The Emperors of the hocolates - Essay Example

Chocolate aside from the popular brands such as Coca-Cola and KFC is a much more prominent symbol of the consumer culture in the United States, which can be perceived from the relative popularity that a bar of Hershey’s enjoys. Beginning with Lucy Ricardo, seen stuffing herself with bon-bons to the E.T. being urged into hiding with the help of Reese’s pieces, candy has also come to be associated immensely with the pop culture in America.

The Emperors of Chocolates by Joel Glenn Brenner is a thin mix of cultural history with business (Nathan Aaseng, 2005). In it, the individual stories of two individual powerhouses of American chocolate brands namely, Hershey and Mars are discussed in a detailed fashion through related anecdotes that intend to understand this business in greater detail. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is its wide focus on the business implications of the contest between Hershey and Mars, whose economies of scale as well as superiority in sales and marketing have allowed them to flex their muscles over smaller competitors.

As such, the American chocolate industry can be understood to be experiencing an oligopolistic competition owing to multiple dominant players. Mars is renowned for being its hostile approach to the press and is not a known entity in the area of corporate transparency especially in revealing information to the financial community (Chantal Coady, 2006). On the other hand, although Hershey is a public corporation, it has remained virtually insulated from any external influences. As such, its strategic direction that is based on ‘the less said the better’ has not helped in winning the hearts of many investors.

Both the groups are family-owned businesses, less efficient in the case of cost analysis and capital budgeting, possess a slightly lethargic attitude when it comes to devising strategies for the future, and are known to be less profitable than other public companies. Mars runs on a business model that runs in a rigorous fashion with strict targets for profits for every division and brand apart from tighter control over the costs.