Why Serta
- WHY SERTA’S PERFECT SLEEPER BRAND HAS
THRIVED FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS
On any typical night, modern-day Americans experience a sleeping environment that their ancestors would have considered unimaginably luxurious. Long gone are the days when people slept on mattresses made of hay, straw and horsehair. Long gone are the days when people slept sitting up because they were taller than the bedding on which they slept.
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- SLEEP TIGHT
Every so often, people in the late 1800s pulled the stuffing out of their beds and let it dry outside
on a warm day. This airing process—which was absolutely necessary for proper hygiene -
was called “making the bed.”Then, to keep their mattresses from sagging, people crisscrossed
ropes tightly on bed frames underneath their mattresses so that they could “sleep tight.” But the beds still felt like big lumpy uncomfortable pillows.
Mattresses greatly improved when cotton and feathers were added to horsehair to replace hay and straw as stuffing in the early 20th century. As time went on, improvements continued with the use of innersprings, box springs and a process called mattress tufting.
A patent for the first innerspring was issued in 1865. Twenty years later, in 1885, J.P. Leggett received a patent for the development of “a device consisting of a single coil unit attached to a wood frame”—the first foundation. However, innersprings and box springs didn’t become popular until the 1930s.
While innersprings and box springs were slow to be adopted, tufted mattresses caught on quickly with American consumers. Tufting transformed the shifting and lumpy contents of a mattress into a consistent shape. The stuffing was held together by individual cords, which passed through both the top and the bottom. These cords were typically secured by covered buttons on the bed’s surface. Tufting held the stuffing more tightly in place and made for a firmer sleeping surface.
Tufted bedding was typically covered with the same pattern of blue-and-white ticking and then sold as a commodity. This “commodity mentality” slowly began to change as major national bedding companies formed and began to advertise in the 1920s.
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- HOW IT ALL BEGAN
In 1931, a group of independent mattress manufacturers met to discuss the impact of national brands on their own companies. These entrepreneurs recognized that they couldn’t compete individually with the national brands and their large advertising budgets. They knew that by banding together they could share information on manufacturing practices and advertising. Yet, they also wanted to keep their individual companies, customers and marketplaces.
These mattress manufacturers became the original stockholders in a national licensee company, which later became known as Serta. The company was originally named Guardian Knight. In 1938, to enhance its brand awareness, the company officially changed its name to Serta.
From the beginning, Serta licensees recognized the importance of a strong national brand, based on an outstanding and innovative product. What’s more, they had the product. One of the original stockholders had invented the industry’s first tuftless innerspring mattress—the prototype for the modern mattress of today. Serta’s founders named it the Perfect Sleeper®.
How has Serta built—and kept—the Perfect Sleeper’s reputation among consumers for more than seven decades? The key lies in Serta’s commitment to provide consumers with a comfortable night’s sleep. The company has achieved this mission through its ongoing dedication to innovation and excellence. This has been Serta’s hallmark since the very beginning.
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- OVERCOMING RESISTANCE
When Serta’s founders presented the tuftless mattress in the marketplace, the public was notably unimpressed. This was true even though these mattresses retained their shape better than tufted beds, and were considerably more comfortable. There was no need to compress and shape the fibers inside the mattress because the fibers were pre-compressed. This allowed the innerspring the freedom to support the person on the mattress -
and there were no uncomfortable buttons to disturb sleep.
Still, consumers were used to tufted mattresses and trusted their durability. However, people changed their minds based, in part, on a dynamic advertising campaign by Serta’s founders.
One licensee threw the Perfect Sleeper out of a plane; another ran over the mattress with a steamroller. In both cases, the Perfect Sleeper remained unharmed. After a few years, through high-profile national advertising and local marketing tactics, the company broke through the public’s reluctance to buy tuftless mattresses, and they eventually became the industry standard.
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- DECADES OF GROWTH
In the 1950s, Serta stepped up its television advertising and catered to consumer trends and health concerns. The company designed a new line, Sertapedic, for consumers who wanted firmer mattresses. Serta also developed the successful “Sammy Serta” campaign to persuade parents not to give old, hand-me-down mattresses to their children. TV ads on such programs as “The Gary Moore Show” and the “Tonight Show” introduced Serta’s newly patented Sertaliner and emphasized damask covers.
The 1960s and 1970s brought tremendous growth in dollar volume, units and market share for Serta. By the mid ‘60s, Serta had 39 manufacturers in the U.S., Hawaii and Canada. This growth came from increased national advertising, using national celebrities like Joey Heatherton, as well as from Serta’s policy of offering firm or extra firm mattresses at the same cost as softer beds.
In 1976, Serta produced the industry’s first Pillow Soft® mattress to provide additional comfort for its flagship Perfect Sleeper. The Pillow Soft concept was copied widely and is a mainstay in the industry today.
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- WINNING DESIGNS
- PILLOW SOFT®
The design of Serta’s Pillow Soft mattress went against the prevailing medical opinion of the era, which emphasized the need for hard mattresses. Supposedly, these hard beds would keep a person’s skeletal system properly aligned. So, in general, consumers bought hard mattresses -
whether or not they actually liked them.
Serta questioned this prevailing opinion, and set out to design a Perfect Sleeper mattress that would provide structurally correct inner support without sacrificing consumer comfort. In 1983, Serta introduced a revolutionary new continuous wire innerspring in all Perfect Sleeper mattresses.
