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Pears' Soap is an amber coloured transparent soap that was first produced in 1807 by Andrew Pears (1768-1845). It was the world's first transparent soap. A. & F. Pears Ltd, established by Andrew Pears is now a subsiduary of Unilever. Under the stewardship of Thomas J. Barratt the company initiated a number of innovations in sales and marketing.

Andrew Pears, the son of a Cornish farmer, completed his apprenticeship as a barber in 1789 and left his native village of Mevagissey to move to London. Here he established a barbers shop in Gerrard Street in Soho. At that time Soho was a wealthy residential area and Andrew's clientelle included many wealthy socialites who took great pride in their appearance. Andrew began to cater for his client's tonsorial needs in their own homes and used the Gerrard Street premises as a place to experiment in the preparation and manufacture of rouges, powders, creams and other beauty products. At the time, the fashion amongst the wealthy was for pristine white (alabaster) complexions; tanned faces were associated with those who laboured out of doors. Andrew found that his powders and creams were frequently being used to cover up damage caused by the harshness of the soaps and other beauty products (many of which contained arsenic or lead) that were in general use at the time. He recognised that was a demand for a gentler soap and began to experiment. In November of 1807, after much trial and error, Andrew finally hit upon a method of soap purification that created a soap of a purity and quality that no-one had achieved before. It also had the novel and unique distinction of being transparent. To add to the appeal of the soap Andrew added an aroma reminiscent anEnglish garden.

Whilst Andrew Pears continued to manufacture other beauty products, his distinctive soap became his main focus of attention. The soap was marketed squarely at the weathiest in society and sold for the princely sum of a shilling for a small block and 2 shillings and sixpence for a larger one. Andrew Pears cared very much for the reputation and quality of his products and the high price meant that the market for them was an exclusive one. Initially there seemed little need or point in taking out expensive advertising to try to widen the soap's appeal, but as the reputation of Pears' soap grew and as demand increased, rivals attempted to immitate the soap. The immitators found it impossible to replicate the soap's transparency but they sold their soaps in wrappings resembling his own. When Andrew discovered this, he began to sign each packet with "my own quill", thus exposing "those fraudulent practices".

In 1835 Andrew brought his grandson Francis Pears into the business (hench A. & F. Pears) and the company moved to new premises at 55 Wells Street, just off the busy shopping thoroughfare of Oxford Street. In 1838 Andrew retired and left Francis in sole charge of the business. At this stage the company was still a relatively small concern selling to an exclusive but narrow market of wealthy people. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, the company was awarded the prize medal for soap. By 1862 Francis realised that the company would have to expand and appeal to the emerging middle-class market if it was not to be outdone rival soap manufacturers. He bought a house and land in Isleworth in Middlesex where he constructed a new factory, run by his son Andrew.

At this time, the man who would transform the company was brought into the business. Thomas J. Barratt, who had married Francis' eldest daughter Mary, was brought to take control at the company's new headquarters in Great Russell Street in Bloomsbury. Barratt was far sighted, aggressive and willing to take risks. A man of action and ideas he brought in widespread changes to the formerly the sedate and gentlemanly atmosphere at the company offices. Within months he had completely revolutionized Pears' distribution system and was turning his hand towards improving the firm's sales performance by means of expensive and highly original publicity schemes. All this was too much for Francis Pears, who, fearing imminent bankruptcy, withdrew from the firm, taking most of the money and leaving only £4000 as a loan to be discharged equally by his son Andrew and Barratt, who became joint propieters.

Advertising

Barratt was a marketing genius and is sometimes credited as the "father of modern advertising". It was an age when there were no large advertising agencies. Newspapers usually contained a few small advertisements and they did not seek out to sell advertising space the way they do today. Barratt sought to establish the name of Pears in ways that no-one had ever thought of before.

In Britain in the second half of the 19th century, it was not uncommon for foreign coins to be accepted as tokens in place of the genuine currency of the country. Barratt saw this as a marketing opportunity. Barrat bought 250,000 French ten centime pieces (commonly accepted in lieu of a penny) and seizing upon the fact that there no law forbidding the defacement of foreign currency, had the words "Pears' Soap" stamped on every one of them before putting the coins into circulation. The scheme earned Pears extensive publicity at very little cost. As a consequence an Act of Parliament was hastily introduced to declare all foreign coinage illegal. Most of the coins were withdrawn from circulation and melted down but enough survived for them to still be obtainable by coin collectors for a modest sum.

Barratt was one of the first people in advertising to see the value of personal endorsements. He persuaded prominent chemists and skin specialists to recommend Pears' Soap, among them Sir Erasmus Wilson, President of the Royal College of Surgeons and Doctor Redwood of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. The popular actress Lillie Langtry, well-known for her perfect complexion, gave a commendation for Pears' soap and became one of the first celebrities to endorse a commercial product.

Barratt decided that in order to increase sales in the highly profitable American market, he needed to have the backing of some influential figure. He initally approached General Ulysses S. Grant and other American Civil War heroes but in the end won the support of the influential religious leader Henry Ward Beecher. Beecher had already used the soap and was happy to help promote the product. He wrote the following letter in Barratt's presence:

If "Cleanliness is next to Godliness," soap must be considered as a "Means of Grace" — and a clergyman who recommends moral things, should be willing to recommend Soap. I am told that my commendation of Pears' Soap some dozen years ago has assured for it a large sale in the U.S. I am willing to stand by any word in favor of it that I ever uttered. A man must be fastidious indeed who is not satisfied by it.

HENRY WARD BEECHER Nov 29, 1882

Barratt took the letter to the offices of New York Herald and managed to get the editor to feature the glowing testimonial in a full page advertisement on the front page. The deal was secured by cabling the newspaper's proprietor Gordon Bennet who was in Paris at the time.

In his search for good publicity Barratt awarded a complimentary bar of soap and some pictorial advertising leaflets to the parents of babies whose birth was announced in The Times.

Barratt's most ambitious and audacious scheme was to offer the British Government £100,000 to print the national census form for (what year?). This would allow him to place place advertisments on the back of the form. The government rejected the idea but had they agreed the advertising would have been seen by some 35,000,000 people.

Bubbles

In 1886 Sir John Everett Millais completed a painting he named 'A Child's World'. It featured a curly headed little boy playing with a pipe and bubbles. The model was the artist's grandson, William James, who later became an admiral of the Royal Navy. The painting was first exhibited in Grosvenor Gallery in London and was acquired by Sir William Ingram of the Illustrated London News. The painting was reproduced and presented in the magazine as colour plate, where it was seen by Barratt. Barratt purchased the original painting from Ingram for £2,200 which gave him exclusive copyright on the picture. Millais' permission was sought in order to alter the picture by the addition of a bar of Pears Soap, so that it could be used for the purposes of advertising. At the time Millais was one of the most popular artists in Britain and he was initially apprehensive the prospect of his work and his grandson, being the subject of commercial exploitation. However when he was shown the proofs of the proposed advertisements he grew to appreciate the idea. Once the advertisements appeared Millais had to defend himself against attack from members of the art establishment. The painting was renamed Bubbles and became synonymous with the company. It is easily one of the most recognised advertising symbols ever devised.

Publishing

In the ...