High on Marketing at Market

May 14, 2012  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on May 2012

In marked contrast to January€™s Las Vegas Market, at which numerous new products were unveiled, April€™s High Point Market was more about selling beds than the beds themselves.

A number of companies used High Point as an opportunity to talk about their €œstory€ rather than introduce new mattresses. Of primary importance in telling those stories is a more aggressive utilization of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Facebook, in particular, is key to some mattress companies€™ upcoming plans. They are going to utilize the social networking site to promote upcoming sales initiatives, giveaway contests, customer endorsements and anything else they can thrust upon the public to increase brand awareness and pull shoppers into bedding stores.
Here€™s a look at what was new in bedding€”including some new products as well as marketing programs€”at April€™s High Point Market.

Sealy announced the launch of its online Sealy Schwag Shop. Following the lead of its playfully suggestive €œWhatever you do in bed, Sealy supports it€ ad campaign, the shop will sell T-shirts and other wearables with the same edgy kind of bed-related humor. €œMade on a Sealy€ is an example of the slogans on the €œschwag€, which will be heavily promoted on Sealy€™s Facebook page, which now has over 251,000 fans.

The company also showcased its recently announced (at Las Vegas Market in January) Optimum line of specialty gel mattresses. The Optimum beds add OUTLAST material to gel-infused memory foam for an optimal, cooler sleeping temperature than that of regular memory foam beds. The beds, which will be supported with aggressive TV advertising and online promotion, rolled out to Midwest retailers in late April and will hit stores in the South in the spring.

Serta€™s big news at Market was the company€™s upcoming premiere its new TV commercial to feature its iconic sheep characters. The spot was filmed on location at Serta€™s headquarters building in Chicago. The company also showed its new Freestyle Pillow, which joins two previous pillows released under Serta€™s iComfort brand€”the Scrunch and Contour Pillows. Also featured in Serta€™s High Point space was its iSeries innerspring beds. This line comes in a zippered-cover model priced from $1,799 to $2,499, a smooth-top mattress that comes in plush and firm for $1,499, and a quilted bed selling for $1,299 and $1,499.

Classic Brands introduced a new cover design added to its PostureCloud collection of gel foam mattresses. The design incorporates new ticking and construction, giving the beds a fresher, more contemporary look. The PostureCloud line will now be offered in three models: the 9-inch Essence, 11-inch Sanctuary and a new model, the 13-inch Ambiance. Each will have the line€™s new pindot ticking and blue design; the Sanctuary and Ambience will feature blue waved suede border designs. The company also announced the intro of its new Cool Gel Pillows, which will come in Alpine and Spirit styles. The Alpine is designed for stomach sleepers, with a slimmer height than the Sprit.

FXI Anatomic Global debuted its ANEW Series beds, which feature the company€™s proprietary Activus foam. The models incorporate up to six layers of foam to reduce joint pressure. The ANEW Series starts at $2,499 in queen. The company also introduced its first mattress designed specifically for adjustable bed frames, the Ascent 6, which features patent-pending technology enabling it to mimic the contour of an adjustable frame to eliminate gaps between bed and base. The Ascent 6 has 12 inches of Visco memory foam.
Gold Bond rolled out new gel foam mattresses as part of its five-model eco-friendly EcoSense line. The Cool Response Gel beds have an open-cell gel foam construction to blend the cool comfort of gel with the support benefits of latex. The three Cool Response models will range in price from $1,099 to $1,499 in queen. The nine-inch Azure model will have a three-inch layer of gel foam and a layer of AcellaFlex foam; the 11-inch Cobalt and 13-inch Sapphire models have additional layers of memory foam and transitional foam.
To commemorate the 129th anniversary of its founding, Jamison Bedding introduced the gel foam-encased Anniversary innerspring bed, available in Eurotop or tight-top styles and expected to retail for $599 in queen, reduced from its previous $799 price point. The company also premiered new Gel Comfort pillows and toppers, and is stepping up its use of new penguin mascot Captain Cool with a tropical-themed summer promotion program that features plushes of the character dressed in hula skirts and leis.
Magniflex unveiled its new UNO bed, a modular sleep system designed to work with all of the company€™s mattresses. UNO is an ergonomic system that can be constructed with either a spring base or wooden slats, and is available in wood, leather, eco-leather, metal or microfiber in a variety of colors. The system€™s headboard, legs and base are customizable, enabling it to be integrated into virtually any classic or contemporary room décor. UNO will retail starting at $2,799 in queen, which will include the frame and headboard. Magniflex also showed its revamped Memoform Snooze high-profile mattress collection, which was rolled out at January€™s Las Vegas Market but now has an improved top and new design based on comments from Market attendees.
The main announcement from Pure Latex Bliss (PLB) was the latex bedding specialist€™s launch of a new, improved Web site that will use video segments and other real-time tools to educate consumers about the company€™s product in an €œinfo-taining€ way. The site will be iPad- and smartphone-friendly. PLB also showed its Natural Talalay Latex 3.0 Hybrid series, which combines latex rubber with a dense support core and 450-gram weight fabrics for additional durability. Available in both €œfast response€ and €œslow response€ collections of three models apiece, these beds will range from $1,399 to $1,999 (fast) and $1,499 to $2,099 (slow) in queen.
The big news from Shifman Mattress at High Point wasn€™t new product; rather, it was the announcement of the company€™s aggressive new social networking marketing campaign. Conceived to boost public awareness of the brand and drive consumers to dealers that carry it, the new campaign incorporates a contest designed to educate browsers and increase traffic to Shifman retailers. The company also unveiled the results of a recent durability test in which Shifman outperformed seven leading brands in terms of durability; these tests will be provided to retailers to educate consumers, but will not be trumpeted in any future advertising campaign.
Therapedic announced the addition of new SKUs and features to its EcoGel, PureTouch and Therawrap collections. A fourth model, Blue Paradise, was added to the EcoGel line that has a three-inch gel foam layer and DynaFlow cooling fabric. This bed will be priced from $1,099 to $1,999 in queen. The eco€”friendly latex-based PureTouch beds have added multiple latex layers for a wider range of comfort levels, alogn with a sunflower pattern and removable zippered cover. Prices will run from $1,499 to $2,999 in queen for these beds. A layer of EcoGel gel-memory foam has been added to the Therawrap wrapped-coil beds for cooler sleep, and a new 2,000-coil model, €œSophie€, was added to this line. This collection is priced from $899 to $1,599 in queen. HFB