From BedTimes Editor Jane Kitchen: Tell me a story

Jane KitchenI’m settling into my first month here at BedTimes, getting to know company names, industry lingo, and important issues and challenges facing our industry.

There are specifics, of course—I am now the proud owner of an in-depth Bedding Industry Glossary with definitions of everything from bonnell to uniflex grid—but there are also so many things about any industry that are universal.

Take, for instance, Gary James’ cover story this month on ticking. New trends and technologies have changed the marketplace, sure, but one of the most important elements remains the ability to help tell a story—and that’s true anywhere.

Many of you know I was editor of a trade magazine in the juvenile products industry for many years, and perhaps there is nowhere more important to tell a story than in all things relating to baby, which, after all, should be the ultimate in happily-ever-after stories.

But I watched the juvenile industry change over the years from a focus on practicality to a focus on romance, fashion and design. The practical elements never went away; they simply became part of the story.

Other pieces of the puzzle fell in place as well; any of you who have young children or grandchildren know that strollers, for instance, have undergone enormous changes, from clunky contraptions that served a practical purpose (pushing your child when she is too little or tired to walk), to sleek, high-tech status symbols with price tags of more than $1,000.

As with most things, it’s a combination of form and function that helped make that transition. Styling got sleeker, and consumers reacted to that. But without technology, quality materials and new functionality, the heftier price tags wouldn’t have held their weight.

Because so many of us are visual, we need that initial response to how something looks, whether it’s a pop of color on mattress ticking or the streamlined design of a stroller. But without the technology to back it up—the story behind what’s inside, how something works, what makes it special, or why you should choose it above any other product out there—the fashion falls short.

The same thing might be said for the technological side; without the fashion to help tell the story, what’s on the inside can fall flat. Consumers are looking for style and design, as well as functionality, in places they never did before, and I see a wealth of opportunity for our industry.

What’s also interesting to me is the sense that consumers are waiting to hear this story; as I’ve told friends, family, former colleagues and parents at PTA meetings about my new job, almost to a fault, they’ve all asked me the same question: “So can you tell me what kind of mattress I should buy?”

It’s astounding, this across-the-board sense of mystery that everyone seems to have around mattresses, and the idea that the answer to that question is not one they can easily come to on their own.

I’ve heard several industry people reference the idea of “big, white rectangles,” and there’s both truth and humor in that statement. But Simmons’ Jim Ross, profiled in this issue, talks about those rectangles as a “canvas that will elicit a response from a consumer,” and I love that way of thinking.

There is opportunity here. There is opportunity for fashion to make a statement, for technology to provide the substance, and for these big, white rectangles to paint a picture, and to tell a story—because we all know what happens with good storytelling: Minds are engaged, imaginations soar, and magic happens.

And if we’re lucky, it’s a happily-ever-after story for everyone.

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