Editorial Director Beth English talks with industry veteran Mark Quinn about his new role as senior vice president of sales and marketing at Shifman Mattress Co. Quinn shares his thoughts on high-end, luxury mattresses, the sleep ecosystem and why he is excited to be at Shifman.
Transcript
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:06:07
Beth English
Hi, this is Beth English, editorial director of BedTimes and Sleep Savvy magazines. And I am here today with Mark Quinn, an industry veteran who now has a new job. And I’m hoping that he will tell us all about it.
Tell us a little bit about your new role. What are you doing now?
00:00:13:09 – 00:00:39:05
Mark Quinn
Yeah, working with Shifman Mattress. They brought me in as their senior vice president of sales and marketing. And, obviously, I’ll be working with the sales organization to grow the business. Then, on the marketing side, because Shifman is a company that’s been around since 1893, they just have this amazing story and heritage, as well as the product and assortment.
They just have so many great things to talk about.
00:00:41:06 – 00:00:51:08
Beth English
Mark, tell me a little about how you get consumers to think about high-end mattresses rather than just meeting a really basic level of mattress.
00:00:51:08 – 00:01:01:07
Mark Quinn
And it’s tough for us in the mattress category because my wife loves handbags, and she loves to shop for them. She likes to buy them. She even likes to sell and trade them and all these things.
And so you can justify that price, and some of them are incredibly expensive to me. At $1,500 or even more than that, it’s easy because you’re wearing it on your shoulder. It’s a badge, right? And so it’s easier to want that.
00:01:15:13 – 00:01:33:22
Mark Quinn
You’re wearing it, and you get to show it off, essentially. With a mattress, it’s not really like that. It’s much harder because it’s not like you’re bringing people into your bedroom to show them your brand-new Shifman bed. But, you know, the people we appeal to are the ones that just want the best.
They want quality and they want something that they know is going to last a long time. And
When we talk to people about Shifman, we talk about hand tufting and how we sew every little hole, serge it, and reinforce it so it doesn’t pull out. And we handtuffted it and cinched it all together.
So it’ll last you for a long time. And we use natural materials because, you know, we think that they’re better for, you know, long term. And you can sleep on a bed for 20 or 30 years if you build it the right way, like all that stuff, for the right audience. They love it.
00:02:06:24 – 00:02:15:10
Mark Quinn
When you have eight-way hand-tied foundations and tufting, you can build the value you need to justify those prices.
And people who really love quality products love Shifman beds.
00:02:19:18 – 00:02:28:22
Beth English
Now, talking about good mattresses, aside from having a really great mattress, what do you think is essential for good sleep?
00:02:28:22 – 00:02:39:05
Mark Quinn
Yeah. You know, I always look at the sleep disruptors, Beth. And the first one is stress and anxiety. So you got to figure that out. And there’s not really a product to buy, like and use.
A good buddy of mine, Doctor Daniel Gartenberg, is so smart. And he’s a sleep doctor. And we talk about this and having a notepad by your bed and, you know, any stress that you have from the day, just write it down and just tell yourself, hey, I’m going to put it in this notebook, and I’m going to let it go, and I can deal with it tomorrow.
And you get it out of your brain. And it’s kind of a cool way to reduce stress and anxiety before bed. So I like that idea.
00:03:03:10 – 00:03:17:04
Mark Quinn
I’d say, though, to keep it product-focused is fitting people for beds. Like if I’m a brick-and-mortar retailer, that’s such a big opportunity to message around like, look, you can buy one online; we’ll even sell it to you.
But, like, come in, your tickets get bigger. So that’s good, right? But come in and let us fit you. Because the pillow matters. It matters how it interacts with your bed. A lot of times, people don’t like their mattress. It’s not their mattress at all. It’s the pillow that they got. So get the right pillow, sheets, jammies, and right, you know, all get all that working in concert because all of those things add up to either good or bad sleep.
00:03:42:18 – 00:03:50:07
Mark Quinn
So it’s important to look at sleep not through a single filter but look at the ecosystem of sleep. And that’s where you can really improve things.
00:03:50:07 – 00:03:54:04
Beth English
And I wanted to ask you, you know, what do you love about the mattress industry?
00:03:54:12 – 00:03:57:20
Mark Quinn
People, number one. You know, the announcement for Shifman went out.
It never ceases to amaze me just how many good friends I have in the category. And I just love the people in this business. So, I am so incredibly grateful for that.
And then I like it because we have a product that, you know, it can change people’s lives, and there’s a lot of people that sell things that now, you can’t say that a car or you know, any other furniture in your house, like that’s not going to change your life, but a mattress can literally help you live longer because you sleep better.
00:04:29:10 – 00:04:47:22
Mark Quinn
Remember things better, look more beautiful, have more sex, have more, sleep more naps, test better, and be sick less often. That’s our list, and I love that we have it. I love that we are in the business of helping people improve their lives, and that’s our story to tell. And I think that’s pretty cool.
00:04:47:22 – 00:04:50:00
Beth English
That’s great. Thank you so much for being here, Mark.
00:04:50:00 – 00:04:50:18
Mark Quinn
Thank you.
