Mattress industry needs to update its sales pitch
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, March 23, 2003
Furniture/Today's Feb. 24 report on Consumer Buying Trends contains information that should serve as a wake-up call to everyone in the mattress business. Fifteen percent (15.1%) of consumers shopped for a mattress/boxspring in 2002, but only 10.8% bought one.
Buying a mattress is a planned purchase, not an impulse purchase. Consumers don't go shopping for a mattress unless there is an interest in buying one. What the numbers in Furniture/Today tell us is that nearly one-third of the consumers who entered the mattress buying process left without buying anything.
In a year that was generally regarded as a tough year (the International Sleep Products Assn. reports unit sales up only 0.7%) we let one-third of the consumers walk.
The message is clear: We aren't delivering what consumers are looking for. The traditional comfort and price sales pitch needs to be updated. Bedding manufacturers and retailers need to change their approach to one that promotes the real benefits of buying our products. If we do, there's a potential to increase our sales by almost 50%.
In today's economy, consumers will buy products that they perceive as offering a legitimate and personal benefit. They are looking for products that improve their lives. A new mattress should do just that.
If we told that story, our sales could be seeing record highs.
Don Hofmann, senior vice president, marketing Simmons Co.
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