Simmons recharges brands with new logos, repositioned Beautyrest line

Bedding producer also plans national ad campaign

David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 30, 2012

Simmons has created these new logos for the corporation and its flagship Beautyrest brand.

ATLANTA - Bedding major Simmons is recharging its brand-building efforts with the launch of a new Simmons logo, a repositioned flagship Beautyrest line, a new national advertising campaign and a greater focus on its Beautyrest brand.

A new logo for Beautyrest, the brand first introduced by Simmons in 1925 and one that last received a facelift in 2000, includes the tag line: "Living Life Fully Charged."

That reflects insights gleaned from consumer research, which found that consumers are seeking the benefit of feeling refreshed in the morning. Simmons is elevating the Beautyrest brand as the solution for those tired, cranky consumers, saying the Beautyrest family of brands will generate consumers who are refreshed, energized and recharged in the mornings, officials said.

Just as consumers recharge their cell phones, computers and even cars, Simmons now gives consumers the ability to recharge "the human battery," the company says.

Simmons will be touting that message in a new national advertising campaign this year that Gary Fazio, CEO, says will be the biggest campaign in the company's history. He declined to disclose the amount of the ad spend.

The campaign will focus on Simmons' new TruEnergy Beautyrest line, which features what Simmons calls the Recharge Sleep System, a combination of the company's AirCool memory foam, Beautyrest Pocketed Coil technology and the AirCool design that helps keep consumers at their ideal temperature, the company says.
Simmons is incorporating the Beautyrest brand into its growing ComforPedic specialty line, now known as ComforPedic from Beautyrest.

And, for the first time, the Beautyrest logo features a color change from entirely black to granite on "Beauty" and blue on "rest," making explicit what the brand has suggested since its launch: That it provides beauty rest, Simmons said.

The moves are part of a transformation of the company driven by a new "consumer-centric" approach to the business, Simmons officials said.

"This is a complete transformation of the company," Fazio declared. The process started in the fourth quarter of 2010 and included studies by market research, brand positioning and creative development firms, he said.

The transformation includes new consumer-focused programs in the product development, strategic planning, market research, brand positioning, creative development, consumer messaging and point-of-sale sectors. This "360-degree approach" is centered on the consumer, officials said.

The process led Simmons to focus on what it says is the "consumer-preferred" type of sleep system: A "hybrid" product featuring memory foam and innersprings. Such a product was preferred by a wide margin over the second choice: Memory foam beds, Simmons officials said.

By pairing memory foam with Simmons' Pocketed Coil technology and other Simmons products, the company's bedding offers the advantages of conformability with freedom of movement, independent support and temperature management. The health benefits of the bedding include proper spinal alignment and pressure point relief, and the emotional benefit is that consumers wake up feeling refreshed, officials said.

At this week's Las Vegas Market, Simmons is relaunching its revamped Beautyrest and ComforPedic from Beautyrest brands. The company aims to achieve a dominant position in the innerspring segment, which in 2010 accounted for 88% of mattress unit sales, officials said.

Simmons said its innerspring business has been dramatically outperforming that of the industry as a whole, based on an analysis of industry performance as measured by the International Sleep Products Assn. Similarly, Simmons said its ComforPedic results are significantly outpacing those of the specialty segment as a whole.