Inside The Sleep Company’s influencer strategy ft. CMO Ripal Chopda

Did you know that Indians are the second-most sleep-deprived after Japan? According to a report by the fitness solutions firm Fitbit in 2019, it was observed that Indians got an average night sleep of seven hours one minute. 

Following the pandemic, the situation seems to have gone downhill. A recent survey has revealed that 52% of Indians have admitted that their sleep pattern has changed following COVID-19. The report by LocalCircles revealed that one in two Indians surveyed got less than six hours of uninterrupted sleep each night and had trouble going to or waking up during sleep or needed more hours of rest. 

People have realised the importance of sleep as it helps build immunity for better health and about 20% of consumers, currently, are willing to pay between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 1 lakh, and 5% over Rs. 1 lakh. This has led to a rise in sleep solutions brands.

Be it tapping into audio marketing strategies to encourage a peaceful night of sleep or taking a humorous approach by hiring people to test mattresses, many sleep solutions brands, including mattresses have had one goal - sleep using their products. 

The problem here is that many consumers are unaware or have little knowledge about better sleeping solutions. Largely, the category has no differentiation wherein every brand has similar offerings like memory foams in mattresses and more. D2C mattress brand, The Sleep Company brings in technology into the mix to stand out.  

The brand’s journey began when co-founders Priyanka and Harshil Salot faced sleepless nights after becoming new parents due to an uncomfortable mattress. Realizing that the mattress industry hadn’t innovated since the 1960s, they felt that the category needed to evolve with a solution that could elevate the sleeping experience for people everywhere and thus founded The Sleep Company in 2019.

The challenge for the brand, however, is not just raising awareness about sleep, it’s to raise awareness about the product itself. 

“Our configuration is good but one of the big challenges is driving awareness for the product because the technology is new. How we drive awareness about the brand and the motor technology is the first big challenge. Building consideration for a SmartGRID mattress with somebody who's never heard about it is the second challenge from a very marketing lens perspective,” says Chief Marketing Officer, Ripal Chopda. 

Digital-heavy marketing

The digital-first brand’s target audience is a slightly younger audience who are working in corporate. Raising awareness amongst this audience has been achieved through influencer partnerships. 

While it is a go-to marketing plan for brands, The Sleep Company has created a niche for itself by collaborating with influencers across health, lifestyle and tech. 

“Because we always talk about science being ahead of curve and the technology we ensure in our products, more than 80% of our influencer partnerships bring in tech influencers. We thought that this is a good niche for us,” elaborates Chopda as he mentions that it worked very well for the brand. 

Through these partnerships, and video assets on platforms, the mattress brand aims to do two things - one is building R&D and awareness through it and the second being digital, which is a complete performance marketing plan, Chopda continues. 

The brand has partnered with influencers like Saniya Bedi, a psychologist who talked about the importance of sleep and tips to improve the quality of sleep and architect, Nihara Sonavane who expounded upon the designing benefits the mattress brings.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Saniya Bedi |Psychologist| (@therapybysaniya)

Partaking in a moment marketing trend, the partnership with actor Nisha Rawal cleverly showed what it’s like buying a bed through the Wes Anderson trend.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ɴɪsʜᴀ ʀᴀᴡᴀʟ | 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 (@missnisharawal)

The larger aim is to appeal to the younger audience and it has also collaborated with ambassador Anil Kapoor, Karan Johar, Jim Sarbh and more who speak to the younger demographic. 

Chopda mentions, “Digital is a larger channel for us and takes up 85%, followed by offline in terms of print and outdoors which goes anywhere between 10 to 15%. We have still not started a journey towards television, it will take some time for us.” 

Catering to South India

Bangalore continues to be a top market for the brand and hence the completely online brand has now veered into retail as it has opened 10 stores in the city, as mentioned by co-founder Harshil Salot. 

To connect with the audience in the market, they roped in celebrity Raashi Khanna for her appeal in the South with her work in Telugu and Tamil films. 

The Indian mattress market has generated a revenue of USD 223.4 million in the current year and is poised to achieve a CAGR more than of 7.97% for the forecast period of 2023 to 2028. 

Despite the competition from already established market players like Duroflex, Sheela Foam, Springwel and more, Chopda estimates, “The Sleep Company has a market share in the price points anywhere between 12 to 14% so far.”

With mattress brands competing directly with people’s addictions to excess screentime, the brand’s market positioning is peaceful sleep and it aims to continue to build awareness through its content strategy in the digital world as well as work on print with retail stores opening.