Pinkberry reintroduced frozen yogurt as a mainstream ice cream experience with a successful marketing concept. Their green dotted designer interior attracted people who care about a appealing environment. Their newly attracted customers lined up at cool Pinkberry to get frozen yogurt, a product that has been around for many years. But for how long can Pinkberry benefit from First-Mover advantage. Pink berry is the first mover of the new geneartion frozen yogurt stores.First-Mover Advantage is a market entry term introduced by Marvin Lieberman, UCLA's Anderson School of Management and by David Montgomery in 1988, who describe the benefit being the first in the market. But will Pinkberry be strong enough to compete against a growing competition? In a short photo story, I like to illustrate the fast growing frozen yogurt market in summer 2007 in the Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California.
Pinkberry rented in Westwood a popular spot next to Subway restaurant and close to Peet's Coffee. The customers lined up to get the pink frozen yogurt. Established ice cream and frozen yogurt places closed down their business in Westwood.
One looser is Ben and Jerry's ice cream. It looks, they could not afford the expensive rent along Westwood Blvd any longer. Only the painted cows look through the nearly covered window. Will Baskin Robins survive the yogurt war in Westwood? The market will tell. Just south of Wilshire Blvd, independent Europastry's frozen yogurt Yogg did not survive either. 
Probably if you shop for a suit next door, you don't want to spill your frozen Yogg right after. With a new interior experience, Pinkberry had a competitive advantage over existing similar businesses in the area. But Pinkberry, the First-Mover of the new generation yogurt stores is facing new competition.The competitors copy the brand name concept. White (snow) or red come after pink and mango replaces berry. Who will be the strong second in the market.
Red Mango benefits from Pinkberry 's negative publicity. Newspapers reported that the pink berry does not serve real yogurt, because their frozen white stuff does not contain live cultures. Health concerned yogurt fans will favor Red Mango's authentic yogurt with live yogurt cultures. Their competitive advantage, serving real yogurt, is part of the marketing concept. But the ones who love the green interior design will stay with Pinkberry. First-Mover Pinkberry will stray strong but will share the market with Red Mango, in my opinion, the most promising competitor.
I have spotted a third in Westwood, who has not much to offer than being white instead of pink, the name is Snowberry. But isn't it supposed to be called Whiteberry, or Snowball. The name is confusing and who in the world is attracted by snow in Los Angeles, aren't we living in Southern California because it is warm, sunny and dry all year long. I doubt that this business will flourish in the Westwood Village, also because of its hidden location. We probably stay better with the Mountain Snowberry's botanical description by the University of Utah: "Although not highly nutritious or palatable, mountain snowberry is frequently one of the first species to leaf out, making it a highly sought after food in the early spring. Use by livestock and big game is moderate throughout the summer and declines in fall." Will Snowberry decline already this fall?
I am sure, blueberries or pink apples will fight for market share in Westwood pretty soon and the yogurt war will continue. Newcomers might benefit from Red Mango's future negative publicity. Fact is, they do not serve mango flavored yogurt, just the traditional white one and a green colored green tea flavored one. Of course they offer mango pieces as one of their toppings. But as we all know mango fruit pieces are orange not red. Only Redo Mango's raspberry and strawberry toppings are red.
