If you live in the Metro Vancouver area, chances are you’ve heard of Earnest Ice Cream. Situated on Fraser and East King Edward, this humble business has bloomed into a local favorite within a matter of months. In Elaine Nguyen’s blog “Earnest Ice Cream, Seriously Good.“, the ice cream business received praise for “emphasizing their passion for sustainability and the usage of natural ingredients.” While the facts she stated about Earnest Ice Cream certainly correspond with the company’s recent success, I don’t believe their business model was completely driven by a passion for sustainability. If you ask me, their success can mostly be attributed to the company capitalizing on shifts in mainstream trends and consumer values.

Mason jars and cardboard labels

In an urban area such as Metro Vancouver, social media trends can play a large role in influencing what consumers want from the products they consume. Recently, the “hipster” trend has taken over all social media platforms and with the trend brought forward a drastic change in consumer values. Characteristics such as simplicity, minimalism, and being unique suddenly make a product much more attractive and the product Earnest Ice Cream produces fits right in. After visiting the company’s Instagram, you can see that they clearly market their product with emphasis on “hipster” appeal. The use of simplistic and unique  packaging (mason jars and paper bags) in addition to a store created with wood can easily be a strategy to appeal to the market rather than a pursue for passion. The same can be said about Herschel (Instagram), a rising travel goods company that utilizes the same strategies in their sudden rise to success.

The store executes a flawless “hipster” ambiance.

The bottom line is that it is difficult and often erroneous to judge a company’s motives based solely on their actions. Whether they are driven by passion or profit, we will never know. One thing is for sure, whatever it is they’re doing – it’s working.