Sony Corporation

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Nike

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The Wrigley Company

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William Wrigley went to work as a travelling soap salesman for his father’s company at the age of 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 premium. The chewing gum proved to be more popular than the baking powder, so he dropped both soap and baking powder sold 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 increase 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 he 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 had factories in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Wrigley’s Chicago headquarters, the Wrigley Building, became a noted architectural landmark of that city.

Owing about 37% of the US athletic market, Nike is in fairly good shape. Its popularity is due largely to the use of Nike shoes by famous athletes such as Michael Jordan. Its largest com­petitor is Reebok, which owns 20% of the market. Nike not only produces shoes, but athletic apparel and accessories also are produced by the company. Since almost all the famous athletes use their products, Nike does not have a hard time selling its products, although now they are looking for a way to expand.

Nike was started in 1958 by Phil Knight, a track runner. His idea was to create a good American running shoe. The running shoe was designed by him and his coach, and a shoe manufacture created it. Then the company was called Blue Ribbon Sports. Knight substituted the name to Nike after the Greek goddess of victory, and a logo was added. Running was increasingly popular and runners who were persuaded by Knight’s advertising, bought the shoes. In 1972, four of the top seven Olympic marathon runners were wearing Nike shoes. After the next design of the waffle running shoe, Nike increased profits considerably. After running became less popular, Nike changed its products in accordance with the West desire for fitness. But when basketball shoes were created, they began to profit enormously. As Michael Jordan was used to advertise, Nike quickly made it to the top with their Air Jordan.

The company was established in 1946 as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation and changed its name to Sony Corporation in 1958. In 1960 it established the Sony Corporation of America in New York City and Sony S.A. in Switzerland. In 1961 Sony became the first Japan-based company to offer its shares on the United States stock market.

In the late1970s Sony introduced the Walkman, a portable headset stereo system, and later the Watchman, a television small enough to be worn as a wristwatch. Sony’s Betamax was the first home videotape recorder on the market, but the system but the system eventuallywas replacedby the VHS videotape format; the VHS format became the industry videotape standard. Sony’s Betacam system is now theStandard in commercial broadcasting equipment, however.

Nowadays, after the acquisitionof CBS Records and Columbia Pictures Entertainment Sony has become a major force in the recording motion picture and television production industries as well as the leading producer of computer games with advanced three-dimension graphics.

For thelast several years Sony activelyhas been encouraginginnovation by its employees. The company holds an annual contest in which engineers show off their prototypes; bonuses are awardedtothose whose prototypes are selected for eventual manufacture and to marketing.

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