How the biggest manufacturer, exporter and supplier of mattresses made their mark in the digital world
Text Credit: Rochelle D’Souza Images and videos courtesy: Duroflex
Mattress brands are a dime a dozen and taking into consideration that we live in a day and age where mattresses and pillows have moved beyond merely serving a purpose of sleeping but have been redefined as something that gives you utmost comfort, ensures 100% rest all while holding your spine and other vital parts in the most delicate manner ensuring a holistic approach to sleep. So what does a fifty old mattress company from Kerala do to get ahead of the times and place themselves along with the goose-feathered downs on the world? They rebranded, and how!
Duroflex is India’s largest manufacturer of sleep and comfort products, it has a portfolio of over 30 different products, catering to distinct sleep patterns and comfort requirements of the consumers. Duroflex is also India’s largest exporter of sleep and comfort products.
“In 1963, when our founder, the late Mr. P. C. Mathew first began manufacturing coir mattresses, it was a pioneering effort. In the 50 years that followed, much has changed. People, policies, economies, markets, ergonomic theories, customer preferences and many new technologies.” said Managing Director Mathew Chandy.
So what did Duroflex do to bring itself into the foreground itself in the realm? Following a multi-agency pitch, Duroflex chose Happymcgarrybowen to lead the communication mandate for the brand. With Happy on-board Duroflex launched their campaigns that not only caught the attention of their potential customers and acted as major brand recall tool but also caught the attention of netizens and trended on social media. The first tactical moved was launched on World Sleep Day (how clever!) in March this year.
Happy mcgarry bowen conceptualized and developed a digital stunt to ‘wake up’ the people who ignore their sleep. The campaign launched DuroflexShnooze, a product with break through in sleep technology. The product even introduced revolutionary and never-heard-before features.
The stunt helped Duroflex get over 20% more traffic to the site in just 3 days, apart from the constant phone calls to the corporate office to enquire about a product which in reality never existed.
Mathew Joseph, Marketing Director, Duroflex said, “The world is getting busier by the day. There is always so much to do and very little time to do all that. A recent article says that the average sleep duration of an Indian is 6.55 hours even though the average recommended sleep duration for adults is 7 – 8 hours. This makes Indians one of the most sleep deprived people in the world. This World Sleep Day, it was important for us to communicate about the increasing lack of sleep among Indians and the fact that the only way to get good sleep is on a comfortable mattress. To get this message across we had to come up with a visionary product to excite all the sleep deprived Indians.”
According to Duroflex MD Mathew Chandy who was in Kochi recently delivering a session at the event, the company is turning its marketing focus to digital platforms and allotting considerable amount of funding for the same. “Shnooze was a novel idea that catapulted our brand into the limelight. It was absolutely nonsensical but it worked. The internet is now everyone’s focus when it comes to marketing their product and we felt like we needed to tap into that opportunity as well.” he said. Over the past few months Duroflex has marketed widely on various social media platforms particularly following the introduction of their newest product the first-ever designer mattress, Duroflex Energise, range in India with their official sleep energising partner RCB (#EnergisingRCB). RCB players Chris Gayle, Tymal Mills, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadav, YuzvendraChahal and Shane Watson launched the mattress range. The RCB players and have since, been working along with the brand to spread the word on the importance of sleep for not just sports persons, but anyone in general.
This 50-year-old brand that started with a small manufacturing plant along the quiet canal at Alleppey, Kerala and come a long way to become a leading enterprise with the most modern manufacturing processes in centres across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana State and Maharashtra. The company is currently investing heavily in its second phase of growth that encompasses aggressive retail expansion and new line of products.