Volume 18, Number 11, 21 February, 2002 Issue

Vacuum cleaner pitchman to talk about ‘Building a Brand’

David Oreck, the pitchman for his namesake, lightweight vacuum cleaner, will be the keynote speaker for WSU’s Business Week. He’ll talk about "Building a Brand" during a free, public lecture at 7:15 p.m. March 6 in 208 Hubbard Hall.

The Barton School of Business is co-sponsoring Business Week, along with corporate sponsors Grant Thornton, Intrust Bank and Koch Industries.

Oreck is the 78-year-old chairman of the Oreck Corp., a New Orleans- based manufacturer of appliances, with perhaps the most recognizable being the Oreck vacuum cleaner. The company also sells irons and other products. The company has a Wichita store at 3101 N. Rock Road.

His talk will cover a variety of issues relating to brands, including who’s killing off America’s prized brand icons, such as Polaroid, Chiquita, Oldsmobile and TWA; identifying a niche market in the 21st century; the significance of "Made in the USA;" and creating a successful brand name. He’ll also talk about the future of domestic corporations in the wake of the Enron bankruptcy, and the World Trade Center attacks and current recession.

Oreck is one of America’s most recognizable pitchmen. He starts his print ads by introducing himself and claims, "I never put my name on anything that isn’t the best." He’s starred in TV commercials showing a maid holding a bowling ball, suctioned by an Oreck vacuum cleaner, above his head.

"There is a certain facelessness and namelessness to business today," he said in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer about being his company’s pitchman. "But people are still people, and they relate to other people."

After stints with RCA and Whirlpool during which he was involved with introducing the television, automatic washing machine and microwave oven to consumers, Oreck established his company in 1963, first selling upright vacuum cleaners to the hotel industry. Today, Oreck’s most popular product weighs only 8 pounds. When a customer asked how to get his teen-ager to vacuum his room, Oreck designed an upright cleaner with an FM radio and headphones in the handle.

A World War II Army Air Forces navigator, Oreck collects vintage aircraft and flies them almost daily.

- Compiled by Amy Geiszler-Jones

Back to index

• Rescuing critters

• Goldbarth book among National Book Critics Circle finalists

• DeSilva selected for new Fulbright program

• Vacuum cleaner pitchman to talk about ‘Building a Brand’

• Business etiquette, time and stress management among Business Week topics

• Longtime faculty wind quintet revives touring bug

• About the quintet members

• Networking specialist tackles different kind of networking — politics

• Strike up the bands

• New book gives successful ways to create change

• Paco Peña to bring flamenco to Wichita State

• Mainstage Theatre shows backstage comedy

• Communication school partners with elementary magnet

• Top juniors honored

• Vespers canceled

• Poetry reading rescheduled

Inside WSU is published by the Office of University Communications for Wichita State University faculty, staff and friends on biweekly Thursdays during the fall and spring semesters. Items to be considered for publication should be sent to campus box 62 or Amy.Geiszler-Jones@wichita.edu 10 days before publication.

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