By Tom McAndrews Former president, DuPont Flooring Division
There is the story of Stainmaster, a story that encompasses the vision, the energy and the courage that propelled those who took massive risk to make it more than a technical improvement in the performance of carpet. It is the story of how the name came to be—a $10,000 “blind” purchase from a Philadelphia attorney; of the men and women who saw the chance for a major market breakthrough with, at the time, a readily available chemical to be upgraded by DuPont’s labs; to turn a short-term product advantage into an enduring brand success. It is the story of researchers like Armand Zanato and Bob Shellenbarger who, with a strategic planner on my staff—Chris Rielly—conceived the first sense of something that would be bigger than a product improvement, significant as it was.

In the early fall of 1985, Rielly brought Zanato to the flooring division’s management to present his awareness of this stain-resist discovery for carpets—a technology previously used by the apparel industry as a dye-resist agent. Unbeknownst to both of the researchers, Zanato and Shellenbarger, but known to Rielly, was the existence of a confidential six-man marketing team headed by Bruce Koepcke, under the direction of Bob Axtell, that had been studying the various instruments and methods of consumer advertising that could stimulate demand for DuPont’s carpet products; a project that had a pre-authorized budget of $10 million if the right combination of product and opportunity could be found.

In a truly secret undertaking that had only six members of my senior management fully in the know, the stain-resist technology was married to the findings of this covert marketing group, which had conducted year-long consumer test studies throughout the U.S. The group included consultants with experience from P&G and BBDO. They had spent their year studying every facet of marketing, advertising, promotion (both retail and national) and quality assurance. They had studied many product features, most “feeding” off the established Antron trade name. The marriage of the newfound stain resist and the finding of this group proved to be an explosive combination.

In November, 1985, I gave the go-ahead to make the marriage and instructed his team to proceed as rapidly as possible to commercialization. Exhaustive pre-market testing under the strictest secrecy covenants with four leading carpet mills was initiated. These covert mill tests led, six months later, to a moment of decision.

The decision was “go!” Eight more mills were added in the summer of 1986 based on DuPont’s fiber capacity and anticipated demand. An intricate but massive rollout plan was orchestrated so thousands of trucks carrying rolls of the new certified product would be rolling all across America on the same day in early September. As the trucks were rolling, a press conference in New York’s Pierre Hotel gave the flooring press a confidential preview, followed days later by a similar presentation to all of America’s leading TV programs and networks (“The Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” CNN, etc.) and America’s leading newspapers (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, AP, etc.) and magazines. The first TV commercial— the “Ricky Plane” commercial, produced by the “Pepsi Team” at BBDO— aired during the second inning of the American League playoffs a week later. This historic commercial began a national advertising campaign, the size and intensity of which had never been seen before in the flooring industry, and never since.

The $10-million budget was quickly increased to $20 million as the phones at DuPont headquarters in Wilmington, Del., went into meltdown. Thousands of calls were coming from across the land asking about DuPont’s product breakthrough in carpet.

Axtell, my chief lieutenant, and my management team consisting of Koepcke, Koch, McLaughlin, Stucklik, Carnavale, Baucom, DeMirjian, Culley, Jones, Johnson and Smith assisted by the army of retail specialists of TMG, were crisscrossing the United States with their “swizzle stick” POP promotion displays and their bundles of co-op advertising funds to further fuel the marketing blitz.

Within weeks, sales to carpet mill customers were exponentially exceeding all forecasts, and in a truly startling effort, DuPont’s manufacturing organization began building multi-million-dollar expansions, working 24/7, breaking all records of similar construction to serve this new demand.

The most senior management of the $35-billion multinational DuPont Corp., at first surprised and “concerned” about this now massive public campaign, took a stately and impressive “hands off” position, allowing me and my management team to go forward with their soon-to-be $60-million marketing venture. They stood aside as the division’s management leapt forward with this high-stakes initiative.

Those who were in the flooring industry during these exciting times will remember much of those hectic days and years of the late ’80s, when America’s interest in carpet was piqued by TV’s Little Ricky (commercials that went on to garner the highest awards in advertising—the coveted CLIO). And who will forget those electrifying 30 seconds when Ricky and his airplane flew into the homes of 60 million fans around the world during the second quarter of Super Bowl XXII. No one chronicled this period better than the respected Al Wahnon, editor-in-chief at Floor Covering News. And those who were lucky enough to have been on the DuPont team will never forget the exhilaration, the sleepless nights, the moments of doubt and the adrenaline of battle, the seven-day weeks, the many problems solved on the run, the 1987 Atlanta “Stainmaster Market” and the sheer joy of having been part of one of the genuinely historic moments in our industry. DuPont’s shareholders benefited mightily.

The Stainmaster launch has been enshrined in the books of this country’s leading business schools and in the memories of the team that gave it birth. Twenty-five years later, it still commands the attention of carpet consumers throughout the world. Yes, Stainmaster was a technical breakthrough but it was a lot more.