Sky's the limit with L&P's Starry Night
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, August 31, 2008
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Leggett & Platt shot for the stars – and the world noticed.
The components giant made a bold, unexpected move when it introduced its Starry Night concept bed earlier this year. The adjustable bed, sporting a fancy new innerspring system, packs a host of high-tech gadgets and carries a high price tag: $20,000 to $50,000.
L&P introduced the bed to open eyes in the traditionally conservative bedding industry. This bed includes everything from sophisticated audio and video entertainment systems to heating and cooling systems, and from Internet and iPod stations to sensitive monitors that detect snoring and make adjustments in the bed to nudge the sleeper into a different position.
L&P officials joked that the bed has everything but the kitchen sink. When they introduced it at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, it attracted worldwide media coverage that generated a startling 57 million media impressions.
“We need to stop looking at this industry though an industry lens,” said Mark Quinn, group executive vice president of sales and marketing for L&P's bedding division.
“The reason we were able to generate 57 million media impressions was because introducing technology to sleep is relevant to the media and to consumers. All of the attention was exciting, and our industry can use a shot of excitement like that.”
Another key message that L&P is sending with the bed is the importance of selling better sleep. That has become a favorite mantra of Quinn, who led a group of bedding experts last year on a coast-to-coast grassroots retail tour that focused on better sleep themes.
“If we expect to see our business grow over the next few years faster than it has in the past, we need to continue to bring new products to the consumer and connect them to the health and well-being messages of good sleep,” Quinn commented. “Consumers understand that sleep is good for them, but they do not build the bridge that a mattress can get them to that better quality of life.
“We need to consider how we promote our industry to consumers, and then ask ourselves what they see and think about a bed.”
Would anyone really spend $50,000 for a bed?
Quinn says a look at the numbers reveals that the luxury market is a $400 billion consumer market in the United States, and is growing at a healthy 15% clip a year. The wealthiest 10% of U.S. households average incomes of $256,000 and control 70% of the total net worth of all U.S. households. That's a tempting target.
The key to getting those consumers to buy a $50,000 bed, he says, is the same as that for retailers aiming to sell $999 beds: Establishing value.
“Selling a higher-price bed is absolutely possible,” Quinn said. “But, like anything else, you need to earn it with the consumers. If you prove to them that the value of the product you are selling exceeds the price you are asking them to pay, you have yourself a sale.”
The Starry Night bed continues to win kudos from within and outside the industry. L&P is currently planning to roll the product out commercially in the first half of next year. Consumer research conducted for L&P will determine how to bring the bed to market, Quinn said.
That research will also help the company determine which distribution channels should be utilized.
“It may not be traditional channels,” Quinn said, “although we have heard from many retailers that are ready to go to market with it.”
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