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Chocolate Fortunes: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds, and Wallets of China's Con |  |
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Chocolate Fortunes: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds, and Wallets of China's Con | |
“This book is the story of the five global titans of chocolate—Ferrero, Cadbury, Hershey, Nestlé, and Mars—that battled to capture a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to establish their brands with one-fifth of the world’s population. It is also the inside story of East meeting West through the introduction into China, a xenophobic land of austerity and deprivation, of an icon of the Western world’s decadence and self-indulgence: chocolate.”
Is it really possible that until thirty years ago a billion people had never even tasted . . . chocolate? When we come to grips with the ramifications of this fact, we begin to see not just the size of the opportunity that awaited the five chocolate giants in China, but also the awesomeness of the challenge. And not every competitor met that challenge. Although still ongoing, the chocolate war in China has already seen some very clear winners and losers.
Chocolate Fortunes takes you inside one of global business’s most intense, complex, and fascinating market assaults. At its heart, the campaign to turn the Chinese people into chocoholics is really about globalizing the last great frontier. If there is an easy part, seeding an insatiable desire for chocolate may be it. (After all, “who doesn’t like chocolate?”) But what about building a business from scratch with virtually no precedent? What about navigating a boundless (and ever-shifting) sea of local, provincial, and national laws and regulations before executing even the most pedestrian business activities?
How do you run a business when the economy in which you are operating is still in its infancy, still an inscrutable mass of conflicting realities and amorphous indicators? There is no one answer, no “right or wrong way,” but for starters, step behind the scenes to witness how:
• Ferrero gained the first industry foothold and continues to dominate the high end of the Chinese chocolate market—while keeping local “copycat” chocolatiers at bay
• Cadbury’s decision to use local fresh milk in its Dairy Milk bars changed the taste of—and shaped market reaction to—its flagship product
• Hershey built up its China business before committing to major infrastructure investments in-country
• Nestlé found out if, like with its hundreds of other food products, selling chocolate as an economical snack food was ultimately the way to go in China
• Mars, first to plant its company’s manufacturing flag in China, led an endurance race that tested its commitment to consumers and determination to win the chocolate war
While each of the Big Five purveyors profiled in Chocolate Fortunes brought its own identity and strategic vision to the battle theatre, their varying degrees of success or failure hinged on combinations of savvy and circumstance, of perseverance and flexibility, and of textbook business excellence and sheer luck. The lessons learned are at once practically instructive for all internationally minded businesses and fascinating reading in the classic East-meets-West mold.
Lawrence L. Allen is a former senior executive for both Hershey and Nestlé and was deeply involved in both companies’ efforts in China. He has spent more than twenty years building consumer brands for multinational companies in China. Mr. Allen lives in Beijing.
LAWRENCE L. ALLEN (Beijing, China) is a former senior executive for both Hershey and Nestlé in China. He has spent more than 20 years building consumer brands for multinational companies in China.
“Informative, cautionary and essential, this book is a must-read for executives currently doing business, or planning to, in this most volatile and critical market.” --Publishers Weekly
"Allen focuses exclusively on China's nascent chocolate market, but he makes sure to write his book so the lessons learned by the five companies can be applied to other industries looking to break into an emerging economy." --Houston Business Journal
Chocolate. Sensuous and decadent, irresistible and just a little bit naughty. A natural match for . . . China?
They say opposites attract, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before chocolate—which has held so much of the world in thrall for so long—would finally find its way to the legendarily severe cultural landscape of China. But introducing such a singular symbol of the hedonistic West to China is no small feat, as the chocolate-industry giants have found out over the last thirty years. Not only were these companies the conduit to, and self-appointed arbiters of, China’s newfound taste for chocolate, they were among the pioneers whose first attempts in the evolving Chinese economy and marketplace resulted in any number of triumphs and failures.
