"Nothing gets by an Oreck" is the phrase that helped launch the 40-year career of its founder, David Oreck, who spoke to ASU business classes Thursday.
At age 80, he is still pushing products and the company name.
"Brand loyalty is trust," he said. "To build a brand, whether it's vacuum cleaners or widgets: Pay attention to the fundamentals."
Oreck spent the day talking to "Principles of Marketing" classes offered by the W. P. Carey School of Business.
Supply-chain management junior Tim Lu said he was moved by the speech.
"What he was saying about how to succeed in business and so forth is just what everybody needed to do to become a good business person," he said.
Oreck said he followed basic steps to form the Oreck Corporation in 1963.
"The first thing that I did was to create a niche for that product," he said. "I made it lightweight, only 8 pounds."
Then, Oreck said he had to make people want to buy his product.
Jan Oreck, David's wife, said her husband's ideas came from listening to other people.
"He listens to people and gets ideas from listening, because you'll never learn unless you listen," she said.
Oreck said experts told him his vacuum was too light; people felt a heavier vacuum would clean better.
"I decided to sell my 8-pound vacuum to places with reputations for being clean, like luxury hotels," he said.
Oreck hoped others would see that the hotels were using his product and would catch on.
"My niche was taking the hard work out of housework," he said. "Of course, there are many ways to appeal to people. It's low price; many customers can't resist a bargain."
Jan Oreck said despite her husband's celebrity status Oreck has no problem helping out around the house.
"There's one area of our house, I don't know why, it always gets dirty," she said. "It's like a black spot, and it drives you nuts."
The couple cleans the area with a shampooer, and Jan said David vacuums frequently.
"When your name is Oreck, people cannot come and see dust bunnies at your house," she said.
Reach the reporter at michael.miklofsky@asu.edu.
