Do you know how to tap into the buying power of the bride? If you don’t, this is the season to learn.
It has been said that 2022 will see more weddings than have been held in a single year since 1984!
Why? Covid19. Weddings have been on hold for the past two years and bank accounts have been stacking up. Now with an endemic in site, people are making good on their long-overdue weddings and the mattress industry should get in on the action.
The average wedding hosts around 200 guests. If furniture and mattress retailers could get 1 person from each wedding to make a mattress purchase for the bride and groom, it would total over $1 billion in revenue.
This begs the question: how should you position a mattress at the top of a registry list?
1) Wedding Expos. Get in on the action. Be in the place where the people are. Along with DJs, wedding bakers, and florists, book a spot at your local wedding expo and set up a mattress on display.
2) Market To Parents. Parents are likely the largest gift-givers at a wedding, and what’s usually at the top of their want list? Grandchildren. Create a promo that says “if your son/daughter gives you a grandchild within the year, the mattress is free.”
3) Create A Wedding Expo in Your Store! Use the space to your advantage! Invite people into your space and allow shoppers to create registries on site.
Curious about more ideas? Listen or watch to learn more.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Mark Kinsley
This year 2.6 million couples are getting married and there is a huge opportunity for the mattress and furniture industry. How can you tap into the buying power of the bride? Oh, we got something special for you today the dose Marco show begins in 60 seconds
Mark Kinsley
came across this incredible stat. And immediately the light bulb goes on over my head and I’m thinking this is a huge opportunity for the mattress industry. People are worried about Ukraine. They’re worried about entering this potential for a looming recession. Inflation is afoot. And meanwhile, people have put their weddings on pause for a couple of years. Their bank accounts are relatively full and 2022 is going to be a huge wedding season. 2.6 million weddings will take place in the US in 2022. That is a record high. And you know what happens when people get married. They typically move when people move they spend, I think on average about $9,000 in furniture and mattresses, and whenever people get married family members are looking for gifts they can give now let me give you the quick numbers Quinn the average guest list is projected to be at 129 people. So when Maria gets married, she’s gonna invite between her and her husband Juliano they’re going to invite 129 People now here’s the quick math on that if you could get one of those guests to buy a mattress for the bride and groom which is a great gift and spend an average of 400 bucks and let’s say two and a half million people get married couples that’s a billion dollars in revenue sitting there waiting for the mattress industry do you find this to be a big opportunity? How would you attack this
Mark Quinn
I think it’s a big opportunity I think it’s it’s kind of like Valentine’s Day I think inside the category it’s like Michael it for friends right? They needed to create a holiday for Michael it remember Monica she was like in a chef’s class. And Macula tasted like crab so like they created a holiday for it or something. But yeah, I think we got to like put the thought into people’s minds. I love it. In Kinsley when you are starting out getting married, I’ll tell you my story. So I’m getting married, and I was like 30 or something like that. And Bridget was like, Okay, great. We’re like planning all this stuff. And we need a new bed. And like why do we need a new bed I was was started at the time we had a $3,000 mattress. I mean, we don’t need a new bed. We’re buying all this other crap. I’m like, the last thing we need to do is buy a new bed. She goes You don’t get it. I go get what she goes that bed has history. Took me a minute. And so what she was saying was she wanted a virgin mattress. She wanted a fresh bed she wanted to bed that was just for her and I now I’m not like saying crazy. So I think there’s a lot of people who have this conversation. Matter of fact, I’ve talked to a lot of people that it I’m not the only one or my wife isn’t the only one who thought that way. So that’s just one example. Kinsley, of like how a mattress could be a great fit for people. So it’s a fresh start. It’s a marital bed you share together. It’s where you create memories. It’s where you have great conversations and you have those intimate moments of conversation and fears. A cold both it’s where love is a connection. And so I think you can make that a beautiful thing and talk about all of those things, and, and how it’s a great way to be joined together in life. And what better place to do that than the marital bed?
