Success of William Wrigley Jr.'s Chewing Gum

This case study explores the success of William Wrigley Jr.'s Wrigley company success by using advertising methods and customer preferences regarding chew gum products. Commenting on the challenges of promoting the product, this study found that it was highly competitive from other companies and lack of the ‘chewing gum trust’, which led to Wrigley's bankruptcy several times. Although the company has faced many challenges in promoting chew gum products, William Wrigley Jr. has been looking for ways to develop and has gained much cooperation from others, until he was named the world's largest manufacturer of chewing gum and top honors at the Advertising Research Foundation's third annual David Ogilvy Award ceremony for Research Excellence.

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Artist Background

William Wrigley Jr. began his career in business as a mischievous teenager in Philadelphia during the 1870s. After running away from home at the age of 11 and suffering through repeated expulsions from school. Wrigley went to work as a traveling soap salesman for his father’s company at age 13. In 1891, he went to Chicago as a soap distributor, and there started offering baking powder as a premium with each box of soap. In 1892, he began selling baking powder as a sideline, offering chewing gum as a premium. The chewing gum proved more popular than the baking powder, so he dropped both soap and baking powder to sell only chewing gum. He also gave dealers premiums, such as clocks, coffee grinders, or fishing tackle, which varied with the size of the order. Wrigley relied on advertising to boost sales of Wrigley’s Spearmint chewing gum, which he introduced in 1893. By 1908, sales of Wrigley’s Spearmint were more than $1,000,000 a year. In 1911 Wrigley took over Zeno Manufacturing, the company that made his chewing gum, and established the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. His company became one of the biggest advertisers in the United States. By 1925, when Wrigley turned the company presidency over to his son, Philip, and became chairman of the board. The Wrigley Company had factories in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Background Study

In 1892, Wrigley supplied two packs of rubber candy with each purchase of baking soda until he again understood that premiums were more popular than products. Wrigley’s Chewing Gum offers the first two brands, Lotta Gum and Vassar. Gradually, he phased out baking powder and soap and concentrated on chewing gum. The chewing gum business was very competitive in the late 1800s. There are at least a dozen companies that reject their goods. In 1899, the six largest companies merged to form the ‘chewing gum trust'. Although a newcomer to the industry, Wrigley was offered a place in the trust, but he refused. Under relentless competition, Wrigley teetered on bankruptcy several times, but plowed ahead nonetheless. A natural organizer, Wrigley is aware of the power of advertising; he made many sales in the early days and had a knack for understanding customer needs. Wrigley uses every form of advertising he disposal. In his company ads, Wrigley repeatedly told people about the benefits of the product. He bought space in newspapers, magazines, and even posters. His motto is ‘Tell ’em fast and tell ’em often’.

In 1893 and 1894, Wrigley introduced flavors that would make the company permanent: Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint. Wrigley actively created the logo on the packaging of Spearmint. He decided that the company would focus on popularizing Spearmint, which the company couldn't. The public did not receive Spearmint at first. However, Wrigley believed in it and pushed it relentlessly. In 1907, a depression year, Wrigley spent $ 284,000 on advertising, most of it in Spearmint and thus bought more than $ 1.5 million worth of advertising in cash-strapped New York. The gamble paid off when sales jumped dramatically. The company earned over $ 1.3 million in 1909 and a year later, Wrigley's Spearmint was the top selling chewing gem in the United States. He introduced Doublemint chewing gum in 1914.

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The company introduces two new brands to the market. The Vassar brand is aimed at women, while Lotta Gum is aimed at the general market. In 1893, the company launched Wrigley's Spearmint, a breath-taking cold gum, and later that year introduced a sweet and fruit called Juicy Fruit. Juicy Fruit, the first of which was wrapped in a pale gray wrap and the yellow package did not appear until after World War II, stands out from other brands, and the fruits used in Juicy Fruit hold their taste in chicle gums. Meanwhile, Wrigley's Spearmint is wrapped in a solid white package. Both brands, packing five sticks into one package, feature a design that clearly identifies the gum as Wrigley's product. Wrigley's Spearmint and Juicy Fruit proved to be so popular that Wrigley soon found no reason to continue making Vassar or Lotta Gum.

