as toppings, but also offer their cookie dough flavors as a scoop on their own.

Scoops of Cookie Dough

Can you imagine a customer just wanting a cup of hot fudge, or hot caramel, or strawberry topping, without any ice cream at all? That's not likely. It is possible.., but rarely happens. But there is portion of the population that prefer to get cookie dough without ice cream. We had plenty of them at Cookie Dough Creamery. They do exist! They don't exist in enough numbers to make cookie dough "scoop shops" sustainable, but there are more than enough of them to create an additional stream of revenue for every ice cream shop.

No other topping you carry can result in regular and consistent sales like this. It creates a base of customers that come to you specifically because you offer it. Why miss out on these potential sales simply because all you carry is the hard, stiff, and crumbly cookie dough pellets that all your competitors also carry, that could be more expensive than cookie dough you can make yourself?

Easy to Upsell

Offering scoops of cookie dough is also an easier upsell than what you are currently doing. Offering a second scoop of ice cream for a discounted price is like a restaurant offering a second hamburger for a discounted price. Sure, those sales happen every now and then. But do you know what offering has made good restaurants into great restaurants? It's the "do you want fries with that?" offer.

Just like restaurants don't have to discount their fries to sell an additional item to a hamburger customer, you don't have to discount your cookie dough to sell an additional item to an ice cream customer. If your employees can't ask "do you want cookie dough with that?", then you are missing out on additional revenue with a healthy cost of goods sold percentage. Offering scooped cookie dough can increase your per ticket averages of your already established customer base and keep your cost of goods sold percentage low. 

Seasonal and Limited Time Cookie Dough Flavors

Offering seasonal and limited time cookie dough flavors can also take you a step further into the exciting are of the spectrum. Customers can be enticed to come in simply so they don't miss out on a seasonal or limited time cookie dough flavor. People are more likely to engage with your advertising efforts when they see something new, or something you haven't offered for a while.

In fact, limited availability is the entire foundation of the Crumbl Cookies business model. They keep their flavors frequently changing and this keeps their customers coming back over and over. 

Another step into the exciting area of the spectrum is how you chose to display your cookie dough. Is the cookie dough simply held cold behind the counter as hidden option for customers. Or are the in house made cookie doughs displayed along side the ice cream displays?

Production Can Be Entertainment To Your Customers

Want to kick your display up a notch? Put your cookie dough mixer in the front of house, so that it is on display, and making cookie dough during your biggest rushes. The kids will love being able to watch it making edible cookie dough!

How Many Flavors?

Some ice cream shops will even go so far as to have just as many flavors of made in house cookie dough as they have ice cream flavors. A perfect example of this is Cookie Dough Creations in Naperville, IL. They've been offering 8 flavors of cookie dough and 8 flavors of ice cream, both on full display, since 1994. That's 31 years they've been doing this model. And their customers love it.

What Cookie Dough Creations did NOT do, is make the mistake of taking it into the "too far" area of the spectrum, where being an ice cream store begins to get lost in the consumer's eyes.

Never lose your focus on being the best ice cream shop. Always make your customers know that being an ice cream shop is why you exist. Edible cookie dough can be used to make your good ice cream shop into a great ice cream shop, as long as you avoid the mistake of the recent fad by taking it too far. Just find that place in the middle of the spectrum, and watch your store reach its true potential. 

Cookie dough only shop = fad

Ice cream shop with a great cookie dough offering = powerful combination

At Cookie Dough Creamery we sold 140,000 pounds of ice cream and 115,000 pounds of edible cookie dough from February 19th, 2016 to February 16th, 2020. We did this by offering only 8 flavors of ice cream and 4 to 6 flavors of cookie dough at any given time.

Maybe you have such an awesome location that you don't consider those numbers of ours to be impressive. But consider this... we accomplished those sales numbers in a dying mall. Read Why Did Cookie Dough Creamery Close?

Kelly's Famous Cookie Dough Mixes make it easy for any ice cream store owner/operator to offer gourmet quality edible cookie dough flavors no matter where you decide to exist in the exciting area of the spectrum. 

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