Mark Kinsley
And let’s brainstorm around this because I think it’s a huge opportunity if they would focus their messaging and marketing on this exact audience. And so think about this for a moment. Yeah, it’s two and a half million couples in the US. So does that represent a huge opportunity in your market? Well, probably so especially if you get somebody to come in to your Furniture and Mattress Store and buy a gift for the lucky lucky couple. Now you have a gift that they’re going to give and a potential buyer that you can turn in. For somebody who’s a prospect, you can turn into a buyer, the aunt, uncle, the parents, whoever it might be. So how can you message around this? Well, number one, at the most basic level, make sure you have a registry set up, especially if you have a furniture store where people can come in and get all the goods they want and get registered, because that’s what they do. Here’s my registry, don’t give me a bunch of stuff I don’t want. You could also scan the wedding announcements on Facebook and Instagram. A lot of people use the hashtag just said yes. And they put up their Instagram post. But I you know, I think people are hesitant or scared sometimes to go so surgical with their marketing messages and create a full surround sound campaign around something that might seem a little niche. But I think this cuts through the clutter, especially if you do it during the times a year when the weddings are most likely to happen. We’re getting into that season. The data from not k And O T like tying the knot. It’s a website dedicated to wedding planning. They say that 17% of all weddings are actually going to take place in October. And for the sixth year in a row. October is the most popular month to have a wedding. So could you dial up your spend and create a campaign that was focused on October?
Mark Quinn
October? That’s so like, I would have never guessed that month. Why is that? I thought it used to be like may in June, as wedding season. Why would it be October that’s the fall
Mark Kinsley
falls beautiful. The leaves are falling winters almost here you’re trying to get settled in before the holiday season. The weather’s typically really good at least here in Northern Arkansas, I’m very protective of October don’t want to travel out. So why is that? I’m sure there are a bunch of different reasons. And maybe these days, I know a lot of people were looking for venues. And if they couldn’t get the lead up to summer venue, you know in April, May, June, maybe they’re opting for October because venues are available. Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking. Let’s give our dear Furniture and Mattress retailers, an on the fly brainstorm about how they can message. Maybe it’s a TV spot, maybe it’s a radio spot, maybe it’s some key messaging they can apply in social media display ads, to help get guests to come in the store. And when I say yes, I mean guests that come into your store and people that are guests of the wedding and position the mattress at the top of the list of what you’re going to buy for these happy couples. How about this? Okay, I’m just gonna throw out a scenario. You and I are brothers. Okay? We were Italian. Okay, we got an Italian fam big family. Okay,
Mark Quinn
why don’t we be like polish or Czechoslovakia and my Italian. Just
Mark Kinsley
my wife’s Italian. I thought it’d be fun. Okay. 50th anniversary of The Godfather as well. And the movie opens with the iconic scene of a wedding. So why not be Italian? Okay, crew in our sister. We got to come up with an idea. So this is going to
I feel that you like that. Okay, like that. Yeah. Hey, Marco. De give me what’s happening. My name is Marco as well. Where
Mark Quinn
I thought we were gonna be Italian like wait, we can’t be brothers with the same name. I guess we can. George Foreman has six kids named George.
Yeah, so Hey, Mark. Okay. So Marco. Maria. her middle name is Marco. She’s just getting married. You want to go halfsies with me on our president. Let’s go halfsies
Mark Quinn
it Let’s Go Habs he’s a mattress that’s a big thing though. I mean, are we can we afford the investment in a mattress from Maria I didn’t
know that. We already landed on a gift for the mattress sounds great. Although I don’t want to think about my sister scroll. Okay, I don’t want to think about a screw
Mark Quinn
scrolling Who said anything about screw and I’m talking about sleep for crying out loud the girls gotta sleep Have you know how important sleep is Maria gets really edgy. She’s not very pleasant to be around. If she hasn’t slept you know her
walk or what happened to you accent Where did it go?
Mark Quinn
It’s it’s more space. In addition, Italian All right, Marco.
I like this idea though. Let’s give her matches. She spends a third of her life on it. I mean, she’s gonna feel great. She’s gonna wake up feeling great. And she can make the really the delicious sauce that we like her so much.
Mark Quinn
Yeah, that’s right. And if she doesn’t if this guy Tony, that she’s Marian, if he’s not right, we’re going to take that button, we’re going to put a dead horse’s head right in that bed right next to the neck, right?
He’s gonna be he’s, we’re gonna go to the mattresses, and he’s going to be sleeping with the fishes. Okay, you got it, you gotta buy.
Mark Quinn
That’s right. So so. So come on down to Tony’s mattress Emporium right now and get your bed for your sister Maria, or whoever else needs it.
You better you better come down here or else. Okay, how was that?
Mark Quinn
I think that might be an award winning ad right there. With the exception of the really crappy Italian accent.
