brand name fame

While you may have never thought "wow these canned green beans taste great!" chances are you may have at least enjoyed the fact that they had not spoiled before your purchase. For this accomplishment we have Nicolas Appert and Peter Durand to thank. Due to their contribution to packaging our money is now better invested than it had been in the past. More importantly, though, is what was contained inside that novel packaging.

When you go to the super-market you have several thousand products to choose from including hundreds maybe even thousands of brand names. This has not always been the case though. There was a day, if you can imagine, where not only were those cute wonderbread sandwich shaped holders unavailable, but also WonderBread itself did not exist. Not all cities or even states were graced with the same availabilty of products as other locations were. Not until brand names went international.

Proctor & Gamble, traditionally founded by a soap maker (Proctor) and a candle maker (Gamble), introduced a new product that paved the way for brand names to become big. Crisco, as many of you may know, is a shortening used in cooking various dishes. It got it's boost when they began marketing it with "Crisco parties," a great success. (Later other companies followed suit ex. tupperware, mary kay, etc.) Women would host parties where a few dishes would be prepared using crisco and demonstrating that it can be tasty. It also appealed to vegans because it used no animal fat. This was only one of the first companies however, and soon many began marketing their brand names.

Brand names made products available everywhere, and in each place one could be sure that they would be getting the same taste and quality as if they had bought it elsewhere. This along with the implementation of railroads and the previously discussed canning techniques made the grocery store what it is today.

If you're interested, check out the original article- it has interesting facts about companies like Colgate and Quaker Oats and their improvements as well.