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Message New Design and Brand Language Most people picture a mattress as a padded bed filled with springs. With nearly 130 years of experience, U.S. mattress maker Sealy has long been a leader in the industry and the spring mattress category. Recently, the company saw an opportunity for growth in Latex foam beds and approached IDEO to help it design and create a communication language for an entirely new brand. The project began by defining the market opportunities for all-foam beds. In-depth interviews with consumers and sleep experts provided inspiration and direction for a specialty (the industry term for foam) bed design and, more importantly, shaped our thinking about the mattress purchase and ownership experience. Consumers wanted a brand that acknowledged the bed as more than a piece of furniture to sleep on and spoke to the emotional aspects of rest. Although Sealy had initially sought design direction only for its Latex foam and not its memory foam (also called visco) beds, our work together revealed that the real game-changer for the company and consumers would be to create an umbrella brand that incorporated both. This strategic decision, a first for the mattress industry, meant that consumers would no longer have to choose one type of foam over the other: They could buy whichever foam they preferred, Latex or visco, and Sealy would deliver on the same brand promise of clean, healthful rest. The new brand and product line is called Embody™ by Sealy. IDEO developed four principles to guide Embody™’s design and message: clean (crisp, low-profile contemporary design), evolved (innovation in service to brand values, not to outdo the competition), sanctuary (design that draws inspiration from places of calm), and well (clean and hygienic surfaces for rest). Working on-site in the Sealy prototype lab, IDEO and Sealy built three possible interpretations of the exterior bed design. Consumer testing confirmed the most compelling, and Sealy made subtle design changes based on consumer feedback and manufacturing needs. The final Embody™ bed design is streamlined and modern. Its nature-inspired color palette and inviting textures reflect places of rest and relaxation, so that the mattress feels at home in consumers’ homes. Wood corner guards and contrast stitching give the bed marks of quality furniture. An iconic central band makes Embody™ stand out on the retail floor and offers added comfort, thanks to its temperature regulating Polartec™ fabric, which is also quick-drying and antimicrobial. Functional, unexpected additional details, such as the storage pockets for magazines and TV remotes on the felted contrasting foundation add touches of familiarity, purpose, and distinction. The Embody™ communication strategy avoids industry jargon and makes choosing a mattress straightforward and simple for consumers, who care more about how a bed feels than knowing the technology behind it. The design team developed creative briefs for rolling out and marketing Embody™, internally and externally, to help ensure that the product launch was successful—and unlike any other that Sealy had previously done. The new line “not only features a contemporary, sophisticated design, but provides simplicity from the inside out without any extra layers,” Jodi Allen, Sealy’s chief marketing officer and senior vice president of marketing, told Furniture Today. “Sealy collaborated with IDEO to create an approachable and attractive mattress that delivers the simple, healthy rest consumers want with a selling story they can easily understand.” http://www.ideo.com/work/new-design-and-brand-language/