During the 1980s, Wrigley returned to heavy television promotion of its brands using the single, simple slogan, 'Pure Chewing Satisfaction'. The message remained true to William Wrigley's 'Tell 'em quick, tell 'em often' advice and gave Wrigley a wholesome, super sweet image. This conservative approach was consistent with Wrigley's reputation for quality and purity. Still sensitive to the social stigma of chewing gum in public, the company did not portray people chewing gum in its advertisements until the 1980s, and for that it used a pair of attractive, young female twins. Prior to hiring real twins, Jayne and Joan Knoerzer, Wrigley used illustrations of twins. Wrigley introduced their Doublemint twins, but they used drawings of twins to illustrate the concept of ‘double’. Then, they hired twin models to appear in their print ads and commercials. The company's advertising agency, BBDO Chicago, scored a relative coup with a new campaign launched in 1990. A series of spots, used words such as 'House Guest', 'Office Policy', and 'Frequent Flyer' with the letters ‘O’ and ‘Q’ substituted with a red slashed circle over a cigarette, a voice over explains, “When I can't smoke, I enjoy pure chewing satisfaction”. The Wrigley's advertisement broke new ground for addressing the sticky social question of smokers' and non-smokers' rights.

While Wrigley’s brands tended to carry a more staid image, the company maintained the strongest reputation in the market for quality and specialty. After more than 100 years in business, the company under the stewardship of the third William Wrigley through much of the 1990s made no attempt to diversify into different product lines. While Wrigley's Amurol subsidiary produced novelty and specialty confectionery products such as suckers and roll candy, the company refused to venture into the food, consumer products, or chemical industries, where its major competitors at the time, RJR Nabisco and Warner-Lambert, were most heavily concentrated.

Wrigley’s Achievements

The Wrigley Company is presently the world’s largest producer of chewing gum. Across the world, Wrigley sales total 4.2 billion USD. Wrigley was the developer of Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of southern California. From 1921 until 1951, a National League baseball club, the Chicago Cubs, a Wrigley family interest, spent its spring-training sessions on Catalina. Wrigley’s Chicago headquarters, the Wrigley Building, became a noted architectural landmark of that city. One of the factors in Wrigley’s success is the development of products that not only taste great, but also deliver unique benefits for a confectionery product. These products deliver a range of benefits including dental protection (Orbit), fresh breath (Winterfresh), enhancing memory and improving concentration (Airwaves), relief of stress, helping in smoking cessation and snack avoidance. Wrigley is one of the pioneers in developing the dental benefits of chewing sugar free gum. Chewing a sugar-free gum like Orbit reduces the incidence of tooth decay by 40%. Its work and support in the area of oral healthcare has resulted in dental professionals recommending sugar free gum to their patients. Besides, the campaign for the Winterfresh brand of chewing gum marketed by Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co in Chicago has taken top honors at the Advertising Research Foundation's third annual David Ogilvy Award for Research Excellence.

Wrigley’s Collaboration

Mars Inc. and its subsidiary Wrigley have announced that they will be combining their businesses, and the newly formed combined division, Mars Wrigley Confectionery, will be headquartered in Chicago. Based on sales, privately-owned Mars is already the nation’s largest confectionary company. This latest move is being made with the goal of allowing Mars to accelerate the company’s growth in an evolving candy market. Mars Chocolate North America and Wrigley U.S. announced on May 11, 2017 the creation of the confectionery industry’s first and most significant consumer health and well-being standards and commitments. In collaboration with the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) and other industry players, including Nestle, Lindt, Ferrara and Ferrero, these commitments are all centered on offering consumers more product choice and transparency.

Recommendations

Some suggestions can be included for future research studies. Through this research, it tells that the importance of advertising in order to raise the company's name to success. For the future, they still need to use advertising to promote their product, but with the new level, which is on the horizon, these are blockchain-based advertising systems that can be set up via ‘smart business contracts’ so that ad revenues are shared automatically among ‘members’ based on their levels of activities and engagements, or securely distributed to buyers in the form of price reductions. With crypto currency, members also can be rewarded by advertisers to up vote an advertisement to gain higher visibility. Besides, the designer can develop the packaging of chew gum to attract consumer in interactive way with more eco-friendly packaging.