Marketing Analysis: Hershey's Sustainable Strategies and SWOT Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis of Hershey's, a major player in the chocolate manufacturing industry. It explores Hershey's marketing mix, including its product, pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies. A SWOT analysis is conducted to assess Hershey's competitive positioning against rivals like Barry Callebaut, Cargill, and Mondelez. The report also identifies and discusses the sustainable marketing principles that Hershey's follows, evaluating the success of these strategies and suggesting potential improvements by adopting additional sustainability principles. The analysis emphasizes Hershey's commitment to environmental sustainability, ethical sourcing, and societal marketing, highlighting the company's efforts to balance profitability with social and environmental responsibility.

Running Head: SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 1
Sustainability in Marketing: Hershey’s
Company

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Company Description......................................................................................................................4
Marketing Mix of Hershey’s...........................................................................................................5
Product strategy............................................................................................................................5
Price Strategy...............................................................................................................................6
Distribution Strategy....................................................................................................................6
Promotion Strategy......................................................................................................................7
SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................7
Sustainable Marketing Principles..................................................................................................11
Societal Marketing.....................................................................................................................12
Customer Relationship Management.........................................................................................12
Other Principles.............................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14
Appendices....................................................................................................................................17

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 3
Introduction
For an organization, marketing is the most important process of promoting and selling the
products and services via advertising and market research. With the increase in the competition,
companies are incorporating sustainability principles to stay competitive against industry rivals.
Sustainable marketing is an innovative concept in the business and marketing that is proving to
become game changer in the industry. On the basis of social and environmental sustainability,
sustainable marketing assists in meeting the needs of targeted audiences. This report includes the
marketing analysis of Hershey’s that is operating its business operations in chocolate
manufacturing industry. Hershey’s is one of the largest chocolate manufacturing organizations of
United States of America (Hershey’s, 2018). The report discusses the marketing mix of
Hershey’s by considering product strategy, pricing strategy, distribution strategy and promotion

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 4
strategy. Furthermore, it includes SWOT analysis to position Hershey’s against its competitors.
At the end, there is the discussion about the principles of sustainable marketing used by
Hershey’s. The company can improve its strategies and operations by adopting other principles
of sustainability.
Company Description
The Hershey’s Company is an American Organization that is one of the largest chocolate
manufacturers all over the world. The company was founded in the year 1894 by Milton S.
Hershey and it is headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania that is the home of Hershey’s
Chocolate world. It is the largest chocolate producer in North America. The products of Hershey
are available across the United States due to its extensive distribution network. In addition to
this, it offers its products in more than 60 nations all over the world (Hershey’s, 2018). Hershey
is a member of World Cocoa Foundation and associated with Giant Cente and Hersheypark
Stadium. Thus, The Hershey Company is a market leader in confectionary business and it has
focused on strong brand image and product innovation through effective marketing strategy. The
major brands of company are such as Kisses, the Hershey, Twizzlers, Reese’s and the Hershey
Bar. These are the strong pillars and top ten candies of Hershey Company. The mission
statement of this company is “to bring the sweet moments of Hershey happiness to the world”.
The company is implementing effective marketing strategies to attain this mission and provide
tasty chocolates with higher quality ingredients.
Marketing Mix of Hershey’s
Marketing mix is the framework that is used by an organization to develop and implement
marketing strategies so that it can approach a large population and attract more people towards
its products and services (Bahadir, Bharadwaj and Srivastava, 2015). The marketing strategies of
Hershey’s are stated below:
Product strategy
Hershey’s Company has developed various products under its brand like cookies, chocolate bar,
kisses, chocolate syrup, baking pieces, candy bar, nuggets, milk bars and dessert toppings. The
company is offering convenience products by including higher quality ingredients (Ramli, 2017).
The innovation in marketing mix has assisted the organization to grow through the years.

