Brand Sleepwell has managed to forge a strong connect with ‘comfort’ and ‘sleep’ in India, thanks to the company’s effective communication and marketing campaigns. Manoj Sharma, Head Marketing - Sleepwell, talks about educating consumers about the importance of sleep, the ‘Achhi Ratein Aane Wali Hain’ campaign, North India raking in 45% of the revenues and how Print helps the brand connect with consumers
By Saloni Dutta
Sleepwell, the flagship brand of the Sheela Group, projects itself as a specialist providing state-of-the-art sleep support solutions leading to good health and sleep, and hence serenity in our daily lives. The parent Sheela Foam Pvt. Ltd. was founded in 1972, and is today an ISO 9001:2000 company. Shedding light on sleep and Sleepwell, Manoj Sharma, Head Marketing - Sleepwell, says that today’s fast-paced lifestyle leaves people with very little time and even sleep is compromised in this process. Sharma emphasizes the importance of ‘Quality Sleep’ and not just the number of hours we sleep, saying there is growing realization amongst customers that a good mattress is vital for a good night’s sleep. “This understanding puts us to work to find solutions that promise quality sleep to our consumers. We take pride in the quality of our products with durability as a hallmark,” he says.
The company’s focus is on understanding what is needed in terms of technologies to support quality sleep. In that endeavour, Sleepwell offers products treated with HealthFresh, that prevents breeding of harmful dust mites, bacteria and fungi and prevents respiratory problems. The brand’s Flexi Puf range also incorporates advanced SANtech technology to enhance firmness and breathability. Sharma says, “Our persistent focus on offering a higher value for every rupee spent by our customers is probably the secret of our success.”
Achhe Din, Achhi Ratein
'Acche Din Aane Wale Hain' - while this tagline helped the Bharatiya Janata Party win the General Election, Sleepwell put in its own spin on this line to come up with ‘Achhi Ratein Aane Wali Hain’ as part of its consumer offer campaign. Calling the campaign ‘topical’, Sharma says that with change in the political leadership and renewed optimism in India has come ‘Achhe Din’, and the company is proposing that it is now time to get ‘Achhi Ratein’ with Sleepwell mattresses. Sharma adds, “The campaign has been received with a lot of excitement both by consumers and the media. This has significantly enhanced the buzz around the Sleepwell brand, and also provided an effective platform to communicate the consumer offer of a free bedsheet or a comforter with purchase of every Sleepwell mattress.”
marketing sleep
While Sleepwell has been a consistent advertiser, this was not the case with other companies in the category. However, today other players too have started mattress advertising. Sharma says, “This is a recent phenomenon and hence as any category evolves, the marketing spends are more skewed towards the traditional mediums of Television, Radio and Print, and to some extent magazines.” On its part, Sleepwell has been aggressively communicating with consumers on the traditional mediums. The company has also been increasingly looking to the Digital platform and leveraging the medium’s effectiveness.
Talking on the role of Print in the brand’s marketing, Sharma says, “Print - both newspapers and magazines - plays a significant role in our media mix. We have been using the Print medium to communicate special consumer offers like our Bedsheet Offer, or our Exchange Offer, etc. We spend more on Print than Television. Our spends on newspapers would be around 50% of our marketing spends, Television 40%, magazines 10% and Digital would be around 1% or 2%.” Sharma adds that magazines are used to educate consumers on quality sleep and the various cutting edge technologies that Sleepwell has developed.
While Sleepwell thus creates awareness about the brand, emphasis is also laid on in-store experiences and consumer engagement. Sharma says that the real challenge is at the point of retail and it’s here that Sleepwell’s upgraded retail ambience at Sleepwell Worlds and galleries across the country make for a competitive edge. The company has also invested in training dealers in consumer interaction.
Expanding The Footprint
In terms of distribution, Sleepwell is the market leader with over 4,500 dealers and over 1,000 exclusive brand shops across the country. It is looking at further expansion and upgradation of the retail environment. Despite its pan India presence Sharma says that there is still a lot more scope for the company to grow. He says, “Consumer awareness for brands and technologies in mattresses is growing, but there is still a long way to go even in metros. However, we see huge potential in Tier II and Tier III cities and are approaching coverage in these cities also.”
Sleepwell’s communication to the customer is in the regional language, so in the South it would be in Tamil or another South language and in the North it would be in Hindi. “As a strategy, we have our presence in the top three Print publications. What we do is, we take the No.1 publication for impact and the No. 2 and No. 3 for frequency as Print is expensive these days. So we take Hindustan, Amar Ujala, Jagran... the top publications and cover that accordingly.”
The North India Bet
Talking about marketing plans across markets in the country, Sharma says, “North India is a significant market for us and we are approaching this market with both ATL and BTL initiatives as discussed earlier. North India contributes around 45% of our revenue, while South India brings 40%; West India would be about 10% and East India 5%.” He adds that being a diverse country, preferences in India change every 100 kms or so. “Besides having the widest possible range, Sleepwell is also present at all price points to ensure a large consumer base. We continuously review distribution strategy to keep improving the availability of our products. It is the choice of regional channels, regional print and local languages that take preference.”
Looking Ahead
Sleepwell’s endeavour is to continue offering a wide range of mattresses and accessories which offer features and benefits to suit all individual preferences. Explaining its multiple offerings, Sharma says, “Our ‘Impressions’ range offers the ultimate in sleep comfort while our new ‘Spring Fresh’ range blends comfort layers and innerspring support technology. We have the Duet Air and Duet Luxury range and ‘Durafirm Spine Care’ range of orthopaedically correct mattresses in addition to coir mattresses.”
