The Wise Way to Make a Fortune
How Tupperware made it big
According to Tupperware Brands Corporation, householders all over the world are inviting their friends to a party, with the plan to sell them an airtight food container. Party plans are doing the business.
Until the pandemic, Tupperware Brands claimed to have half a million parties every year in France alone.
It was a surprise to me. We haven’t seen a Tupperware party in the UK since 2003. It might be a surprise to you too.
In North America, Tupperware Brands moved to an alternative model with more emphasis on direct marketing channels.
They must be doing something right, the company has a market capitalisation of $1.5billion. This despite a turbulent few years.
In 2013, the shares were heading towards $100. At the height of the 2020 pandemic, they’d dropped to $1.25. It would have been a good time to buy, a $1k investment then would have turned into $24k at the turn of 2021. That growth pales in comparison to their glory days.
1946
American business owner and inventor, Earl Tupper, struggled to sell his food containers. Back then people didn’t want plastic in their homes. They stayed on the shelves in the few shops willing to stock them.
Along came Brownie Wise with her revolutionary P.R. She was already selling various household goods via her party plan model. She brought some Tupperware and began selling that too.
In 1950, Brownie Wise created a social networking marketing system that quickly outsold Tupperware’s store sales.
Brownie trained her salespeople to leave carrots with their hosts, half of them in a Tupperware dish and the rest in the host’s Pantry. They invited their friends and family back after a month to see the difference for themselves. It was an inspired move.
The key was getting the buyers back. Comparing the rotted pantry carrots to the fresher Tupperware carrots had the guests scrambling for their purses.
Tupper soon spotted Brownie Wise as the cause of a massive increase in his sales. With her help, Earl Topper adopted her system and took his products off the shelf. He sold them exclusively through a network of salespersons who demonstrated the products in people’s homes.
Chuck some gravy at them.
Brownie Wise was a savvy salesperson.
She found if you put some gravy in a Tupperware box and threw it across the room she always got many more sales. Five short years later, Tupperware Brands had sales of $100 million per year, equal to $1 billion today.
To put that into perspective, Apple took 14 years, Samuel Adams 25 years, and Harley Davidson 86 years to reach £1 billion.
Wise invented much of the corporate culture at Tupperware Brands. She was especially keen on incentives. She introduced ‘motivational meetings’ at the office headquarters that would put Victory Day to shame.
She buried $50,000 of mink stoles, diamond rings, and gold watches in the garden for her salespeople to find. She hid miniature model cars, and if found they would swap it for the real thing. They had a wishing well at company headquarters and hired a wish fairy to dole out expensive gifts to the top salespeople.
It sounds insane, more like a cult.
They had preachers come to tell them selling Tupperware was a way to fight communism. They had a hall of fame, all the top saleswomen had their pictures framed and displayed on the wall.
At one point Brownie was taking her people down to the lake to baptise them.
It may not have been a religious order, but they treated her as if she were the high priestess of Tupperware.
It was an odd match. Brownie Wise was a flamboyant extrovert; Earl Tupper was a reclusive perfectionist. She charmed people; he tinkered with machines. He knew how to invent products, and she knew how to sell them.
The relationship didn’t last.
The clash of personalities, perhaps, but more likely Earl Tupper’s resentment of Brownie Wise. She was getting all the credit for his company’s success. He kicked Brownie Wise out of his company in 1958.
Their relationship became so toxic, he tried to write Brownie Wise out of the company history. He bought up copies of her self-help book Best Wishes and buried them on the company grounds.
Within a year, Tupper sold his company for $16m. He divorced his wife, bought an island in Central America renounced his U.S. citizenship so he wouldn’t have to pay taxes, and took his fortune with him.
He intended to build a holiday island and continue inventing. The first workers fell ill and it was only then they realised the island had been used for dumping chemicals.
Tupper came up with many more inventions, but without the ingenuity or enthusiasm of Brownie Wise, they came to nothing.
Brownie Wise never reached the same heights again either. After settling a lawsuit against Tupper for $30,000, she took to pottery. She became accomplished at that, winning many awards. However, her selling days were over.
The Queen of the party plan went on to lead a reclusive lifestyle in Florida and died in 1992 at the age of 79.
About the Creator
Malky McEwan
Curious mind. Author of three funny memoirs. Top writer on Quora and Medium x 9. Writing to entertain, and inform. Goal: become the oldest person in the world (breaking my record every day).
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