Story-Teller
Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2009
- Messages
- 2,406
Wrigley Didn’t Overlook the Little Things
“When business is good it pays to advertise; when business is bad you’ve got to advertise.”
—Anonymous
Bill Wrigley was a problem child. He was thrown out of school and was always “up to no good.” At the age of thirteen he was taken out of school and put to work stirring pots of boiling soap at his father’s factory. His father later decided to try the boy as a salesman and sent him to the small towns of New England. Bill soon demonstrated that he could sell. He readily made friends on the road and made it a point “to be always polite, always patient, and never to argue.” At the age of twenty, in 1891, Bill struck out on his own. He moved to Chicago and became a sales representative for a baking powder company. As an incentive to those buying his product, he included two sticks of chewing gum with every package. It was just a sales gimmick, but he kept getting requests for more gum. The requests increased to the point that Wrigley was selling more gum than powder, and he eventually dropped all other products and concentrated on promoting the gum.
By 1910, Wrigley’s Spearmint was the top-selling gum in the country, and his Juicy Fruit gum was not far behind. In 1915 Wrigley sent free sticks of gum to 1.5 million telephone subscribers. Later he repeated the mail-out to 7 million people. Wrigley poured more marketing money into advertising his gum than any other single product advertiser of the day. Despite the fact that a pack of gum sold for only five cents, Wrigley amassed a fortune and used it to create a giant financial empire.
Consider This: Look for clues about what you are doing now that could turn into big business if you gave it the chance.
Submitted by Richard
“When business is good it pays to advertise; when business is bad you’ve got to advertise.”
—Anonymous
Bill Wrigley was a problem child. He was thrown out of school and was always “up to no good.” At the age of thirteen he was taken out of school and put to work stirring pots of boiling soap at his father’s factory. His father later decided to try the boy as a salesman and sent him to the small towns of New England. Bill soon demonstrated that he could sell. He readily made friends on the road and made it a point “to be always polite, always patient, and never to argue.” At the age of twenty, in 1891, Bill struck out on his own. He moved to Chicago and became a sales representative for a baking powder company. As an incentive to those buying his product, he included two sticks of chewing gum with every package. It was just a sales gimmick, but he kept getting requests for more gum. The requests increased to the point that Wrigley was selling more gum than powder, and he eventually dropped all other products and concentrated on promoting the gum.
By 1910, Wrigley’s Spearmint was the top-selling gum in the country, and his Juicy Fruit gum was not far behind. In 1915 Wrigley sent free sticks of gum to 1.5 million telephone subscribers. Later he repeated the mail-out to 7 million people. Wrigley poured more marketing money into advertising his gum than any other single product advertiser of the day. Despite the fact that a pack of gum sold for only five cents, Wrigley amassed a fortune and used it to create a giant financial empire.
Consider This: Look for clues about what you are doing now that could turn into big business if you gave it the chance.
Submitted by Richard
