The sleep solutions provider, Duroflex has recently signed Alia Bhatt as their first-ever brand ambassador. Duroflex wants to encourage India to rethink its choices in sleep essentials like mattresses that enable better sleep. In its latest campaign, ‘Nothing Like Duroflex’ featuring Alia Bhatt, the brand emphasizes the importance of investing in a research-backed mattress for healthy sleep. As part of their expansion plans, Duroflex is moving beyond mattresses by venturing into sleep accessories, furniture, and home furnishing categories.
On the marketing front, Duroflex started the year with Sounds of Sleep which was the first of its kind music property in India, talking about music as a sleep aid and rediscovering Indian lullabies in collaboration with Sony Music which was largely a digital property. Apart from the larger campaigns, Duroflex constantly remains connected to its consumers through exciting content and collaborations on their social media handles. The brand has grown by 70% during the pandemic year due to agility, disrupting, and relevant product launches and category expansion.
In conversation with Medianews4u, Smita Murarka, CMO, Duroflex spoke about the brand’s association with Alia Bhatt, the recent Television campaign, media mix, and more.
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“In today’s stress-filled environment, sleep is being compromised, and as a brand, Duroflex wants to encourage India to upgrade its choices in essential products like mattresses that enable better sleep,” said Smita.
Speaking about the signing of Alia Bhatt as the brand ambassador for Duroflex, Smita said, “The brand makes mattresses and sleep accessories that are research-backed and technologically advanced. Often the mattress purchase is such an unevaluated choice. In fact, if you ask anyone, “What’s the mattress?” they wouldn’t even remember the brand, leave alone the type of mattress—an insight which Alia beautifully brings out through this campaign with her natural style and quirk. We wanted to collaborate with an authentic voice that resonates with the new-age consumer. Alia Bhatt is the quintessential youth icon who has carved a niche by being fearlessly herself. She advocates sleep being a pivotal part of a healthy lifestyle. We want to reach out to the whole country on our shared commitment to sleep evangelism through her. She quite often posts about the subject on her social media as well.”
For the recent campaign titled ‘Nothing Like Duroflex’ featuring Alia Bhatt, Duroflex has planned a 360-degree media plan with a multi-channel approach. At the same time, digital is a strong medium. They are also using television for national reach. The brand is planning to keep the conversation alive and engage with consumers through social media platforms.
Duroflex also continuously evangelizes sleep through its social channels @duroflexworld and collaborates with social media influencers.
Sharing her thoughts on the brand’s collaboration with influencers, Smita said, “We have a deep sense