Q What are the core values that Centuary Mattress embodies as a brand?
Centuary is part of Shree Malani Group, with a vision to be a global leader in the business of comfort. We are a 35 year old brand with core values of Stability, Integrity, Long-Term Relationships with all stake holders and Progressive thinking. These business ethics are deeply ingrained in our working philosophy and have played a large role in our consistent success and growth over the years.
Q How would you describe the current brand image of Centuary in the Indian Market?
Centuary Mattresses are known for their high quality and superior value proposition to the consumers. The brand has always been known for its innovative product lineup and technology leadership. Our positioning of “India’s Sleep Specialist” resonates with the consumers because mattress technology is a science which is best left to the specialists.
Q How does Centuary ensure a positive customer experience throughout the buying journey?
Centuary operates a unified selling code across all consumer touch points, right from website / social media to retail PoSM & merchandise, to after sales support. As a brand, it has been our endeavour to take the best d2c practices and apply them across our channel to engage with our consumers more effectively with the help of our retail partners. We also have a dedicated customer delight help desk which assists with product related enquiries as well as warranty support.
Q How is Centuary promoting online sales? Do you have any specific scheme for the same.
Centuary has been one of the first legacy brands to list online as far back as 2016 – recognising the inevitability of the impact of digital eco system on sales. Over the years, we have curated a largely independent product line up and price points for the online channel, keeping in mind the consumer profile and touch-and feel constraints in the online space.
Q What do you think is the impact of Brand Ambassadors on sales promotion?
A brand ambassador is very useful in generating trust for any brand. However, he / she can never be a substitute for a top-notch product or a good marketing story. The way in which Centuary has leveraged its brand ambassador over the years (P.V. Sindhu being our current brand ambassador) is to leverage their credibility and popularity in our core markets to amplify the brand messaging of product leadership and the role of better sleep in achieving better performance.
Q How can Centuary incorporate sustainable practices into its mattress production or marketing efforts?
Sustainability has been the story of mattress industry world over post Covid. Centuary has been at the forefront of this revolution of mattress technology in India, boosting of certifications such as Oeko-Tek for our natural rubberized coir offering, Certi-PUR for our emissions free foam etc.. alongwith a product recommendation from National Health Academy (NHA). Next step would be to employ sustainable mattress ticking and packaging options.
Q What are the biggest market trends shaping the Indian mattress industry in the next 5 years? What further innovation can Centuary incorporate in sustaining its brand image?
The Indian Industry is at an interesting cross road, where there are forces (product first vertically integrated manufacturing companies) driving innovation on one hand, competing with counter forces (unorganised or white labelled d2c segment) driving price points lower with poor product standards and false promises. The way forward definitely seems to be in having benchmark quality standards across the industry to build consumer confidence and trust.
Q Who do you think is the ideal target audience for the Q-Gel Mattress? Are there specific marketing strategies you would recommend to reach this segment?
The story behind the inception of Q-Gel mattress is an interesting one as it came at a time when the market was being flooded with many varieties of inferior quality memory foam at lucrative price points with attractive but inaccurate promises to the consumer. Our product development team worked on the insight that conventional foams and memory foams tend to heat up during sleep and hence addition of gels such as copper gel into a foam provide for a cooler and hence better sleep. The same was effectively communicated through our marketing literature and product film differentiating between conventional memory foam and our proprietary gel infused foams with CuSense technology. We were immediately able to see a huge demand for this product line and will shortly be introducing more products under this umbrella.
Q What innovative materials or technologies would you like to see incorporated into future Centuary mattress models?
At Centuary, we operate a fully integrated manufacturing set up where all key components are manufactured in-house. Hence, we strongly believe in a material agnostic approach, focusing our product design efforts more on the end consumer need, and the functional benefit provided by the mattresses in fulfilling that need. For eg. I mentioned that our Q-Gel mattress launch was able to address the functional need of all consumers to sleep cooler and better – while debunking the myths around conventional or non-conventional memory foam. Our future product innovation is also likely to focus on helping consumers sleep cooler by adopting innovative technologies in the ticking as well as mattress core.
Q What key metrics would you use to measure the success of the Sunrisers Hyderabad sponsorship in terms of brand awareness, sales and brand perception?
The Sunrisers Hyderabad Association this year was Centuary’s first experience in riding the IPL wave, with the objective of connecting with our core audiences in Hyderabad and the South. Lighthouse properties such as these generally create a buzz for the brand, while uplifting the brand imagery and enabling higher price points. We have embarked upon this journey with a medium to long term time horizon in mind.
Q Centuary has a strong presence in South India. How can the company effectively expand its market share in other regions of India?
Apart from the South, Centuary also has a strong presence and market share in the eastern and western part of India. Our manufacturing foot print in the east helps us to expand our market rapidly in this region, while our E-Commerce play enables us to tap into demand for our brand from all over the country.