Post: Romance is key to selling metal beds
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, June 2, 2003
Beware of the naked mattress. That's what store design guru Connie Post says about the bedding and metal bed displays that many retailers feature nowadays.
Actually, "displays" may be too charitable a term, because there's not a lot of merchandising expertise in those presentations: A naked mattress is adorned with a metal headboard and sometimes a footboard too.
Many retailers — too many, Post says — think they will sell more metal beds by just slapping headboards and footboards on mattresses in their bedding departments.
Scatter some producers' point-of-purchase materials here and there in the bedding department and the total effect is one of "visual chaos," she says, which tells consumers "you look like everyone else who sells beds for nothing."
A much better idea, in her view, is to pull most of those headboards and footboards out of the department and give the metal bed category its own display area. The metal beds should be shown fully dressed, with comforters and pillows.
Romancing the beds is the key to increasing metal bed sales, according to Post, who has designed bedding and metal bed galleries for some of the biggest retailers in the country.
"When you make things sexy," she says, "they sell."
Headboards on naked mattresses aren't sexy, in her view. They suggest the retailer is in the commodity business rather than selling exciting things like better sleep and a comfortable bedroom sanctuary to escape the pressures of the world.
Retailers who dress their metal beds for success also will sell more mattresses, because their bedding will shine. "The consumers can focus on the mattresses and the integrity of the presentation," Post says.
Post believes her merchandising ideas fit in with the reality of what happens on retail floors. So she has incorporated her thoughts on bedding and metal bed display into a "Retreat To Sleep" gallery program for Largo International. It features two retail footprints, one about 1,900 square feet and the other some 2,400 square feet. It was shown at the recent High Point market with bedding by Serta.
Most of the metal beds in each version are displayed on elevated platforms in fully dressed short-rail presentations. Daybeds and futons are also part of the mix. The mattresses are mostly shown without headboards and footboards.
Soothing scenes of nature and fountains give the gallery a fresh, inviting, professional look. The metal beds and the mattresses benefit from the romance.
Books, and bedding departments, are judged by their covers, Post says. I think she's onto something here.
