STRANGE BUSINESS ROMANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18599, 29 December 1920, Page 9

STRANGE BUSINESS ROMANCE.

MAN WHO MADO3, FORTUNES. MILLIONS FROM CHEWING GUM. Some people thrive qn bad luck. I /When a man begins life at twelve years of ago on a wage of 7s per week, starts a. business with a capital of Lo, makes a fortune three times, only to lose it on each occasion by bad luck, and then startß again and builda up a business which to-dav has an annual turnover of T 0,000,000, the natural inference is that such a man can only be a genius (aays tlio “American Magazine.’') r To suggest that, however, to Mr Wdljam Wrigley, the man who has made millions. from chewing-gum, would only make him smile more than tic is in the habit of smiling already. “ Work,” he says, “is a joke; a fine, rich joke. Be pleasant; always patient. Bo enthusiastic, always confident, and—smile 1 You uro bound to win through,” The chewing-gum king is an example of the value of that policy. He tells the story of how, when, as a youth of seventeen, he started on the road to sell the scouring soap made by Ilia father, ho got many an order by always thanking a dealer for listening to him while he extolled the virtues of the soap, although the dealer had refused an order in the first place. 1 A BORN SALESMAN.

To understand fully the character and methods which have made Wrigley a millionaire, it is necessary to take a glimpse at his boyish escapades and enterprises. He is a horn salesman. When, at eleven years of age, ho ran away from homo, lie immediately invested tho few shillings ho had in a stock of newspapers, and so earned food and lodging, although there wore times when.,the street was his bed.

Tho lot of a newsboy soon lost its attraction, and lie tackled sill sorts of odd jobs, finally going to sea. The hardships were so great that, sadly disillusioned, ho returned home and was sent back to school, only to ho expelled for a breach of behaviour. lit was then that lira father, tired of young Wriglev’s escapades, gavo him the hardest job in the factory—that of stirring the soap in the pots. Hour after hour he stirred tho contents ol the pots with a paddle. CATCHING THE BUYER’S EYE. “if you want me to help you to make a little money, give my paddle to someone else and let me get out on the road soiling soap,” young Wrigley at last said to Lis father. ‘Good heavens, boy, you’,re only thirteen, and hardly ou± of short trousers, ’’ expostulated Wrigley, senior. “ Yes, but I’m big for m.v ago,” protested the youngster; and lie finally won his father’s consent to a trial. Soon a steady stream of orders was being received from tho boy salesman. But the job didn’t satisfy him for long. Ho wanted to start on his own. Again ho tried his fortune elsewhere. Then the time came when ho was glad enough to take a job as a waiter in a cheap restaurant.

That job gave him Iris chance. Ono of tho regular customers was a vendor of rubber stamps. Ho offered Wrigley a stock io sell. " Pay me sixpence for every ono you soil,” said the vendor. Wrigley promptly sot to work, sold many of tlio stamps for as much as 4s b'd, and in a short time netted nearly £IOO. To Wrigley, however, it scorned ;i Blow road to fortune, and ho returnee to soap-soiling. Competition was keen and the selling of soap offered such a slender margin of profit to tlio denier: that they were thy of buying. It was then that Wrigley had a brain-ivavo.

He doubled the price of ilie soap nnd offered dealers an umbrella as a premium with every box. of fifty cakes. The result was a boom in Wrigloy’s scouring soap, and tho beginning of a system which developed until young Vv rigley became tho biggest distributor of premiums in the world.

When he afterwards wont into the baking-powder business lie compiled a I6U-pagt> book of recipes, and offered it free with a can of baking powder. Within a lew months he wan distributing these books at the rate of 50,000 a week, the sales of his baking powder running so far ahead of his other business that ho dropped soap altogether. He gave away silveyr-jdated toilet articles, including can do Cologne bottles. . This enterprise, however, proved dsiastrous. In his hast© to turn out largo orders, the manufacturer put on so thin a plating that most of the articles were tarnished by Mm time they were delivered. Ninety per cent of them were returned, and before long Wrigley had lost every penny of his accumulated profits. UNDAUNTED BY FAILURE. “ ¥ou can’t guess right every time,” lie remarked, cheerfully, and promptly made arrangements with a company to use chewing-gum, as a premium. “He believed that his new offer would attract and this time he guessed right. Presently tlio gum outstripped the powder in popularity. As soon as ho saw that the tail was wagging the dog, he ditched the dog and turned attention exclusively to the tail.” As soon as one idea failed he tried another. He onco lost” about £20,000 on an, advertising campaign which pioved quite ineffective. !Nothing to worry about,” he said, smilingly, to his perturbed assistants. “ We must spend more!” Ho ho went to work, got together an other fortune of a quarter of a million, and sank the lot in another advertising campaign, which started a tremendous boom m Wrigloy’s chewing-gum. In twelvo months William Wriglev has Spent £4,000,000 in advertising Here is an example of his bold methods:— in 1915 he collected every’ teelphono directory in America and poßted four sample sticks of his gum to tbo 1,600,000 listed subscribers. He duplicated this campaign in 1919, this timo lo more than 7,000,009 homes. “ What is the secret of successful advertising?” he was once asked. “Tell 'em quick, and tell ’em often,” fie replied. “You must have a good product in tho first place, and something that people want. Advertising is pretty much like running a fnrnaoe—•you've gob to keep shovelling coal on. Onco you stop stoking, the fire goes out.”