The Scott brothers saw opportunity when the ‘Crapper’ started to become a household name. Thank you

Dave Young:

Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those.

[Kooler Garage Door Ad]

Dave Young:

Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple and Steve just whispered the name of the next episode and we were chatting about it just as the recording started. But the theme is Scott Paper.

Stephen Semple:

Yes.

Dave Young:

And immediately I went to the office for some reason, like Dunder Mifflin.

Stephen Semple:

I guess because they sell paper, but yeah.

Dave Young:

Yeah. Well, and Michael Scott. It’s like, okay, but Scott, so this is toilet paper.

Stephen Semple:

Correct.

Dave Young:

Yeah. And probably some other things, but toilet paper primarily.

Stephen Semple:

Well, toilet paper and paper towel.

Dave Young:

Paper towels. Yeah, Scott.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah.

Dave Young:

Okay.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah.

Dave Young:

I’m guessing some of the things we’re going to be talking about, trees and bathroom kind of stuff.

Stephen Semple:

Mainly bathroom kind of stuff. Yeah.

Dave Young:

Okay.

Stephen Semple:

They became a big business in 1995, they were acquired by Kimberly Clark for $9.4 billion. And at the time that they were acquired, they were doing 3.6 billion in sales and basically they’re the inventor of basically toilet paper and paper towel as we know it today.

Dave Young:

Okay.

Stephen Semple:

They kind of got the whole thing going. They were founded in Philadelphia, two brothers, Clarence and Irwin Scott in 1879. And to really understand the birth of this company, we need to understand the world in the late 1800s.

Dave Young:

Well, yeah. I mean, corn cobs and I guess a handful of poison ivy leaves.

Stephen Semple:

Moss, grass, hay.

Dave Young:

Yeah, all of those things.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah. And this is the time that’s actually considered America’s second industrial revolution. So while things are modernizing and the country’s changing with electricity, factories and roads and stuff along that lines, modern plumbing, especially in homes, was definitely not there yet. And hygiene was like primitive, man. Cities were bad smelling and full of animal and human waste because if you think about it, animal was still the primary mode of transportation, right?

Dave Young:

But yeah, the streets are full of it.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah. Most homes lacked indoor plumbing. It was chamber pots and things along that lines. And like you were talking about, in terms of personal cleaning, it was grass. The one that got me the most was corn cobs.

Dave Young:

Yeah.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah. And really things had not changed much from the times of early Rome really. I mean, it was pretty primitive.

Dave Young:

The only way to get rid of it is get rid of it.

Stephen Semple:

Now there was the introduction of the flush toilet, which was starting to be popularized by an English plumber by the name of Thomas Crapper.

Dave Young:

Crapper, right.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah. Yeah. Which I always find sort of funny because when people say, “I’m going to go use the crapper,” it’s not an insult. You’re actually talking with the guy who made it… He didn’t invent it, but he popularized it.

Dave Young:

I wonder, without being vulgar, I wonder if the phrase “take a crap” is shortened for… It was crapper before anybody called it crap.

Stephen Semple:

Yes, it was.

Dave Young:

Yeah.

Stephen Semple:

I think there’s pretty good etymology for that.

Dave Young:

Yeah. Heading to the crapper. Yeah. Okay.

Stephen Semple:

Yep.

Dave Young:

It just occurred to me. I’m slow on the uptake.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah, no, absolutely. I expected us to go there. So the toilet was starting to come into homes of wealthy Americans, but this created a need for a new type of product because they need something that was good for cleaning but was also flushable. These old methods would clog these expensive new systems.

Dave Young:

Sure. Yeah. You don’t want to throw a corn cob down crapper.

Stephen Semple:

Right. So here’s this whole idea of an emerging new technology that’s changing the world and how often in this podcast have these empires been developed right at these times where there’s a new technology coming and that new technology presents new opportunities. And the reason why I’m harping on this is we’re there today. There’s a new technology emerging and there’s all this debate about is it going to be good? Is it going to be bad? Let’s think about what are the opportunities it presents.

Dave Young:

Sure.

Stephen Semple:

Because we’ve seen over and over again in this podcast emergence of unimagined companies because of these issues. It’s a time of change. So in Philadelphia, there’s the two brothers, Clarence and Irwin. The paper company is actual...