By Dane Carlson on November 11, 2004 in Ideas

In 1942, inventor Earl Tupper hit pay dirt with the creation of Tupperware. It won rave reviews, but people remained skeptical about buying plastics.Enter Brownie Wise: A middle-aged, single mother from Detroit. Her secret? Convening groups of housewives for in-home product demonstrations: the Tupperware Party.
Wise turned the company around using her ambition and imagination, and by being uniquely in tune with the legions of women who made up Tupperware’s sales force and target market.
Thanks to Brownie Wise, today a Tupperware party takes place every 2.5 seconds, and the products ring up more than $1.1 billion annually.