Show your stuff
Two sleep shops put face with name, advertising
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, February 24, 2002
Image ads. It's amazing but true: Sleep shops are running image ads.
The days of listing a thousand "low, low" prices – like a tire-shop ad – appear to be numbered. Instead, many of the progressive chains around the country are focusing on broader issues like service, selection and a good night's rest.
Several have been cutting back on their newspaper advertising, redirecting their ad dollars toward broadcast campaigns.
In Arizona, Sleep America opened its first store in 1997 and is now the leading bedding retailer in the Phoenix market with a strong position in Tucson, too. The company runs an occasional magazine ad but does not run newspaper ads.
Instead, Debbie Gaby, president, appears in radio and television commercials that run hundreds of times a week in each of these markets. Gaby does talk about service and selection, but her mantra is sleep.
To reinforce the Sleep America brand-building, the company places its 5,000-square-foot stores only in Class A locations. "That's partly because we don't advertise in the paper," said Len Gaby, chief executive officer. "We work hard at our locations and make sure they're visible."
The old real estate rule of location, location, location applies here as part of the marketing mix, but meaningful market share in bedding requires consistent, even persistent, advertising.
Better Bedding in Connecticut, for instance, is advertising in three markets: Hartford, New Haven and Springfield, Mass. While 25% of the ad budget still goes to ROP display ads, the newspaper portion is going down, says John Wholley Jr., president.
The company is spending 50% of its ad budget on broadcast, and that's rising, says Wholley, who is frequently recognized as one of the bedding brothers because he appears in TV commercials with his brother, Tom Wholley, vice president.
Founded in 1976 by John Wholley Sr., Better Bedding was among the early pioneers of the sleep-shop concept. The company has 14 shops in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the younger John Wholley believes the company and its customers have benefited from having the owners as pitchmen.
"It has forced us over the years to really focus on our standards of service," he said. "People know who we are, and they'll let us know if something's not right. We want to sell a mattress as much as the next guy, but we want to do it the right way."
In the newspaper and in its free-standing inserts, Better Bedding still touts price. "We're as aggressive as anybody else," Wholley said. "What we're selling is quality and all the name brands, but you've got to be competitive with the $299 sets and the $399 sets. But our focus is on reinforcing our name and selling better bedding that people will enjoy and appreciate."
To do that, many bedding retailers are turning to image advertising: "A lot of sleep shops have a dirty-window connotation. We want people to know that we have nice stores where the salespeople will take good care of them."
| The Better Bedding brother, Tom and John Wholley, stand behind their stores, and as a result, the people in their markets expect a superior level of service. |
| Sleep America's Len and Debbie Gaby reinforce the importance of sleep — both in the store and in its advertising. |
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