Garden Weasel

Garden Weasel - A great marketing story!

How did the Garden Weasel become a staple product in the lawn & garden aisle? On a handshake deal.

In the mid-1970’s, Gordon T. Beaham, III, the President of the Faultless Starch Company, a midsized mid-western laundry starch company, saw an opportunity to diversify his company while at the Cologne Hardware Show in Germany. Beaham, a fourth generation owner of the company, was concerned that people may not be starching their shirts in the not-to-distant future.

What caught Beaham’s eye was Mr. Gerhardt Guetschow’s demonstration of an unusual looking garden implement at a convention booth. The name of the product, Garden Weasel, was unusual, too.

The Garden Weasel was revolutionary in two ways:

First, it was new and different.
Secondly, it literally revolved, and there were no “rotary” soil cultivators on the consumer market back home in the U.S.A.

Beaham and Mr. Guetschow struck up an instant friendship, and Beaham ordered a container of Garden Weasels on the spot. The deal was solidified with a handshake. Mr. Guetschow communicated the news of the sale to his boss, Mr. Hans vom Braucke, whose family company owned Garden Weasel, and the Beaham family befriended the vom Braucke family. The handshake relationship remains between the two family companies to this day.

Back in the U.S., the arrival of a container load of German garden tools caused quite a commotion at the staid laundry starch company, whose expertise was selling ironing aids to grocery stores. Beaham, and Alfred Kohler, the Faultless International Director, struggled for several years to find the correct way to take the Garden Weasel to market. They tried mail order, and several other sales channels, with only minimal success.

The Garden Weasel then caught the eye of Joe Pedott, the owner of an advertising agency, who convinced Beaham that the way to market the Garden Weasel was through the use of television. Pedott would later be known as the marketer of the Chia Pet®, The Clapper®, the Chimney Sweeping Log, and other products seen on TV. After using TV in several local markets to promote Garden Weasel in drug stores, grocery stores, and other stores, it was apparent that the TV formula was the correct marketing method for the tool.

In 1976, Beaham hired Webster T. Thompson, a sales person with close ties to the hardware industry, to help expand the sales and distribution of Garden Weasel. The rest, as they say, is history. Garden Weasel went on to sell millions of units in drug, food, hardware, mass-merchandise, home centers, and other outlets.

Redefines the Marketplace

Garden Weasel earned a reputation as an innovative garden tool, as using an innovative marketing method, and as a quality tool that came in a box, that could be given as a gift.

Because of the hard selling TV advertising, late night talk show hosts, comedians, and others, loved to lampoon the Garden Weasel in songs, skits, and mock commercials…thus adding to the Weasel mystique. For example, Gary Schandling devoted an entire episode of his HBO comedy show to Garden Weasel. And any good folk song about late night TV should contain a reference to Garden Weasel.

The Gardenweasel lives on

Despite being introduced in the 1970’s, the high quality of the tool, the name, the warranty, and other factors, has given Garden Weasel staying power. And many major retailers continue to offer the Garden Weasel.

Garden Weasel did not rest on its laurels. With the success of the Garden Weasel, it launched a series of successful products. These included WeedPopper®, Garden Claw®, Mini-Claw®, Garden Claw® Gold, the Golddigger®, and Handybar®.

Garden Weasel’s marketing formula remains a well guarded secret. However, part of the secret is having the right product, at the right price, with the right promotion, and selling at the right place.