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Before the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar debuted in 1900 at five cents, chocolate bars had been a luxury known only to those Americans who could afford imported “eating chocolate” from Europe. By 1906 Hershey’s chocolate bars were so popular, Milton Hershey proclaimed that Hershey dominated the market and redirected his promotional efforts away from consumer advertising. Raised in the Mennonite faith, Hershey identified with Mennonite principles that, in part, taught their followers to help others and to abhor self-promotion and obvious signs of commercial wealth. Thus, he focused on promotional strategies that conveyed deeper and more complex ideas to employees, consumers, and visitors about the value of quality, community, harmony, purity, and social compassion, which, in turn, reflected back upon the company, the brand, the town, and the man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]