The Hershey Company Marketing

The Hershey Company: Marketing

The Hershey Company, founded by Milton S. Hershey (1857-1945), was built in Derry Church, Pennsylvania, in 1903 (The Hershey Company Web Site, n.d.). The community, made famous by The Hershey Company, was later renamed as Hershey, Pennsylvania. The company has become the largest North American manufacturer of quality chocolate products, which include a variety of candy bars, drink mixes, and baking ingredients and today is the leading North American manufacturer of chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery and grocery products. The company is well known for the candy brands such as Hershey's Kisses, Reese's peanut butter cups, Swizzles licorice, Mounds, York Peppermint Patty, and Kit Kat (licensed from Nestlé); and the grocery goods such as baking chocolate, ice-cream toppings, chocolate syrup, cocoa mix, cookies, snack nuts, hard candies, lollipops, and peanut butter(The Hershey Company Web Site, n.d.). Hershey's products are known and enjoyed the world over, by all age groups. The Hershey Company remains committed to the vision and values of the man who started it all so many years ago (The Hershey Company Web Site, n.d.).

Milton Hershey, believing that quality of his milk chocolate products, would speak for itself, refused to advertise. The company continued his policy, even after his death in 1945. Then, in 1970, facing a sluggish candy market and a diet-conscious public, the company relented (Hoover's, 2009)".

Today the Hershey Company advertises to different age groups in many different ways(site your source! ). Television commercials attract children 12 and under, commercials and print ads focus on seniors, sponsorships focuses on teens and young adults, and promotions inside wrappers for all age groups.

Hershey began airing a television commercial that marks the beginning of its "Pure Hershey's" campaign (Beirne, 2008). This campaign is associating the candy maker's chocolate with feelings of happiness, innocence and simplicity, and will serve as an umbrella campaign for the company's other top brands (Beirne, 2008).. Although the main target will be the 18 to 34 year-old group, these commercials will reach out to the young, teens, and seniors using the same methods (Beirne, 2008). The advertising firm, Arnold NYC, Chief Creative Officer, John Staffen, says "The campaign tries to play up to the emotional ingredients that go into a Hershey bar. Their focus, will rely on core brands in this venture" (Beirne, 2008)." Yet another commercial, targeting the older chocolate lovers, portrays Bar None. This campaign focuses on the ingredients of what Bar None has and what others in this category do not have, and also includes an ad for the Cookies n' Mint bar, which features guitar-playing senior citizens (Warner, 1993).

David West, Hershey CEO, said a decline in the sale of Kisses would not be acceptable and the core brand most likely to be used for "Project Runway" will be Hershey's Kisses(Goetzl, 2009). The life story of the Hershey's Kisses began in 1907. The "plume" that extends from the wrapper was trademarked in 1924. Between the years 1942 and 1949 no Kisses were produced because of foil rationing during and after World War II. To honor Valentine's Day, red and silver foil was introduced in 1986. In 1990, the company introduced a new twist to Kisses: a Kiss with almonds. The Kisses tried out "healthy" dark chocolate in 2003. The year 2007 brought forth the century mark for Hershey's Kisses (Doup, 2007). Although the magazine promotion ads will focus on teens, young adults and seniors, the Hershey Company has laid out detailed guidelines for the places, it will not advertise in their "Project Runway" integration. Included are shows and publications that offer "graphic and unnecessary violence" and "sensationalism involving delicate and controversial social subjects" (Goetzl, 2009).

In sponsorship advertising, The Hershey Company is using various celebrities to promote some of its products. One such celebrity is Tony Hawk, skateboarder, who will participate in television commercials. These celebrity commercials will help promote the Hershey's Milk and Milkshakes to children and youth (Thompson, 2003). The idea is, when children and youth see Tony drinking a Hershey Milkshake, they will be influenced into trying the product themselves.. Another celebrity working with Hershey's on the new campaign is country music artist, Brad Paisley. This partnership will also help Paisley, who has appeared on core brand wrappers in the past,promote his new album, "5th Gear." The theme for the "S'mores" advertisement campaign is summertime and campfires, which will promote family fun for all age groups, and will star the Hershey's chocolate bar (Paoletta, 2007). Hershey is also teaming up with the Latin singer and actress Thalia Sodi, which will be the centerpiece for Hispanic marketing efforts and will unveil a new line of Latin- inspired candies (Staff Report, 2004).

Another sponsorship deal is a corporate partnership with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and will have marketing and promotional rights to the Final Four and other NCAA marks, including sports fans of all ages (Smith, 2008). The Hershey Company is introducing several promotions for 2009 inside candy bar wrappers (Smith, 2008). The NCAA promotion will display the NCAA logo on the outside of the wrapper and includes the Almond Joy, Hershey Bar, KitKat, PayDay, and Reese's candy bars. Each wrapper will include a game piece inside (Smith, 2008). The grand prize for this promotion is a trip to the 2010 Final Four games. The company has also provided an online chart for the consumers who purchase the product to track their game pieces (The Hershey Company Web Site, n.d., "Promotions"). Another promotion is the "Reese's Racing" campaign. Hershey's will again use their core brand candy bars directed toward NASCAR, The Olympics and the Batman movie. It is hoped that this campaign will target the young male population. The grand prize for the "Reese's Racing" campaign is a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina to watch the race (The Hershey Company Web Site, n.d., "Promotions"). Hershey's hopes the S'mores campaign will entice the younger females with memories of Girl Scout and family gatherings (Dochat, 2008).

Hershey has also teamed up with the Young Survival Coalition to help them raise money in efforts to educate who about Breast Cancer. The core brand candy bars used for this campaign will be the Hershey Kisses, Nuggets, Reese's, and Syrup which will each display the pink ribbon logo. When these products