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ISPA proposes multimillion-dollar marketing campaign

Eitel: Simmons will chip in $5 million a year if others also support plan

David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 18, 2008

BALTIMORE — The International Sleep Products Assn. is considering a multimillion-dollar national marketing campaign designed to boost awareness of mattresses and increase mattress sales.

Meeting at the ISPA Expo here, industry leaders unveiled an outline of the ambitious program, similar in concept to the highly visible “Got Milk” campaign launched by the dairy industry several years ago.

Simmons CEO Charlie Eitel, ISPA’s chairman, discussed the advantages of a national mattress marketing program at the Industry Breakfast here that is one of the highlights of the ISPA meeting.

Saying that “leaders go first,” Eitel made the first public commitment to the program by a major bedding producer. He said that effective Jan. 1, 2009, Simmons will accrue $2 for every foundation that it sells. That will amount to about $5 million a year, Eitel said, adding that Simmons would make such a contribution for at least five years for a total commitment of some $25 million.

If the industry backs a national mattress marketing campaign, it could be launched in 2010, Eitel said.

In order for such a campaign to be fair to all it cannot allow “free riders,” he said. He stipulated that for the program to work and for Simmons to back it, 75% of the industry, based on dollar volume, must also support the program. And all of the producers involved in the program must be ISPA members, he said.

To reach the 75% threshold of support, ISPA would need to welcome back either Sealy or Serta, both of which left the association a few years ago, Eitel said.

He said a united front is needed if the mattress industry is to meet the challenges posed by the electronics and automobile industries, which he said are two key competitors for mattress producers.

“No one can grow this industry by themselves,” Eitel said. “We need to do it together.”

He asked the ISPA members to consider the good that could be accomplished with a major mattress marketing campaign. “We need to do something to elevate the image of this industry,” Eitel said. “We are not selling bulldozers or widgets. We are selling sleep.”

Industry leaders have talked about raising as much as $100 million annually to fund a national mattress marketing program, a figure that Eitel mentioned in his address. But even a $20 million campaign would produce significant benefits, he said.

Eitel and other top ISPA officials have been privately discussing the possibility of launching a major mattress industry marketing campaign for several months. They outlined the concept at an ISPA meeting last month attended by top bedding retailers. Those retailers agreed that such a campaign would significantly increase the size of the mattress market by encouraging consumers to buy higher quality products and by encouraging them to replace their mattresses more frequently.

“Retailers are excited about the possibility of a national ad campaign,” Eitel said, “but they don’t want to pay for it.”

A national mattress marketing proposal is one of a number of new initiatives ISPA’s leadership is pursuing, Eitel said. Another is a plan to boost the industry’s commitment to sustainable practices with a national program to reduce bedding’s impact on the environment.

He said the bedding industry has been producing green products long before it became fashionable to do so. Much of the steel used in mattresses is recycled, he said, and the wood used in sleep sets comes from renewable forests. “But it’s not enough,” Eitel said, urging the industry to advance its commitment to safeguarding the environment.

Leggett & Platt executive Perry Davis is heading a new sustainability council ISPA is forming, according to Eitel.

And he also said that ISPA is establishing a retail council to incorporate retail input into ISPA’s programs.

“Strengthening the dialogue among suppliers, manufacturers and retailers is critical for us to achieve our goal of expanding the market,” Eitel said.

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ISPA proposes ad campaign

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