Competitive Rivalry

Hershey's top three competitors are Cadbury, Mars, and Nestle. They compete with each other for the top spot. There is definitely market commonality between the three companies. They each are part of the chocolate, candy, and snack segments, making the multimarket competition and competitive dynamics quite intense. They also have similar resources: expertise in chocolate, candies, snacks; own many product lines with popular brand names; and they are all very reputable companies that have been around for about 100 years or more. Because of all these similarities, the companies are very aware of each other. Because these brands are so popular and well known, each has motivation to try to get the competitive advantage over each other. With Hershey's variety of strong resources, they have a the ability to still provide competition to Mars and Nestle, even though Mars and Nestle have many more product lines and markets. Hershey's has been a first mover lately. They just came out with their "Pieces" product line, and Mars and Nestle haven't countered this yet. These companies are part of the Standard-Cycle Markets because their competitive advantages are partially sustained as quality is continuously upgraded, they seek to serve many customers and gain a large market share, they have careful operational control and focus on giving a consistent experience for the customer, and they gain brand loyalty through brand names.