At the top of their game the Wrigley’s family was one of the wealthiest families in the world. From Wrigley Field in Chicago to Wrigley Mansion in California. Learn how they broke into the big time when they actually had nothing to sell. David Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Peak PTT Ad] David Young: Stephen, my notes say we're going to talk about Wrigley. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And the interesting thing, we're going to talk about Wrigley, not as a multi-billion dollar empire, but what Wrigley did back when they were a little Midwestern, $170,000 a year business. They were founded in 1891 by William Wrigley Jr., and in 2016, they basically merged with Mars. Stephen Semple: And at that time, they had six billion in revenues and about 1,600 employees. But when we go back, they were a little Midwestern, gum company that wanted to go national. And in fact, one of the things that they did early in their history is they did this little $100,000 advertising campaign. They were in Chicago and they wanted to move into the big market of New York. And they did this $100,000 advertising campaign that totally failed. David Young: This is when? Stephen Semple: This would have been back in the late 1800s, early 1900s. David Young: A $100,000 is a lot of money. Stephen Semple: It was a lot of money, but the campaign failed. And part of the reason why they felt it failed was, is they didn't feel like they could get enough attention with that campaign. But here's where things get really interesting. In 1907, there was kind of this little mini market crash and panic happened. And everyone stopped advertising and the ad rates dropped. Does this kind of sound familiar at all? David Young: Mm-mm (negative). Stephen Semple: We see this happened in the pandemic. We see this happen in recessions. We see this happen over and over again. But what Wrigley decided to do, this is how bold this guy is, he went out and he borrowed a pile of money. So he borrowed $250,000 to run an advertising campaign. Stephen Semple: So right when panic is hitting the streets, no one's advertising, he said, "I'm going to spend $250,000 on this campaign". And he feels that the value that they got was what would be comparable to a million and a half dollars worth of advertising. David Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Over 250 grand, they got a million and a half dollars worth of advertising. Here's what happened. It worked gangbusters. They went from $170,000 a year business to a $3 million business in three years. So from 1907 to 1910, they went from 170 grand to three million in sales. That's like 1600% growth, 16 times growth in three years. David Young: All he had to do was beat the percentage rate he was paying on the loan. Stephen Semple: There you go. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. From that day on, they stayed a national advertiser. And Wrigley was often quoted as saying, "The key in advertising is, 'Tell them quick, tell them often'". So he was big believer in repetition. David Young: Tell them quick and tell them often. It sounds a lot like the kinds of things that we tell clients. Stephen Semple: Yeah. David Young: Today. Stephen Semple: Yes. Tell them quick, tell them often. But here's the interesting thing. They didn't just do this trick once. So by 1932, they were doing $12 million a year in profit. 1932. David Young: In profit? That's not close. Stephen Semple: In profit.
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