In a past blog post, I wrote about the importance of catching people in the different phases of the shopping experience. It isn’t enough to make a good product, have a great website, strong point of sale materials, and an informative sales training program for the RSA. If you are not in the pocket of the consumer when they are in your store, you could be in big trouble! (more…)
The ISPA EXPO 2012 is in the books, and what an event it was. I was able to talk to people from all over the world about their business and what was going on in their countries to drive sales. The lesson there is that even though we have had it tough in the U.S., there are other markets that are much worse off than we are. (more…)
Looks of pity crossed their faces. That’s what I remember when I told my friends I was getting into the mattress industry.
They gave me the head tilt and smiled saying, “Oooo, that is just great, Mark.” To make it more exciting, I am now on the component side of the mattress industry. Does that make my job even less interesting at a cocktail party? Probably, but today, as we near the 2012 ISPA Expo in Indianapolis, I want to make a case for us components people. (more…)
After Las Vegas, we are coming out of what I would call one of the most exciting markets ever for the mattress industry. Many of the bedding producers out there brought new product lines to market, fresh new marketing ideas, and the attitude that they were going to make something happen this year. Well, most of them anyway. Attitude is great, but will the stars line up to deliver a strong 2012? This is all dependent on a questionable macroeconomic condition, uncertainty on the political front, and oil prices that are creeping higher and higher, not to mention the conflict going on with Iran, which isn’t going to help anything.
The following is a guest post from Penny M.D.
Finding people who genuinely get excited about buying a new bed can be akin to finding people at the beach who have never seen the ocean. The reason people aren’t getting pumped up about buying a new bed is because the mattress industry isn’t doing a good job informing them about how wonderful restful sleep really is! It’s up to the mattress manufacturers and mattress retailers to spread the word and educate consumers in order to flip these emotions and get them excited about jumping into bed at night.