New Kingsdown campaign markets sleep
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 23, 2009
MEBANE, N.C. — Kingsdown is backing its new Sleep to Live retail program with a series of clever print and broadcast ads and a multi-faceted Internet strategy.
Just as the retail program aims to change the mattress shopping experience, the marketing backing that program explores some paths seldom taken by bedding retailers. Don't look for any low-priced mattress offers here. Instead, the company evokes the power of sleep, health and wellness in print and broadcast ads ready to support retailers who sign on for the new Sleep to Live program.
A new TV commercial, featuring state-of-the-art production expertise, touts the benefits of a restful night of sleep under the banner: “Sleep. Get yours.” The upbeat commercial pictures athletes, rappers and everyday people who are transformed by good sleep.
Kingsdown CEO Eric Hinshaw said that ad could be a game-changing addition to the mattress industry, altering the way consumers look at sleep.
Print messages, including mall signs, billboards and in-store banners, are creative. One calls sleep “the new miracle drug,” while another positions sleep as the cure for cranky consumers.
The Internet campaign is focused on two Web sites: www.sleeptolive.com, and www.isleeptolive.com. The first site, now online, is more educational in nature, while the second, scheduled to become operational soon, will take consumers to retailers in the Sleep to Live program.
Jim Ross, Kingsdown's vice president of marketing, said the marketing messages deliberately take a different approach from traditional mattress fare.
“Our message is focused on sleep, not on coils and on buying beds while they are on sale,” he said. “Rather than appealing only to consumers who are in the market for a mattress, we are going after the audience who cares about sleep, not just a new mattress.”
Those two groups, he said, are worlds apart. Only about 2% of the buying public is in the market for a new mattress in any given 60-day period, Ross said, while 70% of consumers are interested in investing in their health and wellness.
Kingsdown is aiming at that 70% of the market with its new Sleep to Live program, rather than just addressing the relatively small number of consumers each year who are looking for a new sleep set.
The mattress ads targeted to the 2% of consumers looking for a new mattress often tout low mattress prices and talk mostly about the mattresses themselves, Ross said.
But Kingsdown aims to change the rules of the mattress-shopping experience by focusing on consumers who are interested in improving their health. “Wake up to reaching 70% of the population, and not 2%,” the company says in an overview of the Sleep to Live program it presented at the recent Las Vegas Market. “Expand your business past mattresses and pillows into an entirely new world.”
That new world is focused on sleep, health and wellness, themes that resonate with a majority of consumers, Kingsdown said. Those consumers won't cut back on their purchases, even in a tough economy, company officials said. And that gives Sleep to Live retailers a chance to grow their business, “stealing share from pharmaceutical companies and energy drinks.”
Sleep to Live retailers will reach consumers with “advertising … never seen before in the category,” but that is flexible enough to be tailored for local retailers' use, the company said.
Kingsdown says Sleep to Live is “a memorable call to action” for consumers.
Billboards talking about mattresses are not interesting to most consumers, Ross commented. “But sleep is a lot more interesting to consumers,” he added.
Retailers struggling with a tough economy can grow their business by more broadly appealing to consumers' interest in health and wellness, Ross said.
“A lot of retailers are looking to break out of the paradigm,” he said. “Their sales are off. If all they try are the traditional solutions, what can they do? Now is the time for them to try something different.”
