EMPOWERED ACTIVITY
Hershey’s Market Research
This two-part activity is designed to familiarize your students with basic market research. The purpose of
the activity is to give students an opportunity to, in Part 1, design a simple market research survey. In Part
2, your students will implement the results of the market research survey.
Prep Time:
Activity Time:
Foundational Principle(s):
SEL Tag(s):
Empowered Currency Needed:
Key Term(s):
Materials Needed:
30 minutes
120 minutes
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Integrity
Knowledge
Sound Judgment
Analyzing situations
Appreciating diversity
Ethical responsibility
• Perspective-taking
• Responsible Decision-Making
• Social Awareness
Market Research
• Innovation
Target Marketing
• Marketing mix
Market Signals
Poster board/easel paper/ butcher paper/large post-it paper
Markers
Scissors
Tape
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars - 1 per group, plain, regular size
1 bag of assorted bite-sized chocolate candy bars (Snickers, Twix, Kit Kat, 100
Grand, Mr. Goodbar, Krackel)
Hershey's Market Research Instructions
Hershey's Market Research Worksheet
Internet
Classroom platform (Google Classroom, Edmodo, etc.)
Video conferencing (Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc.)
Virtual Empowered Currency (Paygrade, Class Dojo, etc.)
Why it works:
Students will be connected to agency by the freedom to create a survey to empathize and identify with their customers.
Students will be using their principles and action to design a new candy bar. Students will be able to pitch and be incentivized
based on their design creation. The student may discover their purpose is tied to their own unique talents and how they can
create value in the market.
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Hershey's Market Research
Page 2 of 4
Preparation:
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Determine how you will share the activity with your students.
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Review the Hershey’s Market Research Handout and modify it as needed.
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Decide how you will engage students in the debrief following the activity.
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Post the activity to your classroom platform for students to access and complete.
Introduction:
Hershey’s Chocolate Bars have the lowest market share in the chocolate industry. More and more consumers choose Hershey’s competitors’
products over the simple Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar. Once the leader in the chocolate industry, Hershey’s has lost considerable popularity
among the fastest growing population, youth ages 12-18. Youth prefer Reese’s, Snickers, Twix, Kit Kat and other more innovative chocolate bars.
Still, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar is considered top quality and has 100% mind share. Everyone knows and recognizes Hershey's Milk Chocolate
Bar brand. The problem: no one in the youth market buys them.
Hershey’s is looking to invest in a new chocolate bar company owned and operated by young entrepreneurs. However, it has yet
to find a young entrepreneur that has an innovative and exciting new product and brand that caters specifically to the market of
youth ages 12-18.
Steps:
Step 1.
Divide your class into teams of 4-5 students. Share instructions before sending students to breakout rooms to collaborate.
Step 2.
Tell your students the following:
Hershey’s has hired your teams to conduct market research to identify the tastes of young consumers of chocolate ages 12-18.
Each of your teams must complete the following:
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Design a simple survey to conduct market research to learn more about the interests of your target market.
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Implement the findings from your survey to design a new chocolate bar that would appeal to your target market.
Step 3.
Design and implement a simple market research survey.
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Possible questions include but are not limited to the following:
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What are your top 3 favorite ingredients?
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What are your 3 favorite brands?
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What is the price you are willing to pay for a chocolate bar?
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Draw conclusions based on the results of the market research surveys. Consider what you learned about the
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Rank the top 3 criteria for chocolate selection from ingredients, price, quality, and packaging
How often do you purchase chocolate bars?
Analyze the survey results.
likes and dislikes of your target market and how you might design a new candy bar based on those results.
Pro-tip: Encourage students to be creative in soliciting responses to their survey. This may mean them utilizing their social
media platforms to connect with their target market.
Step 4.
Send the groups to breakout rooms for 30 minutes to develop their survey and gather responses.
EMPOWERED ACTIVITY / TEACHEMPOWERED.ORG
Hershey's Market Research
Page 3 of 4
Step 5.
Based on the results of the market research and the conclusions you have drawn you must now:
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Create a NEW product based on the results of the survey.
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This includes designing a NEW product name, logo, tag line, and packaging.
Create a strategy that addresses EACH part of the Marketing Mix (whatever method you used to teach your students the
Marketing Mix).
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Explain the reasoning behind the strategy.
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Create a 30 second commercial advertising the product. Your 30 second commercial will be your “pitch” at the end of the
project. It should include the name, logo, and tagline at minimum.
Step 6.
Allow your students 60 minutes to complete the project elements in their breakout rooms.
Step 7.
Once 60 minutes has passed, bring all students back to the main room and ask each group to share their new candy bar design
and 30 second commercial.
Step 8.
Award virtual Empowered currency to the group with the best product and commercial.
Debrief:
Students can complete the debrief on paper by answering the following questions or be put into groups via Zoom to discuss
their learnings.
Methodology
Agency:
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How did it feel to develop your own idea?
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How did it feel to get feedback on your idea?
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How did you design your survey to capture the best knowledge?
Principles:
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When gathering and giving feedback, why is it important to have a Win-Win focus?
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How did your new brand demonstrate Sound Judgment?
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Why is it important to have Integrity when creating a new product? What would be the potential pitfalls if you did not use
Integrity?
Incentive:
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How do you use the knowledge you gained from surveys and peer feedback to recognize a new opportunity in the market?
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How did your new brand address a gap in the market?
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How do creativity and empathy create value in the market?
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What motivated you to push toward accomplishing the goal? Was it the potential reward of candy Action or something
else?
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Hershey's Market Research
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Action:
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What challenged you about this project? How did you overcome that challenge(s)?
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How did your personal creative vision differ from the knowledge you gained from your target audience?
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How did your target market feedback reinforce your belief that your new brand is attainable?
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How can you gather information to make a change in the market?
Purpose:
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How did you create value for your team during this activity?
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How did using your own creative ideas create value?
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How does it feel to create a product that brings joy to your target market?
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How did your experience here relate to the real-world?
Content
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What is the current brand image?
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Who are Hershey’s top competitors? What can Hershey’s do to be more competitive?
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What do youth ages 12-18 think of Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar?
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What can Hershey’s do to boost sales of their Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar?
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Should Hershey’s change their brand name? Image? Packaging?
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Why is it important to gather knowledge from your target market?
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Why is it important to create a new design/product based on your customer’s feedback?
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What is a market signal? What market signal was Hershey’s receiving? Give an example of a change made by a company
because of a market signal they were receiving from their target markets.
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What is the status of their current marketing strategy (advertisements, social media, packaging, etc.)?
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