Ine Stultjens – Auping

Ine Stultjens is Head of Marketing for Royal Auping, a bed- and mattress manufacturer founded in 1888 in Deventer. Auping mainly focuses on The Netherlands and the surrounding countries Belgium, Germany and Denmark. According to Ine, Auping’s vision is to bring rest to the world.

Ine: “Our main ambition is to improve people’s quality of sleep. We believe that a well-rested world is a better word. And we want to leave the world better than how we found it. If we look at the studies we conduct, people sleep poorly due to stress or physical and external factors such as light and sound or temperature. We look at all those areas closely and try to find solutions through innovation.”

Auping with love

Last year Auping launched a new brand campaign: ‘Auping, with love’. Ine: “We included emotion, because next to the functional aspects of our products, we want to have an impact on people through our message. We want to touch them in their hearts. Product characteristics are important, but are more relevant further in the funnel. These last couple of years we lacked emotion in our communication. We looked closely at which elements truly fit Auping, and listened to our consumers. In a society where everyone is ‘always-on’, 24/7 and with at least two screens around, there have never been as many burnouts among young people as today.  Youngsters have 20% less sex than their parents, because ‘always on’ means they never rest. People tell us: I am looking for quality time with the people I care about. I want peace and quiet, but it is difficult because I am always distracted. At Auping we have been taking care of rest for more than 130 years, that is what we do. So, it is exactly the sweet spot of those insights where we focus on in our brand campaign; magical moments in the bedroom. Because it is so much more than only a place for sleeping. It is a place you’re being comforted when you’re going through heartbreak, a place of settling arguments, celebrating life or calling out for your mom when there’s thunder outside. Our campaign is about human connection and it is meant to make Auping top of heart among our consumers. Our brand awareness is already quite high, but we have to maintain it, and get consumers to start loving us again.”

According to Ine, it’s a long-term process. “Our brand scores are moving in the right direction. We call it the ‘Love Brand Score’, where we measure our brand across 7 to 8 statements derived from academic research. We ask consumers for instance whether they would miss the brand if it weren’t there anymore, or if they ever read anything negative about the brand, they’d still buy it. Or if they would use this brand for a longer period of time or if they have a good feeling about this brand. It’s like an NPS score, but more from the outside in. Measuring the brand love of the consumer towards the brand Auping. The results give us a score, which is improving steadily. But you have to give it love to let it grow. We have done a few campaign flights this year, and noticed the figures going up, and we want to keep up with that level so we cannot really sit back.  Auping with love is a very successful campaign helping us in the transition from being a bed and mattresses manufacturer towards becoming a lovebrand. And that stands out, because it is different from everything you know. We won an award (SAN accent), which is a great appreciation of our work.”

One-size-fits-all. Or does it?

When it comes to competitors, Ine mentions the online one-size-fits-all providers: “They make one mattress, roll it up, put it in a box and ship it to your front door. It’s an entirely different proposition than the one we have. Every person is different and every body is unique. So, we tailor make your mattress. You know it’s made with care and attention by real people, craftsmen, and from positively defined materials. These online providers know how to sell product, but they know less when it comes to sleep. We believe in the power of being the sleep expert, because what people want most, is to lie comfortably and get a good night sleep. We also have an online shop, but we choose to have physical stores as well, so people can test the mattresses and get advice, but they can also feel and see our fabrics and design beds. And this multichannel approach is something we see happening with the online shops too, they are either selling their mattresses in the stores of existing retailers, or they are opening their own outlets. I do think they are here to stay, but their business model is changing.

If you ask me from which company in the business I would like to learn more from, it’s Casper for example, an American mattress company. They have a great proposition and carry it out consistently and with a catchy tone of voice. I also think we need to look at other markets. Society is moving towards paying for use, instead of purchasing to own. Just look in the bike world with brands like Swapfiets where you can rent a bike, or in fashion where Mud Jeans is changing the market with high quality jeans in a sustainable and fair way with their Lease A Jeans system. It’s about keeping your eyes open and learning from these developments. Both in your own, and in other markets.”

