But factory towns—even utopian ones, seldom provide living legacies. Michael D’Antonio says in Hershey (Simon & Schuster, 2006) that Milton Hershey eventually brought in foreign workers to Cuba from Haiti and Jamaica because they would accept lower pay than Cubans. In his Pennsylvania town, meanwhile, a bloody labor strike in 1937 further soured any utopian pretensions. After Hershey’s death in 1945, the chocolate company and the Pennsylvania town increasingly went their own ways.

With sights set on the global village, Hershey Foods seems to be looking far beyond factory towns these days. The company recently announced that its latest global marketing operations would concentrate on Asia. The United States and Europe are mature markets in terms of chocolate consumption, but India and China still have enormous potential for growth. Chocolate consumption in China, for example, is less than one chocolate bar per person per year, compared to twenty pounds in Europe. But Hershey is a late comer to the region, and some of its competitors have already been operating factories there for many years.

Chun Zhang is a marketing professor at the University of Vermont. In 2001, she looked at Hershey's options for global market strategy. She noted then that while Hershey had considerable strengths, it had little experience in international marketing. She concluded that the company's traditional domestic focus, coupled with the global costs of production, could make it difficult for it to compete with more established global brands.

Zhang felt that Hershey would need to adapt its products and packaging to satisfy local preferences. By way of example, she told us by email, "My guess is that Hershey's chocolate products sold [in the US] would be too sweet for Chinese consumers. Dark chocolate seemed to be more popular in China in the late 1990s."

Zhang also pointed to Hershey's need of a global identity. For his part, John H. Boyd believes that Hershey's overseas brand identity will pretty much echo its American identity. "I think from a brand standpoint, they will keep the Hershey brand, and leverage their reputation and their tradition. The candy bar is quintessentially an American product," he told us. Boyd says that although some have recently questioned the viability of American brands overseas, this does not seem to be an issue for the confectionery industry.

Cynthia Chan, a strategic director with the international marketing and consulting firm Cheskin, believes that country of origin may nevertheless come into play. "I'm not sure how Hershey can position itself against chocolatiers from Europe, say Swiss chocolate or Belgian chocolate." She adds, "When it comes to competitors, there's quite a mix there. Most of them are global brands: Nestlé, Mars, Dove, Cadbury and Ferrero Rocher. There are also a handful of domestic brands."

Chan notes that chocolate is still primarily used for gift giving in China. She feels that Hershey's traditional brown and silver paper packaging could end up working against it. "Packaging is important, especially for chocolate used for gift giving. The more luxurious, refined or sophisticated the appearance, the better." She adds, "I don't think the current Hershey packaging is suited for gift-giving. It's more of a snacking, individual thing, which is not as prominent in China." But she concedes that this pattern may change.

Randall Frost is a freelance writer based in Pleasanton, California. He is the author of The Globalization of Trade. His work has appeared in Worth, The New England Financial Journal, CBSHealthWatch, and a variety of educational publications.