Maggie Moo's brands mascot in attempt to create a cash cow chain

Nation's Restaurant News, August 14, 2000 by James Peters

COLUMBIA, MD. -- When the operators of 36-unit Maggie Moo's, based here, set out to differentiate the chain from other superpremium ice-cream concepts by emphasizing its family focus, they knew they had a potent marketing tool with their mascot cow, Maggie.

What they didn't know was that the head-turning ability of the 7-foot-tall cow's costume would result in a car wreck.

At a store opening in Phoenix earlier this year, a car full of passengers passing by waved at the store's Maggie. Unaware of the stopped traffic ahead, the driver plowed into the back of a car. The resulting collision luckily was only a minor fender bender.

It was apparent from the accident, however, that the chain had milked its limited marketing budget for all it was worth in developing an attention-grabbing mascot.

"If we had one thing to spend our money on, it would probably be the costume," director of marketing Jamie Kaplan said. "Used properly, it gets you into the eye of the public. And Maggie is larger than life. She demands attention."

Following's last year's exponential growth, Maggie Moo's plans to double in size again this year through franchising by opening 25 to 30 stores across the United States; nearly half of which already have opened.

The company is banking on the affability of its whimsical cow motif to bolster the intrinsic entertainment value of its in-line stores amid more established competitors, such as the 163-unit Marble Slab Creamery and 107-store Cold Stone Creamery.

"I've always held the belief that ice cream is entertainment," said Richard Sharoff, president and chief executive. "People don't get ice cream because they're hungry; they get it because they want a treat or indulgence."

Each store, which averages about 1,200 square feet and seats a maximum of 12, features an interior painted in aqua, magenta and peach hues and assorted cartoon characters of Maggie's "family" on the walls. Sharoff said Maggie's appeal to children distinguishes the company from its competitors.

"Our primary focus is families, and we think that's where our niche is," he said. "When we hear a little kid walking past a Maggie Moo's saying, 'Mommy, I want to go to Maggie Moo's,' the payoff is there."

The original concept, founded by a husband-and-wife team in Kansas City, Mo., in 1989, was painted in stark black and whites, and it was devoid of any of the cow characters. Sharoff, then an area developer and franchisee of on Market units in Baltimore and upstate New York, formed Maggie Moo's International LLC to purchase what he refers to as a "wobbly" system of 19 stores in 1996.

"It was a phenomenally great name and great ice cream that attracted me to the concept," he said. "But there was nothing inside the store that would reinforce the name. People wouldn't know if it was a bar or whatever."

Nine of the original stores were closed, and the remaining stores received a makeover of Maggie's current palette of warm colors and the cast of cows.

Maggie's recruited several frozen-treat industry veterans to help guide its growth. Ken Rowland, vice president of operations, and John Deaton, director of operations, worked together at frozen-yogurt concern TCBY. Kimberly Chambers, franchise development manager, also previously was with TCBY.

Unlike the limited appeal of the frozen-yogurt market, in which many brands of the 1980s are now extinct, Rowland believes that the ice-cream market's broad demographic ability can sustain a number of concepts:

"In my previous life at TCBY we had a lot of fathers who felt: 'Well, I'm not going to eat frozen yogurt. I'll let the wife and the kids get frozen yogurt, but I'll go down the street to Baskin-Robbins or some other frozen-treats competitor.' Here, we appeal to everyone; it's not just the kids or the mom."

Marble Slab primarily competes with Maggie's on the East Coast and Cold Stone on the West Coast as well as with both brands in Texas. But there is plenty of room to build out the three franchise-driven brands, said Chris Dull, Marble Slab's vice president of franchise development.

"If we see an area that is becoming saturated with ice cream, then we'll look elsewhere," Dull said. "We're not going to jeopardize the success of one of our franchisees just to try to compete head-on with a competitor that does a similar business,"

Maggie Moo's abides by the proportions that are widely regarded as the best recipe for superpremium ice cream -- high butterfat and a minimal amount of air. The stores offer more than 30 mix-ins, ranging from candies to fruits and nuts. The servers "fold in" the treats into the ice cream on a granite slab in a method similar to Cold Stone and Marble Slab.

At a $4.25 ticket average, the units also serve such frozen concoctions as milk shakes, sundaes and ice-cream cakes. Each store also makes its own fudge, an ancillary sales supplement and a surprise success during the last year's Christmas season. Store employees went out to companies as well as doctors' and lawyers' offices and schools to sell the fudge in 1-pound tins priced at $9.99.