I don't mean a rare and exotic antique or something that
Elvis personally slept in, this is a brand. It is a bed pretty much like any
other, in the same way that a Porsche
911 Carrera is a car and Jimmy Choo makes shoes. The bed is a Hästens Vividus and it does not
have any special gadgets; it’s just the best bed money can buy.
Climbing the Benefit Ladder
Of course Hästens does not try to sell you a bed. They even
know better than to just sell you a good night’s sleep. They sell you all the
mysterious benefits that flow from a kind of sleep that you have never
experienced. They taunt you, “come discover how it feels to sleep for
real”. They offer you the success,
well-being and energy that will come from spending a third of your day in a
state of ultimate recharge. If you are philanthropically inclined, you can be
part of enhancing the world by enhancing its sleep.
It makes sense to move from
functional to emotional benefits at that price point.
The benefit of better sleep getting you a better life is
somewhat more believable at $90 000 but competitors can do the same. Simmons
Beautyrest promises you “sleep that recharges” and “sleep that luxuriates”. Kingsdown explains in its video that “your quality
of sleep” is “ultimately your quality of life”.
In beds and mattresses there is no safe haven of differentiation to
be found by climbing the benefit ladder. Once upon a time taking the high road
of emotional benefits could help differentiate a brand from its functionally-oriented competitors.
Nowadays though, there are too many competitors and too many “values-based
brands”. There’s nothing wrong with deeply emotional benefits, provided that
you can execute the strategy. The overwhelming challenge is to make prospects
believe the claim.
Conveying Authenticity
Hästens does a great job offering a transformational sleep
experience but to make you write that cheque for over $100K (sales tax!) they
have to convince you that its true and they have to do it without a test drive.
The claims are be supported by genuine
differences in the tangible and intangible attributes of the product and the
company that makes it.
Here is what they convey to you in their video and website:
- Hästens is a family company that has been making beds for 5 generations. They demonstrate it in different ways (Ownership, Creation Narrative)
- They were founded in 1852 and have been making beds for over 150 years (Heritage)
- Every bit of the bed is handmade by them with care. They show you beds being carefully crafted and the people who do it (Craft)
- It comes from Sweden and the voice over sounds like a Swede (Place)
- The bed is made entirely of natural materials: cotton, wool, flax and most notably horsehair that has near-magical properties. There is nothing synthetic. (Ingredients)
- The unique layered design is proprietary and time-tested. It includes a flax layer that enables the discharge of static electricity (Design)
- It has a 25 year warranty, but many last generations. They torture-test it. They once dragged a bed behind a car for a kilometer - it was fine. (Guarantee)
- It’s the only bed that meets the Oeko-Tex 100 standard where “they often dismantle products to the molecular level” (Third-Party Endorsement)
There is more. Quite a bit more but you get the idea. In the
relatively new world of always-on dialogue with consumers and prospects we have
ample bandwidth to convey the authenticity of our brands. We can go way beyond the one Support Point
for the TV spot. We can demonstrate “Reasons to Believe” and “Proof Points” in
a variety of powerful ways. This is an important pathway to developing
authentic, engaging brands.
Opportunities to strengthen support are often overlooked.
Which is why over the last few years Lighthouse has been developing and
“beta-testing” an approach to improving brand strategies called Build Belief™. It defines brands in ways that strengthen consumer belief in brand claims. More about that next post.
Here is the link to the Hästens site and video. If you are
desperate to try the ultimate bed but are a little short on cash, you can try
one for a night at the Ivy at Verity
boutique hotel on Queen Street E. I’m
not sure what you do if you love it.
