Post-it, a brand of 3M company, was a groundbreaking invention in the stationery industry. Would you like to know the invention story of this product, which was first introduced to the market in 1980?
The founding of 3M company dates back to the early 1900s. In Minnesota, 5 businessmen set up a company to sell minerals for use in millstone abrasive. But when things didn't go as they had hoped, they went into the sandpaper business and started a new company in 1905. Named Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, this company eventually became known as 3M.
The company, which has shown great success in the sandpaper business, grows in a short time with new investors.
In the 1940s, 3M made investments in the defense industry. And it manages to be the pioneer of many innovations in this sector. Reflective foils, sound recording tapes and filament tapes developed for highway markings are some of these innovations. In the post-war period, he concentrates on the technology field and the cleaning products sector. In particular, Thermo-Fax copier, video tape and overhead projector systems are of great interest. Scotch-Brite, another brand of the company, pioneers many innovations in the field of cleaning products.
Concentrating on the fields of medicine, radiology and energy in the 1970s, 3M's growth continued with Post-it, which it developed in 1980. These products are so popular that 3M opens a new category in the stationery industry. In the 1990s, revenue from sales reached $15 billion.
The Birth of the Post-it Brand
The adventure of post-its, which was first introduced to the market in 1980, began in 1968. A scientist at 3M, Dr. Spencer Silver focused on adhesives. He actually wanted to find a stronger and harder adhesive. However, he found a special sticky substance that both adheres to surfaces easily and is easily removed. This substance both retained its adhesive property for a long time and was able to hold onto surfaces strongly. He defined this material as “removable microspheres”.
His colleague Arthur Fry wanted to apply Spencer Silver's invention on his notepads. Arthur Fry, who sang in the church choir every Wednesday night, used small pieces of paper to mark the hymns he would sing on the show. But these were slipping and falling during the program. He didn't want to fold the book pages either, he wanted to find another solution that wouldn't damage the pages.
It was at such a ceremony that Arthur Fry came up with the idea of applying this adhesive, an invention of Spencer Silver, to note papers. If he put this glue on the back of the note papers, he could mark the book pages without damaging them. Arthur Fry later began using these papers elsewhere. These papers, which he attached to the margins of internal correspondence and reports, attracted great interest among 3M employees. And it gave birth to a new form of communication.
In these periods, internal communication was provided with pins, paper clips or tapes attached to the margins of the articles. However, these fast-adhesive and non-abrasive note papers led to the emergence of an extremely fast and practical form of communication. Thereupon, these products were called “post-it” and were transformed into a product type and offered to the market.
The Rise of the Post-it Brand
The innovations that Post-it products introduced to the market in 1980 brought to the sector can be summarized mainly around the headings of communication, recall and reminder.
Turning Spencer Silver's invention into a product type, Arthur Fry could predict the future extent of post-it use. Because post-its created a new form of communication, not a simple placemarker.
When the first prototypes of the product were distributed to 3M employees for trial purposes, all employees enjoyed this new form of communication. In their pre-launch studies, 90 percent of those who tried these products had a desire to buy the products. This was the first sign of "products spreading like a virus," in Arthur Fry's words. As the color variety of the products increased, the content in these correspondences began to be graded in terms of importance. Moreover, in some popular TV series and movies of the period, the characters began to communicate with each other through colorful post-its. Which accelerated the spread of products.