The science behind better sleep. Join Kathryn Greene, senior editor of Sleep Savvy and BedTimes magazines, as she sits down with Michael Magnuson, CEO and founder of GoodBed, to discuss the groundbreaking partnership between GoodBed and Dow. This collaboration aims to revolutionize the mattress industry by introducing standardized testing and providing consumers with accurate, reliable information.
Transcript
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:09:08
Kathryn Greene
Hi, it’s Kathryn Greene, senior editor for Sleep Savvy and BedTimes magazines, and I’m here today with Michael Magnuson, CEO and founder of GoodBed. Thank you so much for joining me today.
00:00:09:10 – 00:00:10:20
Michael Magnuson
Thank you for having me.
00:00:10:22 – 00:00:13:12
Kathryn Greene
We’re excited to talk about the big news.
00:00:13:14 – 00:00:19:18
Michael Magnuson
Yeah, we’re excited. Thrilled, in fact, to be finally able to talk about it. It’s been a long time coming.
00:00:19:20 – 00:00:26:21
Kathryn Greene
Yeah. So, can you explain the primary goals of this collaboration between Dow and GoodBed?
00:00:26:23 – 00:00:48:06
Michael Magnuson
I mean, the primary goals are really just to help understand the products so that we can make sure that we are providing accurate information to all parties, whether that be consumers or retailers or, in fact, the manufacturers themselves, to help them make the best products they can.
00:00:48:08 – 00:00:52:07
Kathryn Greene
And why is there a need for standardized testing in the mattress industry?
00:00:52:09 – 00:01:21:14
Michael Magnuson
Let’s start with the consumer perspective. Consumers find it a very important purchase. It’s a big investment. And it’s very hard to find information that makes it easy to compare products, for one thing, across different manufacturers, different manufacturers’ use, different standards, different terminology, and so forth. And there’s a limit to what they can kind of assess themselves in the course of a store visit.
00:01:21:16 – 00:01:50:22
Michael Magnuson
You know, maybe they can assess how soft it is or something like that. There’s a limit to how much they even know to try to assess that. They’re even kind of looking for an an in-store visit because their knowledge is relatively limited. So that’s important. But the other reason it’s important is for the industry because I think that for a long time now, companies have not been able to get full credit for the amazing products they put out.
00:01:51:00 – 00:02:34:06
Michael Magnuson
The quality they put in and the innovation that they do. And this is the way for them to finally do that because, up until now, what has happened and what is happening on a grand scale, in fact, right now, on large e-commerce platforms, for example, are that companies can just kind of claim whatever they want to claim. They can say all the same things that the companies who are actually putting in the work, putting in the quality, putting in the innovation are actually doing and really, truly, can in their laboratories, let’s say, really prove those other companies can just put something together and say the same things about it.
00:02:34:21 – 00:02:51:06
Michael Magnuson
And consumers don’t know the difference, for one thing. And for another thing they don’t necessarily trust, when it comes from the company themselves, what differences they hear. And so all of that is what we’re hoping to improve upon for the sake of the industry.
00:02:51:08 – 00:02:59:17
Kathryn Greene
Yeah. So it sounds like, you know, it’s going to benefit consumers, manufacturers, retailers, and everyone across the industry. It sounds like.
00:02:59:19 – 00:03:01:13
Michael Magnuson
100%. Yes.
00:03:01:15 – 00:03:09:02
Kathryn Greene
And, you know, can you share a little bit more about the mattress DNA framework and how it integrates with Dow’s ComfortScience Studio?
00:03:09:04 – 00:03:41:21
Michael Magnuson
Yeah. So when we came together with Dow, they had just released the ComfortScience Studio, created it, and announced it. And it was really fortuitous timing because, we had for a long time been, evaluating mattresses. And we actually did need to provide some standardized information. So that is when we created the mattress DNA framework, which is starting to go down that path of evaluating mattresses.
00:03:41:21 – 00:04:05:17
Michael Magnuson
I was like, how do I evaluate a mattress in a way that is objective? When we all know this to be a very subjective product and is consistent across brands, comprehensive, and, most importantly, mindful of the truth that this is a very personal product. This is not a product that’s one size fits all.
00:04:05:18 – 00:04:39:17
Michael Magnuson
It’s very different. We want different things, and we need different things, in fact, for our bodies. And so, how do we do that? Well, that’s what forced me to kind of go down the road of creating this mattress DNA framework where we basically broke it down, broke down the essence of a mattress and the experience of being on a mattress into it’s a little over 50 different attributes that actually are each of them objectively measurable and yet they may result in experiences that are subjective.
00:04:39:22 – 00:05:01:07
Michael Magnuson
So basically, we were divided into all these different characteristics in order to provide this objective breakdown. Going back to your question about how we came together with Dow and how this fits with the ComfortScience Studio, we had this framework, and we were measuring these things in the best way we possibly could with the tools we had available, and sometimes with tools that we created on our own.
