Blog: Rooms To Go touts peace of mind with ad for mattress, pillow covers

It is mattress month, Rooms To Go says in a new advertising campaign. And that’s a great time for consumers to “shop comfortably,” the retailer says. We agree.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rewrite the mattress retail playbook, Rooms To Go is making a leadership statement on how to shop safely and comfortably. It is tackling the potentially tricky issue of consumer safety with a straightforward, calm presentation.

Analysts have been worrying about how consumers are going to feel about lying down on mattresses since stores began closing as the pandemic hit. Rooms To Go shows one way out of that dilemma by offering a solution for worried consumers: Individually wrapped mattress and pillow covers that can provide peace of mind and make consumers feel comfortable while trying out mattresses.

The individually packaged, one-time-use kits are by Precision Textiles of Totowa, N.J., which recently introduced its hygienic mattress testing kit.

In its new advertising campaign, Rooms To Go features a photograph of the packaged kits, as well as an image showing how the mattress and pillow sheets are used on a showroom mattress sample.

While Rooms To Go doesn’t identify the kits as coming from Precision Textiles in the ad campaign, the retailer’s use of the kits is a high-profile win for the producer.

“We are so pleased that Rooms To Go is the first top-tier retailer to pick up our SlumberShield testing kits to keep consumers safe upon return to their furniture showrooms,” said Scott Tesser, CEO of Precision Textiles. “Their reputation for category leadership is known far and wide, so the confidence they are showing in our retailer solution is gratifying. We know as stores reopen that there will be some trepidation among consumers about hygiene and cleanliness. The kits help assuage those fears while consumers shop safely.”

As Tesser noted, there will be some consumer concerns about hygiene and cleanliness as shoppers return to stores. In a classic marketing strategy, that problem is addressed with a solution: The testing kits.

Those kits include a disposable flat mattress cover and a disposable pillow cover. The thin fabric is made of an anti-microbial polyester-rayon blend that is soft to the touch, does not crinkle and does not impact the feel of the mattress or pillow, the company says.

I like the way Rooms To Go sets up consumer expectations for mattress shopping, touting the peace of mind it provides with its protective measures.

I also like the fact that Rooms To Go is designating June as “Mattress Month.” This is on the heels of Memorial Day sales, the traditional kickoff of the summer mattress selling season. The retailer is building on the spate of mattress ads that accompanied that holiday sale.

One key to success in Mattressville is steady promotion. Any month can be a good month to buy a mattress, and savvy retailers maintain their promotional schedules throughout the year.

Rooms To Go is an aggressive promoter, and there is surely a lesson there for other retailers: If you want the business, go get it.

There is also a lesson in how Rooms To Go is promoting the peace of mind it offers mattress shoppers these days.