Mark Kinsley
You went Australian for a little bit, you went Spanish for a little bit. I’m proud of you, though. So you get to mix it up. This is what we’re talking about. Though. If you can focus something fun and cut through the clutter, there’s a big opportunity in weddings, you could also go just a little more traditional and say, you’ve got a wedding coming up, you’re looking for the perfect gift. Make sure if you’re the bride and groom, a mattress is on your registry, make sure if you’re get you’re a guest that’s coming to the wedding, you give them something they’re going to spend a third of their life on. And it’s going to make them wake up feeling great and have babies it’s going to help them have babies
Mark Quinn
and had lots of babies. Okay, we’re going to let’s keep on the brainstorming mode. Right. So let’s talk a bit just about all the cool things that people could do to promote mattresses during the wedding season. Are you ready? So here’s the thought, why not get a connection to any of the wedding, you know, the exhibitors and they have all these like wedding, you know, seminars or wedding expos, essentially. And make sure you’re there at the wedding expo and get connected to those live events have your mattresses there so that when brides are there shopping for cakes and dresses and all that stuff, you got to bed right in there that you can actually show people and get it put on the registry your turn,
Mark Kinsley
love that idea be where the people are, can you also make sure that whenever the brides are putting together their registries on the websites, because a lot of people put up, you know, back in the old days, they would announce their their engagement on newspaper. So what are the different places where you can go and give coupons to people where they’re actually announcing their wedding? Like I said, there’s a hashtag for just said, yes, there are Facebook posts, a lot of people are putting up their own websites. So figure out how you can tap into what local people are doing to announce their weddings, and offer them a discount, offer them a discount in relation to their registry. So you’d be sure, put yourself at the top of the list for whatever they are putting together. Here’s where to go to buy the stuff that we want. So we do stadium rock to go with. I’m
Mark Quinn
gonna take you. I love that. I love that. How about this, I’m going to take you on a little bit of a right turn here. Instead of marketing to the bride and the groom. How about you mark it to the parents in a fun way to be great social media content? Hey, parents, you didn’t think about who was going to give the bride and the groom that biggest gift? It’s going to be mom and dad. And so what is one of the things that a lot of parents say to their newlywed daughter or son, hey, when am I going to get the grandbabies? Right. So what if you market it to the parents of the bride and groom and saying hey, the quicker you invest in a mattress for your son or daughter after they get married, the quicker you’re going to get that grandbaby that you so want this is a baby making machine. You gotta get it for your son right away if you want to grandkids How about that.
Mark Kinsley
I’m gonna take it to the next level here. So let’s mark it to the parents that want the grandkid. And let’s say kind of like mattress Mac does with betting on the Astros for example. Let’s say parents come and buy this bed for your son and daughter in law. We know you want a grandbaby if they have a grandbaby within a year that mattress is free.
Mark Quinn
Oh that’s so good. How about this? How about you have your own little wedding expo right in your store you feature and you get a good collaboration with a really good cake designer. You bring them in you have maybe a livery service, you have just four or five people that are you know you’re connected to him bring them right into your store that creates traffic into your store. The bride and the groom. They get to come in shop for a bed, get the cake get all the fun stuff too. And it’s a little mini Expo right there in your sleep department or furniture store.
Mark Kinsley
You could also during that Expo hire a photographer, good photography and those we just got engaged pics are so important. So set up a controlled environment you know sometimes the the weather might not cooperate for the outdoor phone Oh shoot, and let them get their their photographs taken for free. And anybody that comes in, gets a certain coupon with a certain timeframe that ties them back to the store. And of course, you can give those out to their registrants as well. Love it, man, hey, this is seeing there, see how much mileage there is around this topic. And it’s happening this year, it is happening this year, the weddings are unfolding. And there is pent up desire to get wed make sure the nuptials are done and maybe even have babies who knows?
Mark Quinn
Well, maybe even what about what about a wedding, like a bed that would look like a wedding dress, right? You get called to design something really cool with a nice design. And it like looks like a wedding dress and the pillows and stuff. And you bring it in for maybe a two or three month period. And it’s the wedding bed or something like that. I mean, you could like create a little fun product assortment out of it and entice sheets and pillows into it to sell a bundle. Right? It’s the newlywed package.
Mark Kinsley
Well, that’s the other thing, there’s an accessories piece of the puzzle here we were talking about. If you could sell a $400 average ticket to two and a half million people, that’s a billion dollars in revenue that’s going to be coming into the industry just through the vehicle of weddings. But that didn’t get into sheets and pillows and protectors and all the stuff in the accessory space. And like we we’ve talked about many times, the sleep sanctuary, and health and wellness in the bedroom are a big deal. And if you can position yourself in that conversation and be more surgical, so you can cut through the noise. I think there’s a chance for you to really grab some revenue. And if nothing else, I think people are going to look at your business differently and be like, Oh, wow, there. I haven’t seen this furniture mattress store advertising in this way. And man, it really sparks me to realise Yeah, there are weddings coming up. I just think it’s a cool way to be relevant to what’s happening in the world.
