ABSTRACT
When H.J. Heinz Company began selling its manufactured food products overseas in the last decades of the 19th century, it did little to alter its sales and advertising strategies that had proved so successful within the United States. Sales agents were dispersed to the
emerging markets in Africa, East Asia, and Europe, making visits to local groceries with their samples of Heinz products and dispensing advertising cards and posters. Yet, as the first quote above (taken from Heinz’s newsletter) makes clear, the company suggested other means by which their products reached the shelves of stores overseas; globe trotters, missionaries, and tourists, the company claimed, were also responsible for the diffusion of their products “to the ends of the earth.” These travelers, apparently, were unintentionally spreading the “word” about Heinz by leaving sample products behind during their trips. Heinz Company, in other words, represented its international experiences as little more than overseas travels by at times unsuspecting agents of transmission.
