People: Susan Fox

WRIGLEY'S EXTRA FORCE

Few companies dominate an industry the way Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. dominates chewing gum, with products like Spearmint, Doublemint and Juicy Fruit garnering 50 percent of the market. And one key reason is Susan (Sherry) Fox, '81, Wrigley's vice president of consumer marketing, whose success has been meteoric.

After graduating from MSU with a journalism degree, Fox spent three years with Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, before going to Wrigley to tackle one assignment: Devise a marketing plan for Extra, the company's entry into the sugar-free market. Five years into Susan's plan, Extra surpassed entrenched competitors Trident and Carefree. 'They created the market segment and we basically took it from them,' she admits. 'But we had a very, very good product. It had a better and longer-lasting flavor. The company's dedication was key. We focused on one market at a time.'

The first woman in 100 years to be voted a company vice president (in 1993), Susan now manages marketing for all brands and commands an advertising budget of more than $110 million. She says the fight for front-end shelf space is brutal. 'You have 5,000 products competing for four feet of space at the check-out counter,' she says of impulse-buy products like gum. 'We're successful because we really focus on maintaining product quality. I'm the consumer watchdog. We try to do what's right for the consumer.'

Susan was recently named one of Chicago's '40 Under 40' by Crain magazine, a feat that should not surprise her peers at MSU, where she left a leadership trail across campus--president of Alpha Chi Omega, chairperson of several ASMSU boards, board member of Student Alumni Foundation, and very active in Academic Council. Her husband, Kenyon, stays at home overseeing their son Sullivan, 3. 'That's wonderful,' says Susan, 'because it allows me to concentrate on my job.' Her son is wonderful, too. As Susan notes, 'He's a gum chewer.'