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 5
(Source: Hershey’s, 2018)
It has positioned itself as healthy and delicious for growing children. The major products of the
company are:
Chocolate Kit-Kat, Mounds, Kisses, Brookside, York,
Reese’s
Candy Jolly Rancher, Twizzlers, Allan Candy
Gum & Mint Ice Breakers, Bubble Yum, Breath Savers
Caramel & Nuts Rolo, Payday, Lancaster
Others Bliss, Drops, Nuggets, Symphony, Miniatures,
Peanut Butter Cups (Hershey’s, 2018).
In addition to this, the organization is focusing on the packaging of products to do sustainable
marketing. It is using different chocolate wrappers for seasonal events. It has replaced its
previous papers with the environmental friendly packaging that is bio-degradable materials (de
Andrade Silva, et al, 2017). Under its product mix, the company is doing on-going commitment
to environmental sustainability that includes decreasing the waste to packaging, landfills and
they are going greener. Furthermore, it is providing proper safety measures to the employees
under production process.

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 6
Price Strategy
Hershey Company is a premium brand that charges higher prices in comparison to other popular
chocolate brands in market. Under this, the company targets upper and middle class population
and international tourists. The prices of chocolates vary from $10 to $60 according to the type
and size of chocolates (Gerstein and Friedman, 2015). Recently, it has not made changes in the
prices but it has reduced the quantity of various products. If the company will introduce any new
product in the market then it will use penetration pricing strategy. Under this strategy, it will
offer the candies on a price lower than competitors. It will give its customers an incentive and
motivates them to buy the new product of Hershey. In the future, the organization is planning to
offer an appropriate combination of superior quality and better service at fair prices. It will assist
the organization in create its sustainable image among its targeted audiences (Kizil, et al, 2013).
Distribution Strategy
This is one of the major strategies of Hershey’s that assists in approaching the customers through
its product offerings. As discussed above, the company has an extensive distribution network
that includes different places where people can purchase the products of Hershey’s. The products
of the company are available in drug stores, grocery stores, vending machines, shopping malls,
departmental stores etc. The people can purchase its products online from Amazon, eBay and
Bigbasket. It has established strong and extensive distribution network that enables the
organization to reach across various nations worldwide (Davari, and Strutton, 2014). All the
major cities are covered by the channels of organization. In addition to this, the company has
focused on improving its supply chain to become more sustainable. The major focus of
Hershey’s was on increasing its product offerings to the customers, but customers were not
adapted the wide variety of the firm. Considering this, it has transformed its supply driven model
to demand driven model. This approach assisted the organization in generating significant cash
flows. In the supply chain process, the company focuses on the fact that it does not harm the
environment and natural resources (Gutiérrez, 2017).
Promotion Strategy
Promotion strategy is one of the significant components under marketing plan and process.
Hershey’s is implementing effective promotion and advertising strategies to approach a large
population. The company does promotion through TV advertisement, magazine, billboards,
newspapers etc. It uses different ways and ads to promote different products. For example, the ad

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 7
of Hershey’s milk booster tries to place itself as a healthy product for growing children. These
promotion mix strategies assist the organization in informing, persuading and reminding the
people about its products. Hershey’s is using effective slogans and taglines to enhance its
presence in the market. The major examples of Hershey’s advertising are such as Drops,
Carolers, Mother and Daughter and S’mores. It has hired Arnold to develop integrated marketing
and advertising programs for its chocolate products (Hannah, et al, 2014). Arnold is very popular
for creating brands via multi-faceted campaigns which include print, broadcast, promotions and
public relations. Under sales promotion, Hershey is providing gift products in specific seasons. It
provides the organization to have an opportunity to enhance its sales. Moreover, the company is
engaged in socially responsible marketing process and providing actual information to the
people.
In this way, the company is engaged in sustainable marketing efforts by the use of above
marketing strategies under marketing mix framework (Pappas, 2016).
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is the technique that is used by an organization to analyze the external and
internal factors like strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a major effort of the
organization towards sustainable marketing (Blockeel, et al, 2016). It indicates that how
Hershey’s positions itself against its major competitors. The SWOT analysis of Hershey
Company is stated below:
Basis for
Comparison
Hershey’s Barry Callebut Cargill Mondelez
Strengths  This organization is
considered as one of
the biggest chocolate
producers in the
world (Market
Realist, 2018).
 Extensive
Distribution
 It is also one of
the largest
chocolate and
other cocoa
product
manufacturers.
 More
innovative than
 Largest private
sector firm in
America.
 Founded in
1865, the
company has
more chocolate
manufacturing
 One of the
dominant
brands
 The company
has diversified
range of
products like
snacks,

