Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Spring Air Forms Licensee Teams to Enhance Long-term Planning
January 31,
2018 by Larry Thomas in Business Strategy, Executive Changes, Industry 
Mattress producer Spring Air has created three licensee committees that will help set the course for the company over the next several years.
The committees – the first of their kind in the brand’s history – will allow the company’s eight licensees to share knowledge and participate in decisions involving product development and branding.
“This is very different from the way Spring Air has operated in the past. Before the committees, all of the decisions were happening in the home office,” said Spring Air President Nick Bates. “We’re a big company in scope, but a small company at heart. In order of us to come up with the best achievable goals, it makes sense to tap into the expertise of each of our partners. Our licensees are invested in this business, too, and we think a collaborative approach is much better than having corporate pushing down the ideas.”
He said one committee is involved in product development, one is tackling branding, and a third helped develop the dealer experience at this week’s Las Vegas Market.
The Las Vegas Market committee was involved with every “touch point” in the Spring Air showroom (B-1126) from the lighting to the front desk to the flow of the showroom to the menu served in the showroom’s café.
Bates said the product development committee works designing product that the entire licensing network will manufacture, noting that the ultimate goal is for Spring Air to develop products that are national in scope.
Moving forward, the product development committee will be visiting vendors in key markets to review and develop the new product direction, he explained.
The branding committee is charged with how Spring Air promotes its brands through trade and consumer advertising, social media and product marketing at retail. The focus is on developing consistent messaging and branding strategy for Spring Air, said Bates.
“One of the best things we’ve done is to bring the licensees together through this committee structure,” Bates added. “It sounds simple, but it’s complicated to pull off. Getting the buy-in from the licensees was critical. The real power lies in the synergy of this group.”