Online Shopping Brokers: Rubbermaid
For more than 70 years, the Rubbermaid® brand represents innovative, high-quality products that help simplify life. From its original line of simple, durable housewares, Rubbermaid has developed a major presence in a wide array of categories ranging from home and garden to seasonal and commercial products. Recognized as a “Brand of the Century,” Rubbermaid is one of only 100 companies named as having an impact on the American way of life.
In 1999, Newell Rubbermaid Inc. was created, a global marketer of consumer and commercial products with 2005 sales of $6.3 billion. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., and has approximately 30,000 employees worldwide.
Today, Rubbermaid products can be found almost everywhere including mass retail, hardware and home center stores, warehouse clubs, supermarkets, drug stores, department stores and specialty stores.Newell Rubbermaid Inc. is committed to ensuring that the Rubbermaid® brand continues to stand for durable, innovative products that help simplify the lives of people everyday.
The Rubbermaid History
For more than 70 years, the Rubbermaid® brand has stood for innovative, high-quality products that help simplify life. From its original line of simple, durable housewares, Rubbermaid has grown to be a major presence in a wide array of categories ranging from home and garden to juvenile, seasonal and commercial products. Recognized as a “Brand of the Century,” Rubbermaid is one of only 100 companies named as having an impact on the American way of life.
Laying the Foundations
In 1920, a small group of men rented a building known as the “Piano Factory” in Wooster, Ohio, to produce Sunshine Brand toy balloons, and The Wooster Rubber Company was born. In 1927, two executives with the Wear-Ever Division of the Aluminum Company of America purchased the company as an investment. Horatio B. Ebert and Errett M. Grable kept their day jobs, which included selling Wear-Ever pots and pans, but they dreamed of running their own company full time.
Meanwhile, in New England, James R.Caldwell, a rubber chemist, and his wife, Madeleine, sat around their kitchen table dreaming up ideas for new products made from rubber that could be brightly colored thanks to a new technique. At the time, Caldwell was vice president of the Seamless Rubber Company in New Haven, Connecticut, but he also aspired to build his own business someday.
Madeleine and James settled on a rubber dustpan as their first product, and a patent was issued in 1933. This humble object was nonetheless the proverbial “better mousetrap,” embodying many of the factors that would guide Rubbermaid’s success.
Based on an understanding of consumers’ real lives, this product offered novel, superior design. Unlike metal dustpans, which got bent out of shape easily and chipped plaster walls when hung in the pantry, the Caldwells’ model conformed to floor contours and was gentle to walls. Moreover, it was attractive and priced at a premium: $1.00, while metal dustpans’ cost was 39 cents. The name, “Rubbermaid,” too, showed an astute awareness of emerging trends. Prior to the Depression, even middle-class households commonly employed maids – an era that was never to return. The Caldwells understood their audience’s interest in having products that could make their lives a little easier.
Store buyers, however, didn’t think that such a premium product would sell, so Caldwell took his product door-to-door – where consumers eagerly bought it and started asking for it at stores. Soon Rubbermaid drain boards, soap dishes and sink stoppers, all in bright colors, joined the dustpan in housewares departments at stores throughout the country.
Horatio Ebert spotted these “Rubbermaid” goods while calling on stores for Wear-Ever and immediately realized they would be a good fit for The Wooster Rubber Company. Caldwell joined the company soon thereafter, adding his technical expertise and innovative ideas to the company’s manufacturing and distribution capabilities. In 1957, the company dropped its original name and became Rubbermaid Incorporated.
Building the Brand
Rubbermaid's earliest print advertisement was placed in 1932 in the Boston Post, promoting the company's full line of products for the kitchen, from sinkware to floor mats. Throughout the 1940s, Rubbermaid ads regularly appeared in magazines such as Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal.
The company's first national television ads date back to 1962. Among the most memorable TV spots was the one called "Garbage Truck" produced in 1975, which featured Rubbermaid's Roughneck Refuse Container absorbing the crushing force of a garbage truck and popping back into perfect shape, punctuated by the garbage man's reaction of defeated surprise. That ad was widely credited for converting an entire nation's trash container market from metal to plastic. It also received honors in the advertising industry, including the coveted 1976 Clio Advertising Award.
