Cover Story Posh + Lavish: Meaningful Luxury By Gretchen Kast
For retailers looking to revamp or build upon their sales strategies, Posh + Lavish has emerged as a uniquely high-end solution in a market that has become increasingly saturated with low-cost and copy-cat offerings. Rather than peddling convenience and affordability, it has invested to create luxury mattresses, made with natural materials, available only at brick-and-mortar retail. By coupling that with an unparalleled commitment to philanthropy, Posh + Lavish has built itself on a promise of integrity— and today, the company is providing retailers with a new route to success.
F
or a long time, much of the mattress retail industry revolved around a very small segment of the market. Retailers of all sizes were able to compete by focusing on the three majors and around the $1,000 price point—and that meant a lot of new busi- ness came from mirroring existing product technologies and component types. That sta- tus quo was still holding strong when Posh + Lavish debuted in 2015. After nearly two decades in the mattress industry, company co-founders Kurt Ling and Steve Baumberg- er already had plenty of experience with this reality. But with that history came foresight: they not only knew what worked, but had the expertise to recognize what was changing. “At that time, there were a lot of people that had the model that everybody used for a couple of decades,” explains Kurt Ling, prin- cipal of Posh + Lavish. “And frankly, it was working. They were selling beds and making money. But things started to shift a couple years ago. Retailers that have been carrying two S brands and Tempur-Pedic for the past 10 or maybe even 25 years now want to offer something that’s more unique in the market- place. They want something that has a differ- ent kind of story and a different kind of ticket than what they’re used to selling.”
Instead of hopping on the bandwagon to
develop new entry-level and online-only op- tions, as many other brands did, Posh + Lav- ish began blazing its own trail—in the com- plete opposite direction.
“Our design is always really very simple,” says Ling. “We build mattresses with the finest materials we can find. We are always looking for only two things: how long lasting will this component make our mattress and how luxurious will this make our mattress feel. Then we do nothing that gets in the way of that durability and feel.” Today, the company offers five distinct mattress collections—the All-Latex, the Pock- et Spring Latex Hybrid, the Latex + Memory Foam, the AuNaturale and the CustomSides— all of which are built by hand in California. Across its entire portfolio, each mattress is available in a wide range of comfort levels and made with Oeko-Tex certified components. This design creates a buoyant yet bounce-free feel that supports the spine and relaxes the muscles. Each mattress also features an un- paralleled high gram weight Tencel-faced fab- ric cover that delivers added comfort by helping to regulate temperature and absorb moisture. “We know we make something that con- sumers are going to love the feel of, but we
also want to take one step above that and give them a story that they probably didn’t hear anywhere else in town,” Ling continues. “We think that adds a ton of credibility for a retail sales associate, especially when they’re asking for a larger ticket.”
Credibility has become an increasingly valu- able currency in the mattress market these days, especially as research has shown that today’s mattress shoppers are more wor- ried than ever about getting ripped off. Posh + Lavish assuages those fears by utilizing high-quality, natural components. In addition to latex and Tencel, the company incorporates premium wool and cotton into its mattress- es—two materials that most consumers are already familiar with in the apparel category. While Posh + Lavish does not in any way claim to be a certified organic brand, it does offer a meaningful step-up for consumers looking for something a little bit better for them. “Our goal is just to be really clean,” Ling ex- plains. “We know from research that there’s a target market that is all out looking for organ- ic. If you ask a 100 people if they want some- thing that’s organic, you’ll get a number of the population that will say, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly what I want and I’m willing to pay for it.’ But you’ll also get sizable amount of the popula-
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