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Network
 Sustainability and
Philanthropy
Efforts
 Huge Brand
Portfolio (More
than 50 products)
Hershey’s in
terms of
product
development
such as tooth
friendly
chocolate
(Khan, 2014).
 CSR activities
like child
protection, food
safety,
environmental
protection etc.
 Strong R&D
experience than
Hershey’s.
 The company
has more
employee
strength than
Hershey’s and
Barry Callebut
i.e. 142,000
employees
(Renton et al,
2015).
 It has presence
in different
segments like
agriculture,
food service,
financial and
risk
management.
chocolate,
cookies,
chocolates etc.
 Higher
investment on
R&D
 The company
has string dealer
and distributor
community.
Weaknesses  It has more long
term debt than its
major competitor
like Mondelez, i.e.
2.4 billion in 2014.
 Higher prices of
chocolates
 Huge advertisement
Expenses i.e.
$541million in
2017 (Malawskey,
 Limited Brand
presence in
emerging
market as
compared to
Hershey’s.
 Strong
competition
from
Hershey’s.
 Limited growth
 It has faced
the issues due
to higher brand
switching.
 It has been
negatively
publicized due
to
environmental
harms, human
right violation
 The company
has uneven
execution of
business
processes.
 Less brand
presence
 Decline in net
revenues due to
emerging
players in

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 9
2011). in market
share.
and
contamination.
sector.
Opportunities  Operating business
in 60 nations is not
enough for this
largest chocolate
manufacturer so it
has more
opportunities to
expand business
operations in more
developing nations
(The Statistics
Portal, 2018).
 Segment
diversification: it
can introduce some
sugar free
chocolates with
healthy ingredients
 Innovation
 It can enhance
its presence in
confectionary
market.
 It can make
investment in
Research and
innovation.
 Strategic
partnership
with
competitors
like Hershey’s.
 Global
penetration and
expand the
business in
rural areas.
 Acquisition of
other firms
 It can make
investment in
sustainability
efforts to
regain its brand
image.
 Like Hershey’s,
Mondelez can
expand its
business in
more emerging
markets.
 It can save the
money by
controlling
overhead
expenses and
increasing
efficiencies.
Threats  Intense rivalry:
The major
competitors of the
company are such as
Mars, Cadbury,
Nestle, M&M,
Cargill, Mondelez,
Barry Callebut etc.
 Increased
health consciousness
 Domestic
chocolate
producers are
posing
competition to
Barry Callebut.
 Increased cost
of raw
materials like
Sugar, milk
 It has adverse
effects due to
economic
instability.
 Changes in the
costs of raw
materials.
 Competition in
all product
segments
 The company is
facing threat
from low cost
competitors in
confectionary
industry
(Afoakwa,
2008).
 Increased cost
of raw materials

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 10
is decreasing the
chocolate
consumption (Chawla
and Sondhi, 2016).
 Due to higher
consumption of
Cocoa, procuring the
right quantity of
Cocoa is a main cost
and blockage of
Hershey’s
manufacturing.
and cocoa.
 Like Hershey,
increased
health issue
among people
(Huang and
Sarigöllü,
2014).
(Kurie, 2018). is a threat that is
common for all
the players in
chocolate
manufacturing
industry (Gallo,
Antolin-Lopez
and Montiel,
2018).
From the above analysis, it can be stated that Hershey’s has positioned itself as a major player in
chocolate and confectionary industry. This organization is considered as one of the largest
organizations all over the world. The company is making various efforts in the field of marketing
and sustainability that is the major reason behind its viable growth. The below-given chart shows
the positioning of Hershey’s among its major competitors:
 Barry
Callebut
 Hershey’s
High Price
Low Quality High
Quality
Higher income
people
Superior
quality and
prices

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING 11
 Mondelez
 Cargill
The chart shows the positioning of Hershey’s against its major competitors. The company is
offering premium chocolates at higher prices. So, it will come in the category of higher prices
quality chocolate manufacturer. The organization is working to become more sustainable in the
market (Kurie, 2018). Company is offering higher quality considering the health of people that
will assist them to gain sustainable growth in this industry.
Sustainable Marketing Principles
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