History of Zippos

The Zippo was invented during the Grand Depression. Mr. Zippo was a regular guy trying to, as many else, find a way to make some money. As the story goes, Mr. Zippo realized that regular disposable lighters were very annoying and were "used up way to quickly".

He thought about a new product which took him months to invent. The Zippo, as most know, is not simple to make. There are more than thirty pieces involved in a single Zippo and making one out of nowhere, as Mr. Zippo did, was a great challenge.

Mr. Zippo's idea was quite original. According to him, since all lighters were the same, one should simply bring something different and the market would move. His idea was grand and did not have as much success as he first expected. However, as his product's popularity increased, he began making a lot of money out of it.

Today, millions of Zippos are sold yearly and with the great life-time guarantee that the Zippo Company offers, it is no wonder that more people continue to buy them. As a matter of fact, I am personally surprised that not everyone has a Zippo, for it is conspicuously superior to disposable lighters and it has a very affordable price that I am sure anyone can pay.

The reason behind the Zippo's success is easy to measure from a marketing point of view. Mr. Zippo brought a new item to an emerging market. This combined with the subsequent boost in his advertisement (mainly from word-of-mouth), made Zippos a downright success.