Chicago Innovations That Changed the World-- Part 6: Consumer Preference Research (1928)

14. WILLIAM BURNETT BENTON had a varied career. He was assistant secretary of state at the end of World War I, he published the Encyclopedia Britannica, was appointed to the U.S. Senate and introduced the bill to expell Joseph McCarthy from that body. Before that, he ontroduced consumer preference research and revolutionized how consumer products were positioned. //// In 1928, he was working at Chicago's Lord & Thomas Advertising Agency when boss Albert lasker told him to land the huge Colgate-Palmolive company by impressing them with market research. He worked straight through the next two months to record housewife preferences. He landed the account. //// Then Benton formed a company, Benton & Bowles and moved to New York with just one client: General Foods. //// Watch Out for the Person With the Clipboard. --DaCoot