Cover Story
childhood friends and recent college gradu- ates—were bouncing around ideas about their futures. As a student in the Masters Program at the Parsons School of Design, Chang was centering his master’s thesis on dreams and sleep. As a college athlete, Rawls-Meehan had always valued good sleep as a means to bet- ter performance, and while brainstorming with Chang on his thesis they started thinking how they could approach bedding in a new way. “Hey—why don’t we come up with an entirely radical concept for sleep?”
T Spurred by the belief that sleep deserves
more attention as an integral part of health and wellness, they spent the next two years researching the industry, prototyping con- cepts and building a supply chain. Chang set up Reverie retail stores in China, while Rawls-Meehan ran Reverie everywhere out- side of China and focused on customizable mattresses and power bases—which we now call “sleep systems.” While researching the industry in 2003 and 2004, Rawls-Meehan had seen a lot of power bases designed for the European market, but very few for the US market. Additionally, none of the power bases he saw incorporated the cool new electron- ic technology that was all the rage with the younger generation. Rawls-Meehan saw a huge opportunity to radically rethink the pow- er base and make it a true piece of fashion furniture and cutting edge lifestyle technolo- gy that would become the command center for the modern bedroom, communicating with other devices in the home to deliver better sleep and more convenience to end users. The power base concept worked perfectly with the DreamCell technology Chang and Rawls-Meehan developed, an innovative al- ternative to innersprings that provided more natural, durable and—most importantly—cus- tomized comfort. By combining the Reverie DreamCell mattress and Power Base, a truly unique sleep system that would deliver great, customized sleep to people of all shapes and sizes was born.
he origin of the Reverie brand dates back nearly two decades, as Martin Rawls-Meehan and Tony Chang—close
By 2006, the company had been steadily gaining customers in the power base market when Tempur-Pedic came calling. Over the course of the next six years, Reverie manu- factured power bases for the industry heavy- weight—a relationship that ultimately helped build the category into what it is today. In many ways, the success Reverie had with Tempur and its other customers helped fuel confi- dence in the category throughout the “great recession,” a confidence that gained huge mo- mentum as we came out of the recession a few years ago. Despite the fact that its power base business was booming, Rawls-Meehan knew that power bases alone did not create the life-changing great sleep that was Rev- erie’s mission. So Reverie reinvigorated its focus on the fully personalized sleep system. “In order to create products that help peo- ple sleep better, you first have to acknowl- edge that every body is unique,” says Lisa Tan, Chief Marketing Officer. “You need to understand your customers’ needs in order to provide them with a customized solution that will actually work. And to do that effectively, it requires thinking about product development as something that is continually iterating.” In thinking about innovation as a continu- ous process, the company has been able to successfully adapt and respond to changes in the market. Under Rawls-Meehan’s lead- ership as CEO and Chief Innovation Officer, the Reverie team has developed a research and development strategy that operates less like a mattress manufacturer and more like a technology company. “When you become a sleep technology company, you are continually taking cues from the best innovation sources out there, which are most likely not in our own industry,” Tan ex- plains. “That erases the idea that the mattress is just a white rectangle. When you’re not con- fined by a white rectangle, then you can start thinking about sleep in three dimensions.” By removing the confines of what a mattress should look like or how it should be made, Rev- erie has developed a truly dynamic approach to sleep innovation. With the advent of the Dream- Cell technology, the company first challenged
the idea that a mattress is a static product. Each Reverie mattress contains hundreds of individual DreamCell foam springs, which cre- ates a support system that is fully customized to the consumer. With four different densities that range from extra soft to firm, the Dream- Cells are arranged according to the sleeper’s unique needs—providing the proper amount of firmness and support where they need it most and ensuring correct spinal alignment. This technology doesn’t just offer superior comfort and customization, it actually evolves with the consumer and adapts to the way their body may change over time. To reconfigure the mattress, the consumer simply unzips the cover and rearranges the DreamCells, which are conveniently color-coded based on their density level. While this unique system makes it easy for consumers to customize their mat- tress, this is not something that should happen every night—simply because it’s not necessary. Rather, consumers can update the comfort and support as needed, which is primarily in re- sponse to major physical changes like weight gain or loss, pregnancy, injury or surgery. Over the past five years, Reverie has grown its mattress footprint considerably with both larger retailers and smaller specialty stores. To- day, its product portfolio includes a broad range of comfort feels and choices at price points that start at $1,499. In addition to its classic natural latex line, Reverie launched a new hybrid collec- tion last year. By combining memory foam with a layer of breathable latex on top, the hybrid provides a gently responsive feel that is more well-suited to a population who has become accustomed to the feel of memory foam. At the retail level, the DreamCell concept can help consumers feel more confident about their investment. They know that this mattress is not simply built to last—but specially designed to evolve with them over time. Reverie customers can be assured that their mattress will contin- ue to provide the exact amount of comfort and support they need to feel their best. While Reverie’s mattress portfolio delivers long-term customization, the company provides more short-term personalization through its broad range of power base offerings. Reverie’s
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