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Liberty University
BUSI601-B04
Hannah Maritz
May 20th, 2021
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Introduction
The Hershey Company is a chocolate company that was established in 1894 by Milton S.
Hershey. The company is best known for its candy which includes Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups,
Hershey Kisses, and many others. Hershey’s has many competitors like Mars and Nestle. The
candy industry is a well-established one that is difficult to penetrate because consumers are loyal
to the top competitors. A way that Hershey could stay in the chocolate competition is by
benchmarking.
Benchmarking
According to the textbook, benchmarking “is a process by which a firm identifies its
critical success factors, studies the best practices of the other firms (or other business units within
a firm) for achieving these critical success factors, and then implements improvements in the
firm’s processes to match or beat the performance of those competitors.” (Blocher, 2019). This
contemporary management technique would help Hershey achieve positive critical success
factors because it would let them investigate their competitor’s plans for success and then they
would be able to match or beat their competitors’ performance. Hershey could use the
benchmarking technique by studying Mars or Nestle and how they have successfully introduced
new products, reduced the cost of products, or overall made their company more profitable in a
market not many have ventured into. Vorhies (2001) found in his study that “Results indicated
that similarity, along seven marketing capability dimensions, to a high performing benchmark
firm did result in higher levels of customer satisfaction and profitability within the firms in this
study.” (Vorhies, 2001).
Talluri (2000) states that “Benchmarking assists businesses in identifying potential targets
for improvement. It is the initial step a firm must undertake before planning and implementing
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reengineering methods to achieve higher productivity.” (Talluri, 2000). Since the candy industry
is consistently improving and changing through the use of benchmarking it would be beneficial
to keep up with the changing industry. By studying the critical success of the competitors is
beneficial because a company can see what works and what was a failure for their competitors
which helps to avoid the same mistake. Jetmarova (2011) found that “Competitive comparing is
nothing new, but benchmarking has brought scientific principles to this area, developed a reliable
methodology and enabled a wide comparability. Benchmarking is a continuous process of
measuring systems, processes and products within the company and comparing them with
competitors or other companies that are successful in same field.” (Jetmarova, 2011).
Conclusion
Hershey could benefit from using the benchmarking method to boosts their sales by just
researching their competitor’s critical success factors. It will be positive for their critical success
factors since that they are creating plans that have been successful for their competitors in the
past.
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Reference:
Blocher, E. J., & Hicks, M. (2019). Accounting for decision making. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Jetmarová, B. (2011). BENCHMARKING - METHODS OF RAISING COMPANY
EFFICIENCY BY LEARNING FROM THE BEST-IN-CLASS. E+M Ekonomie a
Management, (1), 83-96. http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F
%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarl y-journals%2Fbenchmarking-methods-raising-company-
efficiency%2Fdocview%2F856829776%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
Talluri, S. (2000). A benchmarking method for business-process reengineering and
improvement. International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems, 12(4), 291-304.
http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarl
y-journals%2Fbenchmarking-method-business- process%2Fdocview
%2F201568579%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
Vorhies, D. W., & Morgan, N. A. (2001). Benchmarking marketing capabilities: A method for
improving business performance? American Marketing Association.Conference
Proceedings, 12, 278. http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F
%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarl y-journals%2Fbenchmarking-marketing-capabilities-
method%2Fdocview%2F199491739%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