Mark Quinn
I love that. And here’s so two things. Remind me about wedding photos, if I forget, because I’m gonna riff on this first one. I love it. Kinsley, for the bigger theme of its emotional, like weddings are a big deal. It’s about love. It’s about passion. It’s about connection to people. It’s about bringing your family together to celebrate something beautiful. It’s about new beginnings. It’s a party, it’s a positive thing. And so the more you message around something beautiful like that that’s so powerfully influenced or inspired by emotion. Like, that’s always a good thing, because people make decisions based on emotion, not on logic. So that’s the first time the second thought is, when you talk about wedding. How about if you had your website like a social media play? What if you had customers in your market? I keep thinking Greg and Katie law could pull this off perfectly. But you have a thing in your market where you have people submit photos to your Facebook page, show me your wedding photo, like people love that because they were usually younger and thinner. When I look back at our wedding photos, so let them post their photos to your Facebook page, create some engagement, and then drive the offer in the product that could literally help their new wedded couple start off in their lovely relationship. And
Mark Kinsley
you said something about wedding photos? You said Don’t let me forget?
Mark Quinn
No, that was it. I just talked about it. Okay, people could share their wedding photos on a Facebook page.
Mark Kinsley
You were riffing on that. And then I was like, Is there is there more to that. But I love these ideas. Hey, go on fam dot news or go on our social like we are. We’re big on LinkedIn. So follow the fam on LinkedIn and tell us your ideas. What can you do in relation to wedding season? And in terms of driving traffic into your store and making yourself relevant to that conversation? Because here’s the here’s the headline, once again, this will be the year with the most weddings since 1984. And when people get married, they typically move and they want to situate a new home and there are people looking to give them gifts. So find ways to be relevant to that conversation. And I think it’s a winning proposition. When you are a winning proposition just in general.
Mark Quinn
Stop, stop your winning proposition two, I have I have a thought Let’s eat what we cook. What do you think? So on our Facebook or LinkedIn page, I think we give a little bit of a summary of what we’re talking about here. And I think we asked our audience to post their wedding photo. I would love to see your wedding photo whoever you are listening to this good or LinkedIn site and let’s ask people for their wedding photo because I think it would be really fun to see people as they got married years and years ago.
Mark Kinsley
love that idea. I can’t wait to see you and Bridget Taryn. I will post ours in the comment thread associated with this post. In the meantime, be sure you are following us on LinkedIn because lots of action happening there. Everything from full episodes to lots of hot takes and just it for Ah that’s great way to get the news what’s happening fam dot news if you haven’t subscribed to REI Allah grazes newsletter make sure to do so all you have to do is sign up for our newsletter Ray is covering all things furniture and he’s bringing the heat we appreciate you subscribe, leave us a comment leave us a review and in between now and then hey, go crush some weddings
you could bounce on it what is the hot it’s like peanut butter jelly. Peanut Butter Chocolate hybrid so tight. There’s no way that you could topple a hybrid on my wrist. That’s a calculator watch we add ourselves together and we take it up a notch got the airflow to keep you cool and said get Bisco foam alone and make you drip sweat get our hybrid mattress Yes, you’ll get better rest pooling counts your game we’re ahead of the sun because the two of us together with better than one does I’m cool as I said I’m hot like a heater bounce buddy else now we got it by the leader where you take the spring ride you can sleep so smooth the bounce.
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Mark Quinn
get together. Everybody again
if you want somebody to get in your facility, you probably want to feel a little bit of hybridity alone at a five maybe one star springs and foam with taking care of that lumbar net back support. The best way to shack up just get rested won’t mess your backyard like a hot chick mix with the particle physicists store a mullet party in the back of the business. Best of both worlds like Mars and Venus hybrid on the shorter cheek.
Keeping it loose well we can make two together get a whole lot more. Get the feel of a comfort zone it be kids play back springs keep the costs and
Mark Quinn
overhead and everybody again
doesn’t matter if your kitchen is charming when your bedrooms the most important part of the park. What kind of bed do you keep back there? Does your girl want to chill on a beanbag chair? Hell no. You need springs and phone because it’s that bowling ball. don’t bounce you’ll be sleeping alone. And if the bed don’t react and you can’t get lucky. We got this type of bounce that won’t spill your mirlo so stick with us and you’ll get rewarded because I’m so gentle and I’m so supportive.
He just killed a song about mattresses.
