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Mattress Firm's insert worthy of second look

Bedding Today column

David Perry -- Furniture Today, August 21, 2006

Mattress Firm, one of the country’s largest bedding specialty retailers, gave consumers several compelling reasons to buy with a recent single-page newspaper insert. We’ll take a detailed look at the insert in a moment. But first, a quick story about serendipity.

I was tossing in piles of old newspapers the other day at our neighborhood recycling bin. As the last pile headed toward the bin, a single sheet of paper shook loose and fluttered to the ground. It did not want to be recycled. I picked it up and found the aforementioned Mattress Firm insert. The bedding gods clearly wanted me to take another look at it.The insert, a promotion for the key Memorial Day weekend, was loaded with promotional artillery. It began with a special purchase offer, backed by an “urgent” letter from the company saying that it had used its nationwide buying power of over 300 stores to purchase a limited supply of Posturepedic pillowtop models. One of those, cushioned with silk and wool, retailed at $799 in queen. Another, cushioned with cashmere, retailed at $899. Savings of up to $500 were touted, as was an offer of 0% interest until 2008.The back of the insert invited consumers to compare “the leading brands in pressure-relieving sleep technology:” Tempur-Pedic and Posturepedic TrueForm, both featuring memory foam, and the Stearns & Foster latex collection, fashioned from two types of latex. Interestingly, no prices were listed for these high-end lines. It was an effective way to tout specialty bedding.Further down the page were four special purchases, ranging from Beautyrest at $699 to Posturepedic models with cashmere at $1,299.A “value center” was next, offering 14 queen sets at under $699. The names of those models caught my eye: Affection, Faith, Care, Compassion, Devotion and Hope. There is always hope with feel-good names like those.Finally, the insert touted fine beds at prices ranging from $199 for a platform bed to $399 for a bed in Louis Philippe styling.Mattress Firm hit all the promotional bases with this insert. There was something for everyone. The layout was clean and powerful. If I were thinking about buying bedding and/or a bed, the ad would have given me plenty of reasons to do so.Well done, Mattress Firm. Sorry I tried to toss your insert into the recycling bin. I’ve learned my lesson.

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