Tempur-Pedic needed to reach new customer:
College students.
The most famous bed of all time.
If you were around at the turn of the millennium, you couldn’t escape Tempur-Pedic beds.
They’re made from NASA foam!
And you can jump on it without spilling a glass of wine on the other side!
It was touted like a miracle for anyone who’d ever slept, and suddenly, everyone knew this fact: you spend a third of your life sleeping.
That one fact was the lynchpin for expensive purchases around beds—whether it be the mattress itself, or just a three-figure pillow.
Tempur-Pedic carved a whole new, top shelf market for mattresses where before there was none.
The Next Generation (of customers)
Clearly there has been a lot change since Tempur’s heyday around the millennium. Suddenly tons of competitors cropped up, creating the “bed in a box” industry.
This directly affected Tempur’s sales, most especially with younger buyers, who couldn’t afford much, even into adulthood.
Where the Baby Boomer generation had expendable income in their early adulthood, each following generation has owned less and less.
Even today, when Millennials are hitting their financial stride, they only hold around 9% of total wealth in the United States. Compare this to Baby Boomers who hold 50% of America’s wealth, and held 20% of it when in their 20’s.
As such, the younger generations needed to feel that every purchase above basic necessities is both a) a good deal, and b) something of lasting value.
Matching the Offering the the ICP
Knowing we need to appeal to both value and affordability, we guided Tempur-Pedic in shaping a new, clearly defined ICP: College students.
This inflection point in a young person’s life was ripe for a bedding purchase, and brand loyalty.
Together, we created a series of packages, aptly named after dorm life, at both affordable (pillow and sheets), and investment levels (full setup).
This positioning and pricing needed to be marketed properly, to the students looking for better sleep.
Knowing this, we send young brand representatives (in their 20s) across America, to hold giveaways at college campuses. Here, we’d get students to try Tempur products, and offer their contact info in hopes of winning a full setup or even a pillow.
Remarketing to these folks intensely lead to a tripling of sales to this younger demographic.
Now clearly defined, Tempur can throw bullseye’s every fall when a new crop of students move in.