- CONTINUOUS SUPPORT® INNERSPRING
Serta’s unique innerspring contours to the body, providing correct and balanced support. Rows of continuous wire coils run from head to toe, providing support along the length of the entire body. This design also provides balanced support to the body to help maintain natural spinal alignment. And because the coil rows run head-to-toe, they respond to each sleeper individually and help reduce the effects of one partner’s movements on the other. In addition, each row of coils is made of specially-formed continuous steel wire that has been uniquely heat tempered to
give it a memory to bounce back and prevent sagging.
- TRIPLE BEAM® AND STABL-BASE® FOUNDATION
In 1992, Serta revolutionized sleep set construction by introducing a major patented
advance for its Perfect Sleeper box spring. The Triple Beam® frame is made with three layers
of resilient, kiln-dried wooden beams. Builders also use this tri-level design when constructing a
sturdy house deck. Just as with the house deck, the Triple Beam frame provides the resilience
and strength needed to create a solid, stable, yet flexible platform for long-lasting daily use. It is
twice as strong as traditional wood frames for long-lasting durability.
In Serta’s 2004 Perfect Sleeper line, Serta has introduced a sturdy StabL-Base® foundation. This exclusive foundation provides consistent support across the bottom of the mattress and lasting durability to the entire sleep set. The unique V-shaped construction of the support structure isolates the impact of one sleep partner’s movements on another and dramatically reduces mattress sway.
- COMFORT QUILT® AND ADVANCED COMFORT QUILT®
Also in 1992, Serta introduced one of its most popular features ever: patented Comfort Quilt. With Comfort Quilt, rolling peaks of convoluted foam and fluffy fibers are sewn into the upholstery layer of the mattress. This comfort material is placed right at the surface of the mattress where it most benefits the body.
The combination of the convoluted foam and fiber provides gentle cushioning for the body. Comfort Quilt disperses weight and helps to improve circulation in the shoulders, arms and hips. Better circulation in these critical pressure areas means less tossing and turning for a more restful and comfortable night’s sleep. Although other manufacturers quickly copied the use of convoluted foam, they could not, by law, utilize Serta’s unique patented Comfort Quilt process.
Serta has further enhanced Comfort Quilt with the addition of five zones where the body needs them the most for additional comfort and support.
- THE FIREBLOCKER™ SYSTEM
In late 2003, Serta announced that all its 2004 mattresses will give consumers an important new measure of safety in case of a bedroom fire. Serta is making its entire line of 2004 mattresses open-flame resistant, exceeding current and proposed open-flame resistance standards.
Every 2004 Serta mattress will include the company’s new open-flame resistance system called FireBlocker™. This system isolates the impact of a fire on the mattress and blocks its spread, thus providing someone with critical time to escape and call for help. FireBlocker is a precise blend of natural and synthetic fibers, and contains no harmful chemicals.
Serta is the first and only national brand to offer safer mattresses to consumers more than one year before a regulation mandating open-flame resistance goes into effect in California in 2005. FireBlocker testing was conducted at Underwriter Laboratories Inc (UL) and the results have been UL-confirmed.
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- PILLOW SOFT®
- INDUSTRY SUCCESS STORY
Fast forward to 2004, more than 70 years later. Today, Serta is the second largest mattress brand in the world, with annual domestic sales for 2003 of $741.3 million.
Serta is an industry success story, and -- far and away -- THE mattress success story of our era. In the 1990s, the company experienced double-digit growth, averaging 12 percent a year for each year in the decade. Since 1989, Serta has more than tripled in size and significantly outperformed the growth of the industry. Meanwhile, the Serta Perfect Sleeper continues to be the favorite of consumers everywhere.
Serta’s success is no accident, but the result of a consistent dedication to excellence in workmanship, sound technical innovations and a commitment to effective brand-building through outstanding, award-winning advertising.
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- COUNTING SHEEP CAMPAIGN
In July 2000, Serta launched its Counting Sheep campaign, and television viewers across
America learned about the plight of the “Counting Sheep” in a unique series of commercials.
The background of each of the commercials shows the Counting Sheep trying to cope with
losing their time-honored jobs of helping people fall asleep, thanks to the comforting benefits
of sleeping on a Serta.
These award-winning spots have achieved huge popularity among consumers, and have proven to effectively communicate Serta’s brand message to consumers—that Serta mattresses are so comfortable, “You’ll Feel the Difference the Moment You Lie Down.®”
Among its numerous awards, the campaign took home first prize as winner of the 2002 Gold EFFIE award in the category of Household Furnishings and Appliances on June 5, 2002. These awards recognize the year’s most effective and creative advertising campaigns in the nation. In 2003, Advertising Age recognized Serta’s 2003 Counting Sheep commercials as among the top new ads in the country in terms of brand recall and likeability among consumers.
Each year since 2000, Serta has commissioned Roper ASW to conduct independent studies to measure the impact of Serta’s Counting Sheep campaign on consumers. The most current Roper ASW research shows that as many as 94 percent of women today know the Serta name and 80 percent of women say they have heard or seen Serta Counting Sheep commercials.
- OTHER MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE 2003 ROPER STUDY INCLUDE:
Among those who know what brand they want to buy in the next six months, more than twice as many women say they want to buy Serta than the next two leading mattress brands.
More women know what mattress brand they will buy than ever before (a 35% gain since 2000).
The number of consumers who can describe the Counting Sheep campaign without being prompted has increased significantly (157%) since 2001.
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- OTHER MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE 2003 ROPER STUDY INCLUDE:
“WE MAKE THE WORLD’S BEST MATTRESS™ ”
Serta’s trademark, “We Make the World’s Best Mattress,” sums up the commitment that motivates Serta in every aspect of its operations. For more than seven decades, we’ve been working to live up to the promise inherent in our trademark. The result is this: on a Serta mattress, you really will “Feel the Difference the Moment You Lie Down.”
