Hershy's Strategic Planning - Essay Example

This promotional strategy was the biggest marketing activity of the company which became one of its strongest core competencies. Other major competencies include its purchase of British candy maker Cadbury Schweppes PLC’s US business in 1988 and many other candy, pasta and ice-cream manufacturers in the United States. Continuous new product developments other than chocolate through acquisition of different confectionery product manufacturers in US have become its major core competency as well as a competitive advantage.

Hershey has maintained the leadership position in the global chocolate industry through effective brand presence in sixty countries in the world. It has 43% market share in the chocolate market and 18% market share in the non chocolate candy market. The company is globally recognized by top brands like Hershey itself, Kisses, Kit Kat, Reese’s, Almond Joy, Twizzlers, York and Jolly Rancher. Hershey’s has retained 30% market in the global confectionery market that is near about double of its nearest competitor.

Hershey’s has the opportunity to expand its areas of core competencies in other areas of its business which are: strong distribution channel through franchises, efficient management, product quality and many impressive brands. These can become its competitive advantage. The company exports its product to most of its foreign markets. So, it can manufacture in different countries to cut down the cost of distribution mainly to reduce the price which might be one of the competitive advantages to compete with the domestic brands of each foreign market.

The Hershey’s brand is well popular for its quality and it needs to concentrate on low fat and calories product and also sugar free candies so as to attract a particular demographic segment of customers who do not enjoy chocolate because of health consciousness (Zhang, 2001, p.26). 2. Internal strategies The company’s internal strategies lie in different areas of its business, like innovation in the product quality with respect to change in lifestyle and food consumption habits of the worldwide consumers.

Also, an important strategy would be environmental free packaging as a way of taking on effective social responsibilities. ‘Hershey’s’ needs to concentrate on the quality differentiation of the existing products with respect to competitors’ product rather than focusing on the product differentiation. The brand has a market presence in more than sixty different markets in the world but they have to consider the similar taste and preference of the consumers. It needs to differentiate taste and preference with respect to consumer’s choice of each different location so that it can compete with the local players in foreign markets.

Apart from categorizing product by geographic segmentation it also needs to concentrate on producing low fat and sugar free products to extend its target to a different segment of people who do not like chocolate and other confectionary product for health considerations. Most of the Hershey’s products have packaging that is not environmental friendly. The packaging is also one of the major criteria for the food products especially for the confectionary products. Although the brand have attractive packaging which is essential for promotion as well as being a quality indicator but they also need to