Larry Gardiner, the entrepreneur behind the popular BabyLove's Twist ice cream parlour in Tower Isle, St Mary which serves its own special brand of non-dairy ice cream, is now offering the product through the General Foods supermarkets in Ocho Rios and Kingston. The ice cream is packaged as Vineyard Town Premium Blend Non-Dairy Ice Cream from Gardiner's company BabyLove's C-G Foods. The key positioning strategy is the ten flavours made from coconut milk, without GMOs (genetically modified organisms) or artificial flavouring. "Everything is done 100 per cent from the fruit itself. We only use 100 per cent cane sugar and no other sugar." The mix of traditional and exotic flavours include blue java (coffee), soursop, sorrell, coconut blitz, coconut vanilla, Peruvia chocolate, rum & raisin, grapenut, cookies & creme, guava passion and jackfruit. Gardiner's commitment to a natural product does not in any way diminish his passion for the flavour. This includes the unusual midnight dream ice cream which is infused with activated charcoal and blackstrap molasses, sorbets like Passion-mento, a mixture of passion fruit and pimento and stir-fried ice cream (rolled ice cream) is unlike traditional scooped ice cream. It is made in real-time by combining the coconut milk and the flavouring of your choice on a cold pan. These ingredients are then stirred to perfection, rolled, and served. Gardiner's plans to install a fully automated plant to increase production in a year and a half, had to be pushed forward to 90 days. This early move to distribution came from a proactive approach from the manager of General Foods Ocho Rios who kept hearing about the ice cream parlour through the employees and after trying it herself, suggested that "the Kingston crowd would be a really good place for it." Twist's creativity attracts customers from all over the parishes of St Mary and St Ann, and Gardiner said he serves guests from as far away as Montego Bay, Portmore, and Kingston. "Word of mouth has been really significant for us, and we certainly have a good social media presence, as well," he indicated. "All I can say is God has been good. People had been saying you should be in Ocho Rios, you should be in Kingston, this area is not going to work for you, but the residents have been very engaging." However, Gardiner said, his 5-year business objective was to do manufacturing of the ice cream, but his wife and father-in-law encouraged him to have a retail outlet because; "one, you can't have a product and not have it readily available to the public and then, two, how do you know manufacturing will actually work for you until people buy the product. So at least if you have a retail outlet, they can come and sample the product, and you can sell and go from there. Gardiner, still wanting to build a name as an ice cream manufacturer, expects that once the production of the ice cream is fully automated, further expansion of distribution will follow increasing the exposure of his exotic and unusual brand of ice cream.

You have recently been hired by Mr. Gardiner at Vineyard Town Premium Blend Non-Dairy Ice Cream as the Marketing Manager. Your key responsibility, includes studying the market and providing Mr. Gadiner with recommendations on how he can attract new consumers and increase ice-scream sales. Your recommendations should be guided by your knowledge of consumer behavior and should address the following:

1. What is the likely impact of applying the sensory marketing strategy on the success of the brand?