Background
Sleepwell is the mattress establishment in India. They’ve led the comfort products market in India through an extensive retail network spread across the country.
However, they’ve been facing increasing competition online—from upstarts and historical competitors.
We were approached to design a brand website that could strengthen their position online and make their leadership position clearer to the consumers.
Strategy
Newer, hungrier upstarts were making waves online. And it won’t be too long before Sleepwell would start falling out of relevance.
We realised that the web had to be adopted, not just accommodated into Sleepwell’s core plan and strategy.
It was very clear to us that Sleepwell’s experience, consumer behaviour knowledge and product research depth is probably unmatched in the industry. Leveraging this knowledge and expertise to establish a leadership position could be a way forward.
Sleepwell’s brand position of ‘Personalised Comfort’ had a lot of storytelling and narrative potential—it had to be extended from the brand’s perspective and placed at the centre of Sleepwell’s world to make an impression in the online.
Design
Right from the home page, the design and messaging make it clear that this is more than an e-commerce website.
It’s the brand’s address on the web. A place where, in addition to selling products the brand shares its view on the world of comfort and sleep. Sleepwell’s idea of the good life.
The messaging tonality is unhurried and personal. We adopted the Sleepwell Pod as the primary visual element, encasing images in the soft, elliptical shape. The pod’s curvature is soft and floating, and cocooning the messages inside them adds to the calm of the brand messaging.
The brand imagery shows the products in daily scenarios that they will inhabit—in charming and aspirational ways. Elevating the brand and the idea of comfort in the eyes of the buyer—subconsciously changing the product’s perception.
We introduced 5 ‘Comfort’ categories: Basic Comfort, Spa Comfort, Ortho Comfort, Hotel Comfort, Celebrity Comfort.
The categories were relatable and immediately connected with the users at a human level, not just as objective filters. And it extended the brand’s central messaging narrative of personalised comfort into the realm of real world needs and wishes.
We equipped the user with research tools to learn more about two things—first, their choice of comfort and then, Sleepwell’s products.
The mattress selector tool makes people choose their comfort preferences and sleeper types. The tool then guides them to a subset of mattresses that match their needs and preferences—an industry first.
Further into the buyer’s journey, the comparator helps users look at mattresses side by side and makes it easy to arrive at an informed decision.
Overall, the Sleepwell website acts like a silent salesperson who’s guiding the consumer at every point in their interaction with the brand.
Impact
The new sleepwell website encouraged intelligent and educated buying behaviour. By putting the focus on the elevated brand message first and then the products, it differentiated Sleepwell as the leader.
We also witnessed a sustained 4x growth in sales since the launch, indicating that brand led positioning was the right way forward for an industry leader like Sleepwell.
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creating a world of personalised comfort
Sleepwell is India’s largest mattress manufacturer. They’ve led the organised retail revolution in mattresses and home comfort products for a long time. But they’re now facing increasing competition from online upstarts and wanted to bolster their online presence with a brand website. We were approached to design a website that would make Sleepwell’s position as the market leader adequately clear.
The homepage: introducing the brand first and products second
There’s no loud selling on the homepage. Instead, the focus is on getting the brand’s message, that of personalised comfort, out to the world. Each category is introduced with a benefit level message for each. The industry first personalised mattress selector tool invites the user to really think about their mattress and their idea of comfort. Persona based ‘comfort categories’ reinforce Sleepwell’s personalised comfort message.
Art direction and imagery design to build signature categories and fit products
Establishing a colour palette that stretches the breadth of Sleepwell’s product offerings—from basic to luxury and everything in between. Subtle colour coding and art direction make apparent the different categories and product positions. A space that showcases the product at both the life benefit and feature detail levels—through tasteful lifestyle shoots, high quality product animations and renders that look beneath the covers.
Mattress buying made easy with industry-first educational and personalisation tools
The mattress selector tool makes people choose their comfort preferences and sleeper types. The tool then guides them to a subset of mattresses that match their needs and preferences—an industry first. Further into the buyer journey, the comparator helps users look at mattresses side by side and makes it easy to arrive at an informed decision.
A space to communicate industry leading innovations
Sleepwell has maintained its leadership position by pushing the envelope in mattress science. Innovations have powered the company’s growth over the years. On the site, a dedicated space talks about Sleepwell’s technical prowess—assuring customers that they’re getting the best in sleep science and technology.
sharepartner-in-charge & creative director lisa rath | design concept and development ritu kumari, sonal singh | alternate design concept ritu kumari | writer itu chaudhuri, nitasha basu, ayushmaan agarwalla | illustrator sonal singh | photography and render art direction lisa rath ritu kumari shri narayan | tech lead vikrant gupta | developer pawan kumar, alok joshi | page animation ritu kumari | backend devlopment staqo | renders Hyve studio & Dekor | Photography Vikas Maurya
