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Staff post about: William Wrigley Jr. Become an Author

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When Wrigley Jr. first arrived in Chicago in 1891, he knew that the $32 in change that was jingling in his pockets was not going to take him very far. But Wrigley Jr. had something else going for him that could rival even the deepest pockets: he had enthusiasm, energy, and talent as a salesman. It was those qualities that were going to help him come up with the idea that would get his company off the ground to a running start.

Wrigley Jr. first discovered the advantage of offering premiums to his customer in his early days of manufacturing and selling soap. As an extra incentive to merchants and customers, Wrigley Jr. came up with the idea of offering an added bonus. After all, who was ever not interested in receiving a little "something for nothing," as Wrigley Jr. said.

He started by offering free baking powder with his soap, finally switching to the baking powder business once it proved to be more popular. He then decided to offer two free packages of chewing gum with each can of baking powder. Once again, the offer was a big success, and Wrigley Jr. saw the premium become his new line of business.

Wrigley Jr.'s strategy to offer his customers "something for nothing" was not just a strategy for success that he happened to stumble upon by accident. Indeed, thanks to the years of hard work he had put into his father's soap manufacturing business in Pennsylvania, Wrigley Jr. had become something of a natural salesman. He had well honed his gift of being able to understand what it really was that his customers wanted, and adapting his business to their needs.

As the company grew over the years under Wrigley Jr.'s leadership, he continued to personally do much of the promoting and selling to merchants. In fact, his became one of the first companies to use advertising to promote and sell its brands. He discovered that by promoting his products in newspaper and magazine ads, outdoor posters, radio and more, consumers would begin to take greater note. As his advertising budget increased, more and more people began asking for Wrigley Jr.'s gum in stores across the country, forcing shopkeepers to maintain a larger stock of the product on hand. Wrigley Jr. was a natural salesman. He had a keen ability to understand the customer, and give them what they wanted, often times even before they knew they wanted it. Precisely because his resources in the early stages were so limited, Wrigley Jr. knew he had to make the best use of them as possible, even where that meant giving things away for free.

By focusing on offering premiums, Wrigley Jr. was in fact pre-selling his product. He was getting his customers not only familiar with, but predisposed to his gum even before they knew it. It was a risky move, but Wrigley Jr. managed to prove not once, but over and over again, that the best things in life really are free.

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