What do you think of this fact?
Juicy Fruit, Spearmint, Wrigley’s: the brand has meant chewing gum for more than a hundred years. But its founder originally wanted to sell something completely different.
Soap nobody wanted
According to Encyclopedia.com, William Wrigley Jr. moved to Chicago in 1891, at 29, to sell soap for his father’s company. According to EBSCO, he reportedly had only 32 dollars in his pocket when he arrived. The problem: shopkeepers weren’t keen on the scouring soap, which barely earned them anything.
So Wrigley turned to giveaways. According to Encyclopedia.com, he bought 65,000 cheap red umbrellas and handed them out with the soap. The dye ran in the rain, but the soap sold anyway. His takeaway is said to have been: “Everybody likes something extra, for nothing.”
The gift wins, twice
Next, he offered baking powder as a free gift. According to EBSCO, he quickly found that the baking powder was more popular than the soap. In 1892, he dropped the soap and sold only baking powder.
Then history repeated itself. The new freebie was chewing gum, two packs per purchase according to EBSCO. And again, the gift was more popular than the product. Wrigley drew the obvious conclusion and switched entirely to gum.
From freebie to brand
According to EBSCO, his first gums were called Lotta and Vassar. Juicy Fruit came out in 1893, with Spearmint soon after. At first they were made by a supplier, which Wrigley bought in 1909 and merged with his own company.
Bonus fact: According to Encyclopedia.com, Wrigley’s sales rose from 170,000 dollars to more than 3 million dollars by 1910.
So one of the best-known gum brands in the world started out as the freebie that came with the freebie.