Mr. Pitkethly in October estimated Halo Top had about 5% of the overall U.S. ice- cream market, 1.5% of which it stole from Unilever. He expects a pickup for the companies' brands this year but says Unilever's reaction to Halo Top is still "not quick enough." Halo Top's 38-year-old CEO Justin Woolverton says he has seen the "copycat brands" from Unilever and Nestlé -- which launched new high-protein, low-calorie variants under its Skinny Cow brand -- but is focused on raising brand awareness and getting into more stores. "We are very, very differentiated from old- school brands," he said. "We understand social media out there because we are a younger company." Unilever wasn't supposed to have this kind of problem. It sells products in 190 countries, making most of its revenue from emerging markets where its roots stretch back to colonial days. Over the decades, it has worked to tweak its biggest global brands to account for regional tastes.