The Sleep Retailer Podcast

We're joined by Cindy Williams. As the director of business development at the Look Company, Cindy helps manufacturers and retailers transform their showroom spaces with eye-catching visual displays. She shares her unique insight on the shifting trends in the mattress retail space, the value of visual engagement—and why we need to move beyond the idea of retail as a promotional environment.

This week we’re chatting with Tom Murray, EVP and chief marketing officer for Tempur Sealy. He joins us to discuss how consumers are finally connecting the dots between the mattress and their health and wellness, the importance of keeping a finger on the pulse of consumers' purchasing journeys and media habits and why Tempur Sealy remains optimistic about 2022.

This week's guest is Misti Achilles, the head of marketing for Katapult. She joins us to discuss how consumer marketing has evolved from the vantage point of a lease-to-own financing provider. We talk about the value of transparency, the challenges of marketing a service and why really understanding consumers’ financial needs is key to growing your retail customer base.

This week we’re talking with Classic Brands! CEO Scott Burger and Chief Commercial Officer Vivian Weng joined us to talk about how their approach to consumer marketing has evolved over the past year and a half. We discuss best practices for collecting product reviews, the importance of testing new ad formats and how to make sure your digital content and merchandising are working together to really engage with the consumer.

Our guest this week is Amanda Evans, VP of Shopper Marketing for Nationwide Marketing Group. She joined us to discuss some practical and creative ways retailers can engage with today's consumers. We chatted about the latest trends in consumer search terms, how different stages of the buying journey require different marketing needs, and the value of setting customer expectations across different platforms.

We’re continuing our series on consumer marketing this week with PureCare!Sarah Bergman, chief marketing officer and SVP of product development, joined us to share her thoughts on how the marketing landscape has evolved in the specialty bedding category over the past year and a half. We chatted about the increased demand from consumers for transparency, why “wellness” as a buzzword can be a double-edged sword and how digital technologies are delivering valuable insights for both the in-store and online retail experience.

The past two years have been quite the rollercoaster. In this new series, we’re exploring how consumer marketing has changed and evolved over the course of the pandemic. What are consumers looking for now? And how can retailers meet those needs to grow their sales? First up is Malouf Home! We caught up with Scott Carr, marketing director, and Ashlee Willes, brand manager, to talk about how they’re helping retailers meet the consumer where they are and how they want to shop. We discuss picking the right type of content for different products and platforms, understanding the impact of social commerce—and what it means to use their business as a force for good in the world.

We’re joined by Mark Hobson, a long-time sleep industry consultant currently working with the UK-based Silentnight brand. In this broad discussion, we explore the unprecedented ways in which supply chain disruptions and price increases are impacting on the industry, how the growth of ecommerce is affecting average unit selling price and what it has been like trying to introduce a new brand to the US market during a pandemic. Pointing to both the unique opportunities and distinct challenges of the moment, Hobson offers key insights on what retailers need to keep in mind as they reimagine their product mixes and merchandising strategies for a post-pandemic world.

We caught up with Sheila Long-O’Mara, executive editor at Furniture Today, to discuss the role of trade media in today’s bedding industry landscape - at a time when market cycles are out of whack and companies are reevaluating their product introduction strategies. She also shares her insights on today’s biggest mattress and sleep trends and how the market may continue to shift post-pandemic.

Michael Magnuson, founder of GoodBed.com, gives us a sneak peek at the company’s new podcast series and shares some key trends impacting the bedding industry right now. As an online resource for mattress shoppers, GoodBed has a valuable vantage point into how consumer behavior has evolved over the years. We chat with Magnuson about how the pandemic has impacted the sentiment around trying in-store before buying, what he thinks the lasting effect of that shift will be on the industry—and how GoodBed is leveraging its resources and reach to help connect mattress shoppers to their local retailers.