Hershey Chocolate Company Case Study

Hershey Company

Hershey Company originated with candy-manufacturer Milton Hershey's decision in 1894 to produce sweet chocolate as a coating for his caramels. Located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the new enterprise was named the Hershey Chocolate Company. In 1900, the company began producing milk chocolate in bars, wafers and other shapes. With mass production, Hershey was able to lower the per-unit cost and make milk chocolate, once a luxury item for the wealthy, Hersheyable to all. One early advertising slogan described this new product as "a palatable confection and a most nourishing food."

1) Identify the firm's existing vision, mission, objectives, and strategies.

Vision / Mission

Undisputed Marketplace Leadership

Top-tier value creation, driven by superior performance across the business system

Organizational capabilities and passion that compete in the present and build for the future

Commitment to enabling and encouraging balanced, healthy lives

Portfolio of brands that

- Delights consumer across multiple segments

- Delivers superior growth and profitability to retailers

- Is available everywhere

Ability to transform consumer and customer desires to marketplace wins

Objectives

Hershey`s objective is to consistently crate shareholder value by achieving excellence in every aspect of our business, and our vision is to continually offer value for shareholders, customers, and consumers as a focused, branded, growing chocolate and confectionery snack company. Companies such as Hershey depend on imported products, mainly cocoa, from many countries helping to stimulate foreign economies. Hershey does not just make chocolate they also have grocery goods such as baking chocolate, ice cream toppings, chocolate syrup, cocoa mix and peanut butter. Often in the candy and confection business, manufacturers obtain the most important ingredient of chocolate, the cocoa bean, through brokers or agents.

Strategies

The Hershey Company is America`s largest chocolate company and has established itself as a cultural icon for brand innovation. Over the past century, Hershey`s has designed and produced an ambiance that exudes quality and value for its customers. This ambiance is part of a strategy that has propelled Hershey`s as an industry leader and has successfully ingrained the Hershey brand in the public`s collective consciousness as America`s premier choice chocolate bar.

2) Develop vision and mission statements for the organization.

Vision

The vision of the organization through its strategies is apparent and is to be able to provide a more sustainable and consumer oriented growth of chocolate industry.

Mission

The mission of the company is well suited and finely structured to include all stakeholders.

Objectives

The objective of the organization should be to make customers and other stakeholders regard Hershey's as the chocolate industry leader internationally.

Strategies

The strategies of the organization are to provide sustainability and value to not only the business but to all those who are linked to the organization and the larger chocolate industry internationally. In that, the focus on the profitability of the organization is driven by the need to provide value to the Milton Trust and the shareholders.

3) Identify the organization's external opportunities and threats

External Opportunities:

* Penetration of the organization into the Asian and the Middle Eastern markets since the customer base there is less health conscious as of today.

* Analysis of the strengths of the competitors and thus promoting and developing the good in accordance to that.

* Crafting ways to increase customer interaction to know what they want in the shape of chocolate and also to know what the customers expect from the organization in terms of their social responsibility.

* Developing production lines in the Areas from where cocoa beans are imported.

* Further development into organic and more healthy products

* Capitalization of the holiday season External Threats:

* Competition from very strong international organizations and thus the struggle for market leadership as far as chocolate and confectionary is concerned.

* Maturing customer base about the health and thus the reduction in calorie intake

* Global climatic change and thus the threat to the production of sugar and cocoa

* Increase in political differences internationally and thus the threat to the trade and capital mobility of the economies especially in regards to the Asian and Middle Eastern countries as far as United States is concerned.

4) Construct a Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM)

Hershey

Nestle

Cadbury

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Weıght

Ratıng

Score

Ratıng

Score

Ratıng

Score

Customer Loyalty 0.1 3 0.1 3 0.3 3 0.3

Large Market Share 0.2 3 0.6 3 0.6 3 0.6

Advertising 0.2 3 0.6 3 0.6 4 0.8

Global Markets 0.05 2 0.1 3 0.15 4 0.2

Market Share 0.1 2 0.2 3 0.3 3 0.3

Management Experience 0.1 3 0.3 3 0.3 4 0.4

Social Recognition 0.2 3 0.6 3 0.6 4 0.8

Strong