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Lesson #3: Go On A Quest For Quality

Article Overview: “Give them quality,” said Hershey. “That’s the best kind of advertising in the world.”

Lesson #3: Go On A Quest For Quality

“Give them quality,” said Hershey. “That’s the best kind of advertising in the world.”

Throughout his career, Hershey remained dedicated to providing the best possible product and value for his customers. With a reputation for being a hands-on perfectionist, Hershey made it his mission to ensure that every single chocolate that went out with his name on it was up to his standards of approval – a tough measure in and of itself. But, it was his quest for quality that differentiated Hershey’s chocolates from his competitors.

After returning home to Pennsylvania and creating the Lancaster Caramel Company, Hershey grew even more determined to make this, his third venture, successful. He initially began manufacturing his classic ‘Crystal A’ caramels, but soon began expanding his operations. He devoted large amounts of his time to personally experimenting with different recipes; each different confection that the company put out was one of Hershey’s own creations. He had personally created formulas for each and every candy.

In order to improve his recipes, he even took to carefully chewing caramels made by his competitors to deconstruct them and determine what they were made of. He would then set out to try and improve his own candies using what he had learned from his competitors. Hershey’s resolve to provide the highest quality candies was what gave his creations better flavours and textures than his competitors.

Providing candies of the highest quality possible was not only a matter of pride for Hershey, whose name would be identified with all of the products. It was also a matter of having good business sense. Hershey understood that word of mouth advertising was one of the most powerful forms of advertising he had at his disposal. He hoped that by having a candy that people loved, not only would they keep coming back for more, but they would also tell their friends about it. Thus, in Hershey’s mind, quality was of the utmost importance and would be the difference between success and failure, yet again.

A key component of quality, for Hershey, was value. As Henry Ford wanted to provide an affordable automobile for the masses, so too, did Hershey want to bring chocolate to the people. When Hershey was growing up, milk chocolate was considered a luxury. Produced and popular largely just in Europe, chocolate at the time was always handmade, expensive and its sale was restricted to specialty shops. Hershey wanted to change all of that.

One of Hershey’s greatest contributions to the industry was through his creation of the necessary machinery for the mass production of milk chocolate. After the launch of The Hershey Chocolate Company, Hershey made the wise business decision to concentrate solely on the Hershey bar and a few other basic chocolate products. This enabled him to use mass production techniques, which then allowed Hershey to provide his quality chocolate bars at an affordable price for the masses of Americans.

By committing himself to doing things better than his competition, it didn’t take long before Hershey’s name would become synonymous with quality and value.

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Article Tags: business sense, candy, caramel company, caramels, chocolates, confection, flavours, good business, hershey, highest quality, matter of pride, own creations, perfectionist, quality candies, reputation, returning home, textures, utmost importance, word of mouth, word of mouth advertising



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