In 1891, a 29-year-old man moved from Philadelphia to Chicago intending to start a business. With $32 to his name, he began by selling scouring soap. Hoping to boost sales, he gave away small packets of baking powder with every purchase. Soon he found that the baking powder was more popular than his soap, so he quit the soap market and started selling baking powder instead.
But now he needed something to give away with his baking powder. Eventually, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, he took to giving his customers two free packs of chewing gum with each tin of baking powder.
And then the same damned thing happened again. He found that the free gum was more popular than the baking powder. So he rolled up his sleeves and began anew, this time concentrating on the manufacture and sale of chewing gum. At this point business started to pick up.
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