A lesson from PEZ

Far too often, companies or people set out to do one thing but don't recognize the bigger picture.

I've been collecting PEZ dispensers throughout my life without thinking too deeply about the company's origin story.

I was in for a surprise when my family recently visited the PEZ Visitor Center in Orange, Connecticut. It was a fun excursion!

As it turns out, PEZ was founded in Austria in 1927 as an adult breath mint and an alternative to smoking (the name features letters pulled from the German word for peppermint, "Pfefferminz"). Initially the mints were sold in small tins and were round, not the brick shape known today.

A mechanical box for dispensing the tablets — it looks like a cigarette lighter — was introduced in 1949.

But as PEZ looked to grow roots in the United States, American consumers weren't all that interested in mints or curbing smoking. The company instead shifted to candy and rolled out a Santa-shaped figure, as well as a gun-shaped candy shooter.

"Shoots delicious candy bullets," a 1956 newspaper advertisement blared.

Maybe toy guns weren't the best of ideas. PEZ revisited the dispenser box design and added a three-dimensional character head, a witch, in 1957. Popeye, the first licensed character, followed one year later. Casper the friendly ghost was another early favorite.

Tabs at the bottom of the dispenser, or "feet," were added in 1987 to help them stand upright.

Life is all about pivoting and evolving. And PEZ was able to stay relevant and become a global success story by shifting beyond its initial focus and recognizing that the dispenser was just as important (if not more) than the tablets inside, and what started as a smoking alternative could become a candy and collectible toy.

Far too often, companies or people set out to do one thing but don't recognize the bigger picture. They fail to see the delivery method as its own product, fail to solve the problem created by their product (in this case hands-free distribution), or fail to step beyond the status quo.

PEZ could have been content being a peppermint brand. But it recognized a series of opportunities and capitalized. Your inner child is thankful.

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