Hershey vs Mars - Mars Attacks! | 4

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s 1965 and Forrest Mars has just become the manufacturer of Snickers and M&M’s. He is now – at last – ready to duke it out with Hershey in a battle to become the number one candy maker in America.

And he knows Hershey is far from prepared for his sudden switch from ally to enemy. Hershey is a company wedded to tradition. It has no marketing department, doesn’t advertise, and has a completely complacent sales team.

The question is: can Hershey shake off its docile ways in time to stop Forrest’s relentless advance?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to Business Wars ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:04.8	Download the app today.
0:14.4	It's summer in 1965, and in the conference room inside the windalous headquarters of the
0:18.9	Hershey Chocolate Company, new CEO Harold Moller has news for his top team.
0:24.9	The executive stare at their stocky leader with his neat, contoured hair.
0:29.8	He looks worried.
0:31.6	I got a letter from Mars this morning.
0:33.5	They're starting to make their own chocolate, and will stop using hours over the next few
0:37.5	years.
0:39.1	The executives are stunned.
0:41.6	Why would they do that?
0:42.6	That's crazy.
0:43.6	It'll be more expensive for them to make chocolate than to buy it from us.
0:48.1	Another executive nods in agreement.
0:50.1	It'll cost them $20 million just to start production.
0:53.8	They will recoup that investment for years.
0:57.3	But what the Hershey team doesn't get is that Forest Mars isn't thinking about next year,
1:03.0	or even the next five.
1:04.9	The Mars Company's head honcho is thinking long-term.
1:09.5	Forest also knows that he can't launch an all-out attack on Hershey if he depends on them
1:15.1	for chocolate.
1:17.0	But there's another more immediate reason to do it too.
	...

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