A way to boost sales of fire-resistant mattresses
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, August 18, 2003
This week I present a modest proposal: Let's use improved mattress flammability as an opportunity to sell more mattresses.
That sounds like a pretty obvious idea, but you would be surprised at how many people see flammability as nothing more than a problem to be dealt with. "I usually try to see the opportunities in every situation, but I just don't see them here," one producer told me the other day. O, ye of little vision.
Think about what is about to happen. We as an industry are going to begin producing beds that, according to the International Sleep Products Assn., "will be substantially more fire-resistant and slower to burn." California's proposed new flammability standards "will substantially reduce casualties from residential fires," ISPA says.
These are major improvements in our products, deserving of major marketing initiatives.
But too many in our industry see flammability as a negative. Talking about fires — even reducing fires — will only alarm consumers, these folks say. Furthermore, there is a widespread feeling that consumers will not pay more for safer mattresses.
Well, it's our job as an industry to change that feeling, if it's indeed held by most consumers. That's called marketing, and we are very good at it in the mattress industry. There is absolutely no reason not to use our marketing skills to turn improved fire safety into a positive.
Here's one idea, which came from a brainstorming meeting I engaged in the other day with a couple of suppliers of fire-resistant bedding products: What if insurance companies gave consumers a discount on their home policies for every FR mattress the consumer purchases? The discount might even be enough to offset the increased cost of putting FR protection in the mattress, thus wiping out the concern about consumers being forced to pay more for something they don't want.
This is an intriguing idea. It would give consumers a financial incentive to replace every mattress in their home, not just the mattress in the master bedroom. This would help tackle the problem of old bedding hanging around for years and years, depriving us of the chance to sell consumers new sleep sets.
I see a win-win scenario here. We sell more bedding. Consumers get safer products.
This idea deserves serious investigation. It could be worth millions of dollars to our industry. And it would help save lives and reduce property damage.
There are, I'm sure, a number of other excellent ideas on how we can capitalize on our new FR push. But we won't do our best work on this issue until we all have a can-do attitude.
Repeat after me: Improved mattress flammability is an opportunity, not a burden.
