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Mark Quinn’s new canvas at Shifman

Mark Quinn’s new canvas at Shifman

Marketing master Mark Quinn has a new canvas for his works at Shifman Mattresses. And it’s a real canvas. 

His first project is supporting the unveiling of some mattress masterpieces in the high-end bedding producer’s High Point showroom.

The Newark, New Jersey-based company is relaunching its Masters Collection, which takes the names of masters like Da Vinci, Monet, Van Gogh and Cezanne for its new luxury models. And it is displaying them in a showroom that will resemble an art gallery, with fine art on the walls and art gallerylike labels for its new mattresses, which will retail up to almost $10,000.

“This will be different from anything we’ve done before,” said Quinn, recently named senior vice president of sales and marketing, a new position, at Shifman.

He credits marketing coordinator Paula Echeverry with the idea for the art gallery approach. “Go for it,” he told her. And that’s what Shifman is doing, hosting artist Les Caison III in its showroom from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and telling its dealers how its new beds are works of art in their own right.

Quinn’s new role at Shifman marks another chapter in a career that has included stops at bedding suppliers (Leggett & Platt), retailers (Mattress Firm) and producers (Sherwood). “We’re going to paint a fresh picture for Shifman,” he said, picking up on the art-focused theme of this market.

He is back at the High Point Market for the first time in more than a decade. While he’s been a regular at the bedding-rich Las Vegas Market over the years, he last visited High Point when he was segment vice president of marketing at Leggett & Platt and L&P had a High Point showroom.

Now he’s embarking on a new mission, helping Shifman enhance its already strong standing in the industry as a leader in the luxury bedding arena. “We will be elevating everything that is already great,” he said.

And his new position brings him back to his roots in the bedding industry, where he started in 1993 as a sales representative with Stearns & Foster. “I started my career in the luxury space,” he noted.

He’s spent much of his career helping bedding companies and suppliers stand out in the marketplace with innovative products and marketing programs.

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He brought marketing savvy to Leggett & Platt, where he helped put the hybrid mattress category on the map 12 years ago with a rap video called “Get Hybrid.” That catchy video, still available on YouTube, featured rappers extolling the benefits of springs and foam working together. The video was produced by The Second City, the Chicago-based comedy group. Quinn oversaw the production from the soundstage where the filming took place. 

Before that, he put some bounce in L&P’s spring business with a national “Spring Alive” tour that took him and industry experts to leading retailers across the country to promote the health benefits of a good night’s sleep — and the role that innerspring mattresses play in delivering that sleep. “Our goal was to make springs the hero of the better sleep story,” he recalled.

While at L&P he also developed and introduced the Starry Night Bed, a biometric mattress that he debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, not a traditional place for mattress introductions, but one he chose to highlight the bed’s high-tech suite of offerings. That bed was a forerunner to the smart mattresses seen in a growing number of mattress showrooms these days.

He’s excited about his new role at Shifman. “I feel great about the opportunity,” he said. “Shifman has great processes to put quality into its products and it has a proud tradition of producing quality mattresses as a family-run business. I’ll be helping the industry take notice of Shifman.”

Quinn promises “a lot of cool stuff” to come for Shifman.

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