Advance Praise for Chocolate Fortunes:
“No consumer goods company can call itself ‘Global’ without having a meaningful presence in China: a must-win market for long-term survival! Lawrence Allen has the inside scoop on how our iconic chocolate brands fared within the rapid development of China’s retail industry over the past thirty years. Chocolate Fortunes reveals lessons that aren’t taught in business schools and that could apply to any consumer goods company that ever struggled with, or dreamed of, success in the world’s biggest market!”— Michael Wong, Regional Vice President–Asia Pacific, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. (retired)
“With a balanced focus on business, culture, and history, Lawrence Allen explains successes and failures in adapting global strategies in China’s complex market in a way that redefines ‘think global, act local.’ Chocolate Fortunes is a must-read for today’s international executive seeking to understand China.” — William Tung, Vice President of International Sales and Operations, Columbia Sportswear
“Chocolate Fortunes provides a fascinating and entertaining account of chocolate companies’ ventures into China and how they faced the opportunities and challenges there. With a clear understanding of the vital human element required to succeed in China, Lawrence Allen offers critical observations for any company engaged in or about to explore the China market. It is required reading for our global team of professional consultants.” — Joanne and Scott Ulnick, Managing Partners, Ducker Worldwide, Strategic Market Research and Consulting
CONTENTS
Foreword by Dr. A´ngel Cabrera and Dr. Mary Teagarden of Thunderbird School of Global Management ix
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction: One Country, Three Centuries 1
Chapter 1: China and Chocolate: East Meets West 9
China’s Road from Communism to Market Socialism 12
The Evolution of the Global Chocolate Industry 20
Chinese and Chocolate: A Foreign and Exotic Curiosity 22
The Size of China’s Chocolate Prize 28
Selling Chocolate 31
Selling Chocolate in China 33
Chapter 2: Ferrero Rocher: Accidental Hero 40
Ferrero’s Journey Along the Modern-Day Silk Road to China 44
China’s Emancipated Consumers 46
Establishing a Route-to-Market in China 49
Ferrero’s Struggle with Local Copycats 56
Did Ferrero Succeed in China? 62
Chapter 3: Cadbury: One Billion Consumers 70
A Brief History of Cadbury Chocolate 71
Cadbury China 73
Cadbury’s China Morass 76
Attempting to Turn the Tide 85
The Battle for Chocolate Bars 88
The Final Blow: A Breakdown of Leadership 91
Chapter 4: Hershey: Back to Basics 95
The Hershey Company 96
Hershey’s International Business 98
Hershey China 103
The First Season: 1995–1996 113
The Second Season: 1996–1997 120
The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Seasons: 1997–2000 126
The Sixth Season: 2000–2001 134
Under New Management 138
Epitaph 140
Chapter 5: Nestle´: China’s Chocolate War Sideshow 141
A Brief History of Nestle´ 143
Nestle´’s Arrival in China 145
The Birth of Nestle´ China 151
Sweating the Assets and Reducing KitKat’s Cost 156
The Launch of Nestle´ Wafer 159
In the Shadow of Nestle´ Wafer 165
Nestle´ Could Have Been a Contender 171
The Last Word on Nestle´, Chocolate, and China 174
Chapter 6: Mars: A Well-Regulated Militia 176
A Brief History of the Mars Candy Company 179
Mars’s International Expansion 182
Mars’s China Market Entry 183
Mars Versus Its Big Five Chocolate Competitors 190
Mars’s Commitment to Market Leadership 193
Chapter 7: Going the Distance: China’s 10K Chocolate Race 201
The State of the Chocolate Market: 2008 203
The Threat from Local Competitors 213
Managing China’s Multitier Market Going Forward 220
Notes 225
Index 238
Introduction: One Country, Three Centuries
China’s breathtaking transformation from a
command to a market-socialist economy over
the past twenty-five years has turned some 300
million of its 1.3 billion people into ravenous consumers of
everything from candy to cars. And until twenty-five years
ago, almost none of them had ever eaten a piece of chocolate.
They were, to coin a phrase, ‘‘chocolate virgins,’’ their taste for
chocolate ready to be shaped by whichever chocolate company
came roaring into the country with a winning combination
of quality, marketing savvy, and manufacturing and
distribution acumen. In short, China was the next great frontier,
a market of almost limitless potential to be conquered in
a war between the world’s leading chocolate companies for
the hearts, minds, and taste buds—and ultimately the wallets—
of China’s consumers. To the victor of the chocolate
wars would go the spoils of over a billion potential customers
for generations to come.
Despite China’s radical transformation over the past quarter
century, from economic basket case to economic powerhouse,
it is still a work in progress. Figuratively speaking, in
China today the
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