L&P to tour stores to promote better sleep
Five-day trip to focus on education
David Perry -- Furniture Today, August 23, 2007
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Bedding components giant Leggett & Platt is taking its message about the importance of better sleep on the road next month for a national retail tour.
On Sept. 17, L&P will launch its first Spring Alive Tour, a coast-to-coast trip that will promote the health benefits of a good night’s sleep and outline the role that innersprings play in delivering such sleep.
A delegation of L&P officials and bedding industry consultants will spend five days calling on retailers to educate salespeople and consumers on the sleep/health connection. The grassroots tour is a first for the industry, L&P said.
The tour schedule will be released later.
The L&P team includes Mark Quinn, group executive vice president of sales and marketing for L&P’s bedding division.
“Research from the Better Sleep Council shows that poor sleep not only directly affects your health, but is also directly related to the age of your mattress,” Quinn said. “For years, the industry has focused on the price of a mattress instead of the benefits to a consumer’s life. Leggett & Platt wants to help change that message so we can make a better connection with the end user.”
Bedding experts slated for the tour include Craig McAndrews of the Innovative Retail Group, who will provide retail sales training. He will meet with salespeople to share consumer insights from his research, as well as methods for selling a better night’s sleep at the point of sale, rather than focusing on price and product specifications.
A recent study conducted by Innovative Retail Group found that when retail sales associates emphasized the importance of improving sleep quality with consumers, the mattress shopping experience was 50% more enjoyable than when the emphasis was on product or price.
“My goal is to help each retail sales associate I meet on this tour have a greater understanding of today’s consumer and, more importantly, a better understanding of how to communicate the better sleep story,” McAndrews said. “In doing so, they will not only improve the lives of consumers, but they also will deliver a more dynamic experience in the store.”
Also joining the tour is research specialist and bedding veteran Kurt Ling, president of Customer Kinetics, who will work with L&P to conduct consumer focus groups that explore retailers’ concerns regarding their customers’ perception of the mattress shopping experience.
“We are going to learn valuable information during this tour,” Ling said. “That information will be useful to Leggett and will include insights that will be beneficial to retailers, as well as specifics that will be advantageous to retail sales associates.”
L&P has created materials to support the tour, including brochures, pocket cards and Sleep Kits to help retailers and consumers understand the link between better sleep and improved health.
A Web site, www.LeggettSleep.com, will be launched when the tour starts. The site also will enable retailers to order educational materials for salespeople and consumers, and will feature information on innersprings and the “Active Support Technology” story.
“No one in the industry has taken such a grassroots approach to addressing the sleep/health link,” Quinn said. “If we all tell the story, we will benefit our consumers and our businesses.”
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