Ettore Products Company
About the Client
In 1922, Ettore Steccone immigrated to the United States from Italy and became a window cleaner. Unhappy with the tools available, he and his wife tinkered in their garage in Oakland, California, until they invented the first single-blade squeegee in 1936. Today, Ettore Products Company is the market leader in the production of squeegees and accompanying products, such as cleaners, scrubbers and extension poles. It owns 75% of the professional window-cleaning market and 80% of the consumer market. The company, which remains a family-owned business, has 80 employees and annual revenues approaching $50 million.
Objectives
Galvin Communications was engaged to draw national attention to the company’s new line of shower squeegees, Ettore Cleaning Critters. In the whimsical shapes of a duck, dolphin and fish, the playful yet practical squeegees were expected to open new distribution opportunities. Our job was to generate the buzz that would stimulate buyers to stock the product and drive consumer demand.
We contacted a highly targeted group of editors and journalists at magazines, newspapers, trade publications and televisions stations around the country. We focused not only on the Cleaning Critters, but also on the larger, more compelling business story – that of a highly successful, third-generation family business that remains competitive without outsourcing its production overseas.
Results
Ettore Cleaning Critters debuted at the 2004 International Home & Housewares Show with significant attention from the national press. We placed the product in newspapers from 30 states, and product sales spiked with each write-up.
The product was also covered by the trade press, in publications such as Do-It-Yourself Retailing, Drug Store News, Homeworld Business, Hardware Merchandising, Home Furnishing News, and Mass Market Retailers. The coverage helped convince buyers at Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer, Ace Hardware, True Value, and Do-It-Best stores to stock their shelves with Ettore’s Cleaning Critters.
We contacted local news reporters to pitch the visual aspects of Ettore’s unique business (workers at the company’s Oakland headquarters manually inspect more than 6.5 million feet of rubber a year, turning the material into squeegees at the rate of 150,000 per month and exporting them to 60 countries around the world). As a result, Ettore received prominent coverage from KGO (ABC), KNTV (NBC), KTVU (Fox) and KPIX (CBS). The company’s story was also featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and BusinessWeek.
Galvin Communications also worked with Ettore on the launch of several new product innovations, including the Hydro Squeegee which was featured on HGTV’s “I Want That!” and the Travel Channel’s “John Ratzenberger’s Made in America.”