Eitel asks Sealy, Serta to back ISPA program
“Let’s all lay down our swords”
David Perry -- Furniture Today, May 29, 2008
NAPLES, Fla. — The bedding industry is shrinking and has an image problem. What is needed, according to Simmons Chairman Charlie Eitel, is a comprehensive marketing program supported by the industry’s largest players.
Eitel, chairman of the International Sleep Products Assn., used an address at Furniture/Today’s recent Bedding Conference here to make the case for ISPA’s proposed marketing initiative. He said Simmons is prepared to support it, and he urged two other big producers to do the same.
“We need Sealy and Serta to rejoin ISPA to make this possible,” Eitel said. “So let’s all lay down our swords and come together and elevate the image of this industry for the betterment of everyone in this room.”
Sealy and Serta exited ISPA a few years ago. Components giant Leggett & Platt also left ISPA for a time but later returned. Earlier this year, bedding major Spring Air resigned from ISPA. Together, Sealy, Serta and Spring Air account for almost 40% of the industry’s sales.
Larry Rogers, interim CEO of Sealy, had this response to Eitel’s comments: “The real question on everyone’s mind should be: How will we improve the total customer experience to make it one we will be proud of? A public relations campaign unsupported by a favorable customer experience is not sustainable.”
Serta had no comment on Eitel’s statement, a company spokesman said.
At the Bedding Conference, Eitel said ISPA’s proposed marketing program could help boost industry sales.
“Last October,” he said, “the ISPA executive committee was presented with data that convinced us that if our industry would spend approximately $20 million per year for five years on a well thought out, articulate national ad campaign, that at the end of the fifth year our industry would have grown at least 5% greater than without the campaign.”
Eitel said that presentation “jolted” him. “From that point forward I began to let go of ‘what is best for Simmons in the short term’ to ‘what is best for our industry in the long term,’ and therefore best for Simmons,” he said.
He has pledged Simmons’ support for a national marketing program. Beginning Jan. 1, Simmons will begin accruing $2 per foundation for the program. That commitment, for at least five years, would generate at least $25 million for the campaign, he said.
But he said one condition of that support is that 75% of the industry’s major manufacturers must participate with a “reasonable and fair commitment” and must be members of ISPA.
“I don’t know exactly how this will all come out,” Eitel admitted, “but I have no intention of giving up on the possibility.”
He said the bedding industry is being outmarketed by other industries, including the drug industry. Last year, he said, drug companies spent over $500 million to advertise sleep medications. “As an industry,” he said, “all we have done is fund the Better Sleep Council, a small amount of money that is barely scratching the surface.”
No single bedding manufacturer is powerful enough to create a movement that will lead to a significant consumer shift in how the mattress shopping experience is viewed, he said.
“Our industry has the greatest story never told because it is very difficult to visualize the power of a unified effort to send a message to consumers about the health and wellness benefits of a great night’s sleep,” Eitel said.
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