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Things are changing rapidly in the mattress industry, according to a bedding veteran who is now sparking some of those changes.
When he was a marketing and branding executive at Simmons and Mattress Firm, Tim Oakhill was an insider at some of bedding’s biggest and strongest companies. Now he’s leveraging that industry experience in a somewhat unlikely new role. He is challenging the ways of doing business that traditional bedding companies have long supported.
Oakhill and his partner, former Mattress Firm executive Chris Marsh, have joined the growing ranks of online mattress retailers. They launched their online mattress retail company, Yogabed, late last year. It is getting rave reviews from consumers, the two say.
Like other online mattress retailers, Yogabed is promoting a new way of mattress shopping, one very different from the traditional brick-and-mortar model that has long dominated the mattress world.
The online bedding retailers are generally positioning themselves as offering a hip, modern alternative to stodgy, outmoded retail and industry practices. They generally portray themselves as outsiders seeking to unseat the staid business models of bedding insiders.
Now Oakhill and Marsh have joined the outsiders’ world, but they stress that they aren’t like the other guys. They say they are the only founders in the “D2C” category with “deep industry experience.” (If you don’t know that D2C means “direct to consumer” you may be behind the times in the world of bedding.)
The two are applying their marketing smarts to offer what they describe as a “differentiated” product offering. Their Yogabed comes with a zip-off and washable top and free pillows, and is cleverly positioned as a health-oriented product inspired by the practice of yoga, which has millions of followers.
Less is more at Yogabed, and at other online mattress retailers. While traditional bedding retailers offer dozens of product choices, Yogabed has just one product, thereby taking away the “confusion” of comparison shopping, Oakhill said.
He and Marsh describe the value Yogabed offers as compelling, asserting that it retails at about half the price of what the bed would cost at a traditional bedding retailer.
Oakhill says the world is changing rapidly, and he’s excited about being part of that change.
“The changes that we are seeing will undoubtedly change the face of the mattress category,” he told me. “The fact that footsteps into retail are going backward should be at the top of everyone’s mind, and so should the fact that the consumer is fundamentally shifting her behavior. But they are not. Make no mistake: The bedding consumer is changing.
“The D2C brands have a full grasp of the changing world and have organizations that can make decisions at light speed,” he continued. “When the sales numbers of the D2C brands are revealed, there will be a collective gasp in the bedding industry.”
Bedding insiders should consider his message carefully.