Continuing a Tradition of Innovation
Strong leadership and well-articulated business principles helped the company grow steadily over time. Caldwell, who was the company’s President and General Manager until 1958, articulated an enduring corporate credo:
“A firm insistence on product quality, creation of new products, national advertising, and fair treatment of consumers, suppliers, business customers, and company associates.”
The Rubbermaid portfolio of products continued to grow. In 1947, the company introduced a wire dish drainer coated in rubber– dipped in the same tanks used by company founders to produce balloons. It was a superior product which helped prevent the chipping and breaking of dishes. In 1956, Rubbermaid introduced the first all-plastic dishpan. And in 1967, Rubbermaid offered consumers a new choice in a familiar category, introducing a plastic dish drainer alongside the (now) vinyl-covered wire drainer. Both products continue to sell in large quantities today.
Donald E. Noble joined the company as a young accountant in 1941. He was to stay for 39 years, including 21 years as Chief Executive Officer. Noble set the objective of doubling the business every six years – a goal he was able to achieve by continuing to innovate.
“We had an iron-clad rule that we would not bring out any new product that did not have some new feature. To qualify as ‘new,’ a product had to be totally new or had to have an improvement making it demonstrably better than anything currently being sold…we did not introduce any ‘me-too’ products.”
Under Noble’s watch, Rubbermaid led in other ways. To stay in touch with consumers, the company employed leading-edge consumer research techniques. In 1955, it took its products to “church women and band mothers,” paying their organizations a small fee in exchange for reactions to new product concepts. Later, it enlisted organizations to help set up consumer panels that today are called “focus groups.” Rubbermaid also was one of the earliest companies to appreciate the value of technology. In 1963, Rubbermaid purchased a General Electric 225 computer, the most advanced technology available at the time.
Noble also continued a strong tradition of national advertising, which began in 1938, when The Wooster Rubber Company placed an ad in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Capitalizing on a growing medium, Rubbermaid began advertising nationally on daytime television in 1962, introducing the Roughneck® Refuse Container – the first plastic trash container, which quickly became preferred over metal for its resiliency and durability.
Stanley Gault became CEO when Noble retired in 1980. A son of one of the original Wooster Rubber Company founders, Clyde Gault, he upheld Noble’s objective that 30 percent of total annual sales should come from products introduced over the previous five years. During his tenure the company introduced products like microwave cookware in 1983, just as the appliance was catching on, and Servin’ Saver® Food Containers in the mid-1980s. The slogan “Don’t you wish everything was made like Rubbermaid?” was plastered on the airwaves and the company fleet, and brand awareness reached 30 percent.
Spearheading a strategic plan to diversify into new product areas, Gault also launched an ambitious program of acquisitions, including Con-Tact®, Little Tikes, Gott Corporation, Seco Industries, and MicroComputer Accessories. When acquired in 1984, Little Tykes had seven product lines with some 40 items. Today, there are more than 20 product lines encompassing several hundred products. International acquisitions also were made and Gault established the International Division in 1986. Rubbermaid garnered much acclaim and numerous awards. In 1992, Wolfgang R. Schmitt, a veteran of the company since 1966, was appointed CEO. By the end of 1995, it had been in the top 10 list of “America’s Most Admired Corporations” for 11 consecutive years.
New Ownership: Newell Rubbermaid
In 1999, Rubbermaid joined the Newell family of companies to create a new entity: Newell Rubbermaid Inc., a global marketer of consumer products with 2003 sales of more than $7 billion. Its powerful brand family includes Sharpie®, Paper Mate®, Parker®, Waterman®, Rubbermaid®, Calphalon®, Little Tikes®, Graco®/ Century®, and Levolor® along with the Irwin/Lenox Group, which markets top quality hand tools and power tool accessories for the professional tradesman.
Today, the Rubbermaid name appears on a wide range of products that help simplify people’s lives. Product lines include Home Organization (home storage, drawers, laundry and beverage storage, kitchen organization and accessories, bath), Cleaning, Closet Organization (free-standing and mounted systems), and Hardware/Seasonal (refuse, outdoor and garage storage, insulated, hardware and tools, lawn and garden, mailboxes) and an array of commercial products designed to help people work smarter.
Rubbermaid products can be found nearly everywhere: in mass retailers, hardware and home center stores, warehouse clubs, supermarkets, drug stores, department stores, specialty stores, and others.
The Newell Rubbermaid company is committed to ensuring that the Rubbermaid® brand continues to stand for durable, innovative products that help simplify the lives of real people.
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