What started with a poem has now brought smiles to retailers’ faces. There have even been a few tears, too, but they are tears of happiness.
Shifman’s new brand ethos, which features emotion-stirring images and messages, is helping the high-end bedding producer stand apart from its competition, company officials say.
The new marketing campaign, launched at the Las Vegas Market in January, now makes its High Point debut in the Shifman showroom at 108 East Martin Luther King Drive in the heart of the market district.
With the campaign, Shifman, one of the industry’s oldest bedding brands, founded in 1893, presents a new face to its retailers, subtly shifting its focus from the quality manufacturing story that it has touted for decades to the benefits its mattresses provide to sleepers across the country.
“The world can have you back tomorrow” is one of the new brand themes, featured with a photo of a woman and a dog sleeping peacefully on a Shifman mattress.
“For the moments that matter” is another message, displayed with a photo of a bride reading a special letter while she sits on a Shifman mattress.
“For a lifetime” is a third message, delivered with a picture of an older couple embracing near their Shifman mattress.
All of those images include the Shifman logo and the tag line: “The finest handmade mattresses in the world.”
Mark Quinn, Shifman’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, worked with Andi Jones, director of product development and training, on the new campaign. He’s pleased with the retail response.
“We felt strongly about our new brand ethos when we launched it, but you never know how others are going to react,” Quinn told Bedding News Now. “We are happy to report that retailers absolutely love the approach. I have been in meetings where they may not even say anything, but they just get a big smile on their face when they see something they connect with.”
Some reactions have been even more profound, he added.
“We have also seen eyes well up with tears,” Quinn said. “That is exactly what we were after. We want people to connect with Shifman on an emotional level, to appreciate how important their mattress really is, and for retailers to understand that we are not like other luxury brands. There is something very special about Shifman and they understand that now more than ever before.”
The campaign is also making its way into retail stores across the country.
“Retailers are using some of the creative for billboards around their stores, creating new galleries with the images as the focal point, and they are wrapping their delivery trucks with the messages,” Quinn observed. “Their comments are nice, but their actions say it all.”
Shifman’s brand messaging had emphasized the craftsmanship in the company’s mattresses, featuring images of the manufacturing process that the company says makes its mattresses superior in the marketplace.
That quality story is still at the heart of the company’s brand promise, but the new campaign puts consumers in the spotlight in the brand images.
The campaign was inspired by a poem written by Shifman’s Andi Jones called “Where we rest.” That poem notes the life-sustaining and nurturing role that a mattress plays in a sleeper’s life. It ends on this note: “Because where you rest isn’t where you stop living. It’s the place that knows every version of you, and holds them all the same.”
Building on the theme of the poem, the Shifman team identified several special life moments.
“We are making the mattress category more emotional to be more meaningful to consumers,” Quinn said. “Conversations about mattress specifications can’t do that.”
He said the authenticity of the campaign is a key to its success. And he’s anxious to show the campaign to retailers visiting the company’s High Point showroom.
