Hershey is a company that produces many different types of products, such as chocolate bars, baking chipits and even ice cream. However, the reason the company is successful today is because they’ve learned to not over expand their line of products, and that consumer tastes differ in varying countries.

It is crucial that companies don’t over expand their line of products because if customers don’t respond to the new products, this could be a potential loss for the company. For example, when Hershey expanded their line of the original ‘Oh Henry’ chocolate bar to ‘Oh Henry Fudge’ customers didn’t like the product as much as the original so Hershey had to eventually discontinue the product. It is important to expand on products that will be popular and that customers will purchase. By conducting more research and providing surveys for customers before introducing a new product, Hershey could discover whether they should expand on a specific product. A large amount of money is spent on launching a new product, such as research and development, marketing, advertising, necessary equipment, and raw materials.

Customizing your products to a specific culture is extremely important because the products that are successful in the US may not be successful in Canada. For example, Almond joy is a Hershey chocolate bar that has been established and successful for many years in the US. This product was brought into Canada because the company thought the success of a product in one country would be equivalent in another. After a few months, the product wasn’t selling and Hershey had to discontinue it. A lot of money was spent on advertising and marketing this product, however the problem wasn’t with the marketing itself but with consumer tastes. Almond Joy wasn’t successful in Canada because it didn’t appeal to the tastes of Canadians.

Sources:

http://www.hersheycanada.com/ohhenry/en/products.html