Cover Story
A New, Unified Spring Air By Gretchen Kast
How do you revitalize a brand that has been around for nearly a century? It’s a question a lot of mattress makers are asking these days. Some simply turn to the latest trends or newest technologies. Others stick to their guns and rest on their laurels. Over the past three years, Spring Air has taken a different approach: it has invested in its people.
B
y taking the time to recognize the wealth of expertise and ingenuity with- in its licensing network, Spring Air has been able to establish new systems to make sure their voices are at the forefront. In doing so, the company has not only created a more unified licensing group—but has successfully revamped its product assortment to support today’s retail landscape. With refreshed na- tionwide programs, and more cohesive mar- keting, the new Spring Air is more stream- lined and energized than ever before. The first step to revitalizing the brand was to peel it back to the most essential question: why buy a Spring Air mattress? Soon after he took over as president in 2016, Nick Bates posed that exact question to licensees and salespeople during the Las Vegas Market. “Everybody gave me a different answer,” he remembers. “It was clear, in the end, that no- body really had a clear direction on why you would buy a Spring Air.” While the company enjoyed steady suc- cess over the years, there was no doubt that this lack of clarity was going to be a strug-
gle moving forward. So it commissioned a full brand DNA on the Spring Air name in the hopes of not only establishing where the company was positioned in the market—but see where it could grow as well. In doing so, Spring Air “went back to basics” and identified three key principles at the core of its brand. The first two principles—“Built Right” and “More Where It Matters”—en- sure that, no matter what, every Spring Air product is crafted with an “innovative mix of high-quality materials to provide comfort and support for a great night sleep,” Bates says. That means utilizing more of the best possi- ble components to deliver heightened value all the way through to the end consumer. Un- derstanding that the product itself is only one piece of the larger puzzle, the third key prin- ciple centers around putting “People First.” While some manufacturers may limit their support to only their biggest accounts, Spring Air guarantees that every retailer—whether they’re a nationwide chain or a mom-and-pop shop—has a dedicated sales rep and sub- stantive customer service. “We’re committed
to delivering superior service with a real hu- man touch whenever you need it,” Bates con- tinues. “When your customer has an issue, we talk to those customers and we make sure that they’re taken care of—they don’t just get a waiting signal or a call center.” With these three basic principles in place, Spring Air began to create a singular identi- ty the entire organization could rally around. Early on in Bates’ tenure as president, he in- vited Rion Morgenstern, president and CEO of Spring Air’s West Territory facility, to be a part of the newly established Branding Com- mittee. The goal for this committee is to map out the company’s future through structured branding strategy. The two holed up in a hotel room in Las Vegas for a few days and brain- stormed what they could be doing different- ly. After tossing around a series of different concepts and ideas, they came up with a plan for how to reintegrate all of the licensing partners around this common goal. “The corporate office was very lean under the prior leadership,” Morgenstern explains. “But there was a lot of history and intelligence
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