Wrigleys
What do you get when you add baking soda and soap? Chewing gum.
William Wrigley Jr started Wrigley with $32 and the product he sold was soap. Along with this soap he offered an extra incentive of baking soda for free to merchants. When he realized that the baking soda was more lucrative to buyers, he started selling it and offered two packs of chewing gum with every can purchased. Once again, the add-on proved to be more popular than the base product and he started selling several types of chewing gum, the rest is history. This is the story behind Wrigleys, the largest manufacturer and marketer of chewing gum in the world. From Boomer which was an integral part of all our childhoods to gums such as spearmint, doublemint, orbit etc the company that brought us all these might not have existed today if it wasn't for the genius of its founder, William Wrigley Jr. He didn't only leave behind a chewing gum empire for us all to enjoy, but his business story is something we can all learn from.
The lesson from the first part is adaptability and the ability to pivot. We all have a vision, it's not always necessary that everything works out, but the ability to realize what is working and what is not and using that to pivot and turn a business or life around is what results in success.
In 1907 , a time of economic recession, Wrigley gave his dealers free coffee grinders, cash registers, lamps etc. He mortgaged everything he owned including his house and bought discounted advertising space worth 1.5 million dollars for $250,000. At a time where everyone was shying away from advertising expenses, Wrigley did the opposite and launched a massive marketing programme. This brings us to our next lesson we can learn. Faith, we need to have faith in ourselves and it's
What do you get when you add baking soda and soap? Chewing gum.
William Wrigley Jr started Wrigley with $32 and the product he sold was soap. Along with this soap he offered an extra incentive of baking soda for free to merchants. When he realized that the baking soda was more lucrative to buyers, he started selling it and offered two packs of chewing gum with every can purchased. Once again, the add-on proved to be more popular than the base product and he started selling several types of chewing gum, the rest is history. This is the story behind Wrigleys, the largest manufacturer and marketer of chewing gum in the world. From Boomer which was an integral part of all our childhoods to gums such as spearmint, doublemint, orbit etc the company that brought us all these might not have existed today if it wasn't for the genius of its founder, William Wrigley Jr. He didn't only leave behind a chewing gum empire for us all to enjoy, but his business story is something we can all learn from.
The lesson from the first part is adaptability and the ability to pivot. We all have a vision, it's not always necessary that everything works out, but the ability to realize what is working and what is not and using that to pivot and turn a business or life around is what results in success.
In 1907 , a time of economic recession, Wrigley gave his dealers free coffee grinders, cash registers, lamps etc. He mortgaged everything he owned including his house and bought discounted advertising space worth 1.5 million dollars for $250,000. At a time where everyone was shying away from advertising expenses, Wrigley did the opposite and launched a massive marketing programme. This brings us to our next lesson we can learn. Faith, we need to have faith in ourselves and it's not necessary to follow what everyone is doing. The biggest risks yield the greatest rewards, for Wrigley By 1910(within 3 years), sales increased from $170,000 to more than $3 million.
What we can learn from this is we need to be able to pivot and adapt when the situation calls for it. Also We must have faith in our ability to overcome any of life's challenges and emerge successful.
-Varun Agnihotri
BackWhat we can learn from this is we need to be able to pivot and adapt when the situation calls for it. Also We must have faith in our ability to overcome any of life's challenges and emerge successful.