A top 10 producer of high–end mattresses has spent the past few years reshaping its product line, redefining its corporate identity and giving itself a new moniker: Kingsdown, a Sleep to Live company. The effort has been guided by a commitment to sleep science that now pervades every aspect of the company, from its aggressive international expansion to its comprehensive digital marketing program.
In the planning since 2004, the transformation began in earnest three years later when Eric Hinshaw, chairman and chief executive officer, founded the Sleep to Live Institute. Located in Joplin, Mo.—far from the company’s headquarters in Mebane, N.C.—the institute is dedicated to using research–based science to decipher the complexities of sleep.
“It was a major philosophical change,” Hinshaw says. “We’ve gone from being a supplier of product to starting from a benefit—sleep—and creating product that provides that benefit.”
Robert Oexman, a former practicing chiropractor with experience in sleep science, was recruited to create and run the facility.
“When I was hired, Eric Hinshaw told me that he wanted Kingsdown to be known as a sleep company,” recalls Oexman, vice president of strategic development and research. “We are constantly developing new tools to measure sleep and can move from concept to project very quickly.”
A new brand identity
Kingsdown offers five collections under the Sleep to Live brand. Beds are manufactured to order based on information gathered from a consumer’s in–store, digital body–scanning session. The company’s patented BodyDiagnostics system uses more than 1,000 calculations tied to 18 measurements to determine the sleep surface that provides the best postural support and pressure relief for each person. Consumers with sleep partners can take advantage of the My Side technology, which customizes each side of the bed to fit individual needs.
“Sleep to Live is a brand, a tag line and a mission statement all in one. And the consumer gets it,” Hinshaw says.
At the winter Las Vegas Market, the company debuted its first collection of Sleep to Live products made with latex and visco–elastic foam cores. According to Oexman, more than a year of research was conducted before the beds reached development stage.
“Our (previous) testing protocol was based around innerspring units,” he says. “We had to look at all the diagnostic testing and determine how latex and foam reacted to temperature, pressure and resilience.”
Consumers have responded to the company’s new products and corporate identity. About 75% of annual sales now come from Sleep to Live branded products, Hinshaw says. Within 10 years, he expects that number to jump to 90%.
The company’s foundation
Though Sleep to Live is a strong focus, the company has not abandoned its namesake, the luxury innerspring Kingsdown brand.
“There is still a need for this kind of bedding,” Hinshaw says. “Kingsdown stands for the very upper end in mattresses. There are still times when people are in the market for just that.”
Indeed, Kingsdown executives have devoted much time and thought to defining the company’s market and developing multifaceted strategies to meet its needs. In general, they expect to see most interest in the Sleep to Live brand from younger, Generation X and Generation Y consumers.
“Boomers,” Hinshaw says, “are implanted with more paradigms relative to bedding purchases and, at the same time, are making fewer purchases.”
Market research tells Kingsdown that consumers, regardless of age, require special handling when it comes time for them to buy a bed.
“We conducted 22 focus groups and discovered that people are intimidated by the mattress–buying process,” Hinshaw says. “They don’t know what they should be looking for and are afraid that they will be taken.”
The company’s solution to consumer uncertainty is to change the conversation. Instead of talking about mattress construction and cost, Kingsdown focuses on sleep, health and wellness and looks for ways to engage consumers long before they’re ready to make a purchase.
Frank Hood, senior vice president and chief information officer, explains: “Only 2% of the population is in the market for bedding at any given time. But 70% of the population is in the market for improving their health. We have solutions for both, and I want them to know who we are and what we do when they’re ready to buy.”
Hood’s responsibilities include overseeing research and development, information systems and marketing. Given the nature of his company and the way consumers now obtain and process information, it’s a job combination with important synergies.
“Traditional marketing and print media are waning, while the importance of the Internet and social media are increasing,” Hood says. “The majority of the marketing we’ve done has been in traditional media. That will shift (to digital) in 2010 and we believe that there will be a tsunami of adoption by retailers.”
Kingsdown has developed two Web sites to capitalize on consumers’ interest in health and wellness. The first, www.sleeptolive.com, is educational; the second, www.isleeptolive.com, combines educational components with links to dealers. At the winter Las Vegas furniture market, the company unveiled a program to help retailers improve the effectiveness of their own Web sites.
“We’ve developed assets to put on their Web sites, we will help to develop Web site architecture and we will do search–engine optimization workshops for them,” Hood says.
At the winter market, the company also introduced enhancements to the BodyDiagnostics system that allow consumers to get more specific information about their sleep problems and needs.
BodyDiagnostics is in about 1,600 U.S. stores and, this year, the company plans to expand that to 2,000. Roughly 250 stores outside the United States also use the system and, Hinshaw says, “that number will explode in the next two to three years.”
“Until recently, the vast majority of our international program was export and that will still be the strategy for the Kingsdown brand,” Hinshaw explains.
The company is taking a three–pronged approach to expanding Sleep to Live internationally, says Lee Hinshaw, president of international sales.
New manufacturing facilities are planned for some countries with concentrated population centers, while contract manufacturing and licensing deals are in the works for other regions.
Pat Flippin, president and chief operating officer, is devoting much of his time to the program and a new international licensing manager has been put in place.
“We’re not just licensing a brand but offering a diagnostic system, training and marketing support,” Lee Hinshaw says. To ensure brand quality, the company is placing the same analytical technology used in its U.S. facilities at each international manufacturing site.
From the outside in
The success of the Sleep to Live brand identity has prompted the 106–year–old, privately held company to take a fresh look at its corporate culture.
“Up until now, it has been based entirely around innovation,” Eric Hinshaw says. “We don’t want to lose that but we have to make sure that innovation is based in marketable products and processes that can take these innovations to consumers.”
Hinshaw insists that the wellness ethos the company markets to consumers pervades the Kingsdown culture. Fitness centers operate in some facilities and on–site health and wellness seminars are offered to employees. (In addition to Mebane, the company has manufacturing and distribution centers in Knoxville, Tenn.; Lakeland, Fla.; Muskogee, Okla.; Winchester, Va.; and Derby, England.)
Health and wellness also is the focus of the company’s philanthropic efforts. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Kingsdown raised $1 million for the Children’s Miracle Network. The company also funds a fellowship in pediatric pulmonary studies at Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, N.C.
“It’s very important to our corporate culture to share our good fortune,” Hinshaw says. “We are particularly interested in children because they don’t have the opportunities to make decisions for themselves.”
