What does having a baby have to do with mattresses? Everything.
As a dad of a 1-year-old, I’ve learned a lot about babies and the amazing way the human body functions. I’ve also learned a lot about sleep — and the lack thereof.
Every new parent knows sleep becomes more precious when the little one arrives, and that’s a message the mattress industry should be using.
Consider this: The week and a half between Sept. 9 and Sept. 20 holds nine of the Top 10 birthdays in the U.S., with the Top 3 being 9/9, 9/19 and 9/12, respectively.
And what else happens in early September? Labor Day.
As one of the biggest mattress sales holidays of the year, there’s an opportunity to make it even bigger next year by marketing to parents of newborns.
Parents’ sleep becomes scarce in the first few months of the baby’s life — or in my case, a full year now — and sleep schedules are thrown for a loop, so the time they do sleep becomes even more important.
And that’s the message retailers should use to sell before Labor Day.
Here’s how:
- Do something fun like a double-entendre “Labor Day” sale that speaks to both the holiday and expecting parents. Bring them in with marketing that explains how you can help them get better sleep in the coming months leading up to the birth or now if the baby is here.
- Think about how a quality mattress becomes more than just a “sale,” but rather a necessity for parents navigating a newborn and their erratic sleep schedules. As I’ve learned, most babies want to eat every two to three hours, and REM sleep usually arrives around an hour and a half after you fall asleep.
Explain it like this: If a parent falls asleep quicker with a better mattress, then when they get up to feed the baby they will have had more than 30 minutes of solid REM sleep per sleep session. - The mattress industry knows that mattresses are an investment in a person’s health. But when you position a mattress as a family purchase to a consumer, you can start easy conversations and get to know the customer and their needs better. Ask questions like, “Which sleep issues do you normally have that a new mattress could help solve?”
Conversation starters — like connecting with a person about the sports team on their hat — are key in the retail industry. And because children are one thing many people have in common, they make for an easy and powerful conversation starter that could lead to a valuable sale for you and the consumer.
