because it was given a face and sold on the domestic market
Sorry, Nar, but that's not entirely true. It was given a face because the designer thought that cleaning was a very lonely job and wanted to characterise the equipment used by cleaners in offices and schools etc.
Numatic were purely a commercial brand and only through word of mouth did they become popular in domestic settings. They weren't sold in Currys, Comet and Argos until the late 90's. Prior to this, they could only be bought from mail order suppliers like Viking Direct and via commercial cleaning retailers.