00:05:01:09 – 00:05:29:06
Michael Magnuson
But we were limited in that regard. And Dow had just created this ComfortScience Studio where they had the capacity to effectively measure anything they wanted. And so it was a really the perfect collaboration because it was like, well, we know exactly what to measure in this category, and we can help develop a battery of tests that we’ve jointly developed together to measure each of those things.
00:05:29:06 – 00:05:33:08
Michael Magnuson
And that’s been incredibly exciting and fulfilling over the last several years. So it’s really.
00:05:33:08 – 00:05:52:02
Kathryn Greene
Neat, you know, all these things you think aren’t quantifiable but are, in a way. Okay, great. Now that’s amazing. And, you know, you said that you’re not quite ready to reveal any findings yet. And I totally get that. But as you learn these insights and findings, how will they be communicated to stakeholders in the industry and consumers?
00:05:52:04 – 00:06:19:20
Michael Magnuson
Yeah. So, in terms of how they’re really communicated to consumers, one main element will be kind of a continuation of what we’ve been doing already. We’ve already had this framework. We’ve already been presenting information to consumers in this same manner. We don’t present all 50-some characteristics and our measurements or ratings, and all of them, to the consumer. We sort of try to make their lives a little simpler.
00:06:19:22 – 00:06:45:08
Michael Magnuson
Sure. We consolidate them. So we’ll take a family of characteristics and roll those up into a rating or that kind of overall global characteristic. So, we will take effectively those sub-characteristics. We will aggregate them into a rating and share that with the consumer. And then we will typically, in our editorial commentary, we’ll give sort of the nuanced detail in a more qualitative form.
00:06:45:08 – 00:06:54:10
Kathryn Greene
And you know, you said you’ve been working on this for, I think, three and a half years. Correct. Now that it’s here and ongoing, what are you most excited about?
00:06:54:12 – 00:07:23:18
Michael Magnuson
Well, I’m excited to be able to share this with people because I know that the industry, over the last three and a half years, in fact, I think this, this problem I was describing earlier, has gotten much worse. I think there’s also become a lot more, maybe cynicism amongst consumers. And so they’re looking for retailers, in fact, and manufacturers need a way to distinguish products.
00:07:23:18 – 00:07:51:11
Michael Magnuson
So I’m excited to let people know that this is coming and really kind of give consumers that confidence and give you that confidence in selling to them. And then I just look forward to also being able to help manufacturers with whatever they’re thinking about in terms of making sure that their products are, you know, meeting the objectives that they’re trying to meet for consumers.
00:07:51:11 – 00:07:57:00
Michael Magnuson
So, we’re super excited about the win that this creates for everybody.
00:07:57:03 – 00:08:05:08
Kathryn Greene
What about on the retail side? How will that ultimately benefit retail sales associates? How will this partnership benefit RSAs in selling better?
00:08:05:10 – 00:08:26:01
Michael Magnuson
Oh my gosh, I can’t wait for this information to be available to RSAs because, I mean, I think our RSAs have one of the toughest jobs in this business because, obviously, the consumers come in. We talked about how cynical and distrustful they tend to be. The RSA has to earn their trust effectively over a short period of time.
00:08:26:01 – 00:08:51:03
Michael Magnuson
They are probably the one person in the chain that they’re least trustful of coming in, so they have to overcome that and ultimately win that person’s trust in a very short amount of time. And ultimately, do that to help that person make a good decision. And so this, to me, is like the ultimate selling tool.
00:08:51:03 – 00:09:17:17
Michael Magnuson
I mean, it just gives the RSA the ultimate credibility to say, hey, look, whether or not you are inclined to trust what the manufacturer says or what I say, this is independent information. This comes from a very sophisticated lab testing program run by the leading independent mattress information company and the leading material science company in the world, and they’ve collaborated to create these tests.
00:09:17:17 – 00:09:28:23
Michael Magnuson
And this is what those tests show. So I mean, that, to me, is something that will make an incredibly powerful selling tool. And I can’t wait for RSAs to have the ability to take advantage of that.
00:09:29:00 – 00:09:42:09
Kathryn Greene
Yeah. Amazing. Michael, thank you so much for joining us. It was amazing to hear about the new GoodBed and Dow partnership and how it will benefit pretty much everyone in the industry, from retailers to manufacturers to suppliers to, of course, the consumer.
00:09:42:11 – 00:09:47:13
Michael Magnuson
I really appreciate the time. Thanks for all the questions. I look forward to speaking with you again soon and sharing more.
Read our feature on the new partnership: Dow and GoodBed Establish Scientific Mattress Testing Program.
