Chapter 17- Advertising and Public Relations

Hershey's has been one of the top companies in the chocolate business having a diverse profile extending from Kits Kat's to Hershey's Kisses. Its current advertisement consist of a S'mores commercial using Hershey's Chocolate Bar, a pure Hershey's commercial with a mother and daughter and two commercial for their latest drop collection that promotes the Hershey's Bar now coming in bite size chocolate pieces.

Before 2008 the company was highly criticized for not investing enough on marketing causing its sales to decline behinds its main competition Mars who own Snickers and M&Ms therefore they began to implement a new strategy investing in its core brands such as Hershey's, Kiss and Resses. As a result they have seen a significant increase in their sales in those products. Since this was such a success they later expanded their campaign to include Kit Kat and Twizzlers spending over $426.4 million last year in adverting.

As a result the net income has increased by 11% overall. In 2010 they debuted the Pay Day and Hershey;'s Syrup ad's which have not had advertisements since 2001. For the current season they have focused their attention the S'mores with there slogan “ Making every occasion a S'more occasion.” This goes together with the tailgating theme due to football season. To engage the customers they are having a promotion in which they are giving away an SUV. Their other concentration is the newest line drops which has been a success mainly due to creative advertisement.