Do you think it’s hard to differentiate in your category?

A trip to Japan gave me a fresh perspective on how to make any brand stand apart from the competition.

Last month I bought a new mattress from David Jones Sydney city store. Each brand had the same proposition: sleep soundly and wake refreshed. Choose between hard or soft, affordable or expensive.

Talk about a lack of fresh ideas, the promise of a good nights sleep hasn’t changed since I worked on the Simons mattress account 30 years ago, or the idea of looking after your back when I marketed Sealy “Posturepedic” 20 years ago.

The Japanese have a strange way of looking at brand propositions

At least on first view this first world nation has some peculiar ideas about brand messaging. The English language isn’t used by 999 out of 1,000. And Japan has a proud history of maintaining thousand year old traditions. So this different background means common products are often promoted in totally different ways to our western approach.

A couple of weeks ago I checked out the merchandising of mattresses in a central Tokyo department store. Here are some pictures I took when the salesman wasn’t looking – mattresses marketed the way Nike sells shoes.

Nothing soft and fluffy about this positioning – “Activor, the next generation in sleep technology.” Hi-tech performance for the modern Japanese consumer. 

Feeling inspired? Whatever your category, you can find inspiration from taking a completely different perspective.

P.S. Aussie mattress brand repositions for export market

Local mattress maker A H Beard has just launched in China. Unencumbered by any legacy in this new market, how are they differentiating? Their first mattress for Chinese consumers retails for over $20,000. That should set them apart.