Cuddling and snoring

Ine gives us a few examples of successful innovations within Auping. “This past year we have introduced a sleep robot, the Somnox, which started out as a project from a couple of students from the TU Delft. With this robot they wanted to find a solution for insomnia. When they’d build their prototype, they needed a soft cover for the robot, and found that our mattresses were the softest. So, we made a cover for the robot and along the way it became a partnership. We became co-designers and had colleagues from our product development team work on it. Some people call it a stuffed toy, but you can also call it a soft pillow. It lies beside you, and it breathes, so you can mimic its breathing pattern. You can even play music and activate a wake-up light. The robot is being sold on our website, and through the Somnox website and other channels. The responses we get from consumers are truly heart-warming.”

“To improve the quality of sleep, we are always looking at the consumers needs. Which is why we introduced Auping Smart base. This is the anti-snoring bed that we think will save a lot of relationships. We have been making adjustable bed bases for a long time, but this year we equipped all motor-adjustable bed bases with Auping Connect, a small device that you can direct with an app on your phone. If the app detects heavy breathing, you can slightly elevate your partners bed, so they stop snoring. Another way of resting the world. It’s great to see that we can add technology to things we have been making for years and years. And it sounds easy, but it’s a genius idea and it works.”

A responsibility for the future

As Ine mentioned earlier, Auping wants to leave the world better than how they found it. “Sustainability is in our DNA. We have taken all kinds of climate and energy measures in our office and factory. We work with daylight catchers, mirrors which catch daylight. On dark days we provide extra LED-lighting, we collect rainwater for flushing the toilets. Our roof is filled with almost 3000 solar panels, which provides 30% of all the energy we use. We consciously choose for local production, in the Netherlands and in-house in Deventer in one central location. This way we can guarantee our quality and short lead times. We do not store intermediate stocks and semi-finished products, we work on customer order. After all, every person is unique and every body is different. Every order is tailor-made and we process it in a nice mix of handwork and machines. People and robots work in harmony and the customer can be felt in every production step. You can see production progress through smart screens everywhere in the process. We also measure our energy consumption in real time to continuously improve.

As a company, and especially as a manufacturer, we have a responsibility for the future. So we make products that last long. We want to get rid of the take-make-waste society. A good example in this respect is how we deal with mattresses. Did you know, for example, that in the Netherlands alone, 1,5 million mattresses are discarded each year and end up in waste? It’s extraordinary, that is a stack a thousand times as high as the Eiffel Tower. And then I don’t even count the mattresses that just end up on the street because their owners dump them there unhappily after years of relationship. Eventually they all end up in the incinerator. Totally unnecessary, because you can make mattresses, and also beds, with recycled materials. That’s why we introduced the Auping take back system 8 years ago. If you buy one of our mattresses, we’ll take the old one with us – regardless if it’s one of Auping’s or not – and take it to a company that recycles them.” But we go even further as we believe only recycling is not enough, we believe in the circular economy. That requires new ways of thinking, collaborating and different business models. And if you really want to take big steps in the circular economy, then you have to dare to accelerate and do things differently. Together with DSM-Niaga we developed a completely redesigned mattress. Every component of this new modular design can be separated easily and is fully recyclable for re-use in a new mattress. This is circular mattress is an absolute world breakthrough. As a leader in the sector and winner of the Circular Award Business 2019, we have therefore taken the initiative to offer subscriptions for this circular mattress. We do this under the name of Bedzzzy. With another specific and online-only offer, Bedzzzy focuses on a younger target group that attaches more value to the use of a product than to owning a product. With this new brand we can experiment as we like with new circular products and learn from them. We expect that Bedzzzy and Royal Auping will reinforce each other. And this is how we make our sustainable dreams come true.

The right direction

According to Ine, Auping can be somewhat modest in all the good they do when telling it to the consumer. “We sell rest, we do not like to shout out loud, if we need to make known to a bigger audience what Auping does and what we stand for, we will, and the brand will grow because of it. It helps when we get recognition for our initiatives from the government such as an award or seeing that the legislation is changing for the better when it comes to sustainability. It’s heading in the right direction, and in my eyes, straight to Deventer.”