When candy powerhouse The Hershey Company decided to save a few bucks by substituting ingredients for real chocolate with fake chocolate, most consumers never noticed. But a niche blog, CandyBlog, follows the company that built its empire on the quality of its chocolate.
CandyBlog exposed the substitution of cocoa butter with oils from palm kernels, soybeans, sunflower and safflower, which led to a groundswell of negative media coverage, including The Today Show. One newspaper called Hershey’s use of misleading labels such as “made with chocolate” on its Mr. Goodbar, Milk Duds, and Take 5 candies “a blatant consumer rip-off.”
And the news just gets worse for Hershey, as eco-enthusiasts have jumped on t he bandwagon to point out that Hershey's use of palm oil contributes to deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia. Outsourcing opponents point out that Hershey shut down U.S. factories to make fake chocolate in Mexico. Health advocates note that eating palm oil contributes to cardiovascular disease.
Niche blogs that follow specific industries have grown in importance. Through RSS feeds and content sharing on the Web, companies can either see a spike in interest about their products/solutions or get slammed and have their brands damaged in days.
For Hershey, the cost savings haven’t been worth the negative coverage. But they might have gotten away with the cocoa butter substitution were it not for a blog that caters to candy lovers. Don't underestimate the power of small, niche blogs.