How Hershey’s chocolate survived an attack from Mars − and adopted a business strategy alien to its founder

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

John Haddad , Penn State

(THE CONVERSATION) Walk into any grocery store to stock up for Halloween and you will discover that, for chocolate treats, you have two basic choices:

Will it be Mars or Hershey?

I often buy both, but that is beside the point. The point is that the two giants compete for market share , but both enjoy robust sales . In other words, a relatively stable duopoly defines the U.S. chocolate candy market.

But it wasn’t always like this.

Before the 1960s, the Hershey Chocolate Corp. reigned supreme as the undisputed chocolate king. It was in that decade that Mars went for Hershey’s jugular. Hershey Chocolate’s response brought lasting change – to it