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Title: The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars by Joël Glenn Brenner ISBN: 0-7679-0457-5 Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 04 January, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (138 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Willy Wonka Comes to Life!
Comment: From someone who is not the most avid reader, I found this exremely entertaining, I could hardly put it down! Roal Dahl's children's story is not far from the truth! The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars depicts the ongoing battle between the confectionery giants Nershey and Mars. Hershey proved to be an easy target for a cutthroat competitor such as Forrest Mars. Mars was able to catch, and eventually pass Hershey using superior efficiency, marketing, and product quality. The book explains how Mars, Inc. went from a fragile new venture to rival Hershy, the nations's leading confectionery manufacturer.
The book covers the histories of the Mars and Hershey companies. In the early 1900s Mars and Hershey were both struggling confectioners trying to create a chocolate that would come to be loved by the American people. Milton Hershey poured his millions into accomplishing his goal of creating a utopian dream community based on his chocolate business. An orphanage was its largest shareholder. Everything Hershey earned was poured back into Hershy, Pennsylvania. conversely, the goal of the Mars empire was to conquer and dominate the chocolate industry, so the M&M's would be sold throughout the world. Forrest Mars never even let his children eat M&M's because he claimed that the "brightly colored candies just couldn't be spared. He needed every last one." The never-ending battle for the number one candy producer in the United States was takedn to new levels throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.
After the death of Milton Hershey in 1945, the company began to deteriorate. By 1968, Larry Johns, who left Mars as head of sales, sat dumbfounded listening to a Hershey district sales manager explain the job of selling Hershey bars. Johns ranted that, "They had no idea what they were doing...They didn't know a thing about market share, they didn't know about their competition, they didn't have a clue what it meant to actually be a salesman...Hershey looked like a museum, a primitive operation about to run smack into the twentieth century." Hershey did not have an advertising or sales department, and knew little about what it sold, measuring success by the number, not the size, of orders. They did not know what bar was number one in a certain area, or where a Mars product had outsold Hershey's. This fundamental informations is usually the driving force behind competition.
Mars, on the other hand, was always ahead of everyone in terms of equipment, efficiency, marketing, and product quality. Most of Hershey's manufacturing departments remained largely unchanged until the 1960s. Mars had solved engineering problems that no one else had even considered tackling. Forrest believed, "...that the only way to achieve success was to offer the consumer the best product on the market. Cost could never justify sacrificing quality." Forrest's obsession explains why Mars has always been an extremely popular employer: Mars believes that they should have the best, and therefore pay the best, a practice that the company still enforces. The way Forrest Mars runs his company in such a meticulous fashion explains why the Mars company is such a success. After much hard work, in 1973 the Mars Candy Co. had the Hershey Company on the run, and surpassed Hershey in market share. By 1991, however, Hershey had regained the lead from the aggressive Mars company.
Rating: 5
Summary: A fascinating exploration of the world of chocolate
Comment: I am not particularly a chocoholic, but I really enjoyed The Emperors of Chocolate. The book is a mixture of biography, business history and chocolate lore, served up together in a marvelous blend. It reads like a novel (in parts, like a spy thriller), but I thought it was even more compelling than most novels because you know it is all true. Brenner really gets "inside" Hershey and Mars, and makes you feel like you are right there. The characters (Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars in particular) are almost bigger than life, and the stories Brenner tells -- often in the participants own words -- are alternately funny, fascinating and sometimes touching. Its a "must read" for chocoholics, and highly recommended for anyone else!
Rating: 3
Summary: Chocolate
Comment: I too read this book for my economics class. Who knew there was a battle between chocolate companies? My favorite part of the book was when they were talking about the chocolate rations in soldiers backpacks during the Gulf War and World War 2 and how they had to come up with chocolate that could withstand a high temperture. Too bad they cannot make chocolate like that for civilans.
As much as I found the information intersting and I also found the book boring which is why I only gave it three stars. Maybe three was too generous. The secrets are intersting but the writing was dull.
If you plan on reading this book, have a package of Hershey kisses by your side. You will need them.
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Title: The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe, Michael D. Coe ISBN: 0500282293 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Crisis in Candyland: Melting the Chocolate Shell of the Mars Family Empire by Janice Pottker, Jan Pottker ISBN: 1882605209 Publisher: National Press Books Pub. Date: May, 1995 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Chocolate by Hershey: A Story About Milton S. Hershey (A Carolrhoda Creative Minds Book) by Betty Burford, Loren Chantland ISBN: 0876146418 Publisher: First Avenue Editions Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Hershey by Mary Davidoff Houts, Pamela Whitenack ISBN: 073850436X Publisher: Arcadia Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.99 |
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Title: The Science of Chocolate by Stephen T. Beckett ISBN: 0854046003 Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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