One of Wrigley's premium successes was
a cookbook featuring recipes using baking
powder, given away as a premium with the
SO-cent baking powder tins. (He had used
a cookbook as a premium with soap when
he was in Philadelphia, and he had the
cookbooks printed with a price of $1.00 on
the back despite the fact that they were to
be used as premiums, giving them the ap-
pearance of added value.) At its peak,
Wrigley was sending out 50,000 cookbooks
a month.
Baking powder was a relatively new
product and while there were many produc-
ers and products on the market, baking
powder was easy to manu-
facture and had a high profit
margin. Wrigley, with the
help of his wife, began test-
ing various products to look
for one that he could use as
a premium or repackage un-
der his own brand. The sup-
plier questioned his frequent
purchases, received an un-
varnished appraisal of the
(many) failings of his product, and ended
up partnering with Wrigley to market a bet-
ter brand. Made by the firm of Puhl &
Webb, Spa and Blue Seal baking powders
made their appearance, at first as a soap
premium and rapidly as products on their
own.
The baking powder and cookbook were
such successes for Wrigley that in 1 892 he
dropped selling soap all together. As yet
another premium Wrigley offered two packs
of spruce or paraffin chewing gum with
each ten-cent baking powder can. In an-
other instance, when he offered sets of
colored glass jars to use as premiums, Mr.
Wrigley sought advice from Thomas J.
Webb ( of Phu I & Webb) and decided to fill
the jars with chewing gum (a Phul & Webb
product). Soon the premium was the prod-
uct, and within the year gum was the only
product Wrigley offered.
To find a maker for his gum, William
Wrigley first went to speak to Jonathan P.
Primley, the owner of the young and suc-
cessful gum company located at 1 51 9 Wa-
bash Ave, in Chicago. Mr. Primley kept the
impatient William waiting for ten minutes -
something the always-punctual Wrigley did
not like. Wrigley stormed out loudly an-
nouncing that he would look elsewhere for
his needs and approached the Zeno Gum
Company, a manufacturer of paraffin gum,
to make his product from the chicle base.
"Vassar", "Sweet 16", and "Lotta Gum"
were Wrigley's first offerings with "Spear-
mint" and "Juicy Fruit" being introduced in
1893.
Getting a foothold
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Despite some-
what superior
products, times
were tough and
competition in
t he chewing
gum market was
great. Getting a
foothold in the
chewing gum
business was
not easy. Exist-
ing companies
offered prod-
ucts that were
then better known than Wrigley brands. In
1 899, the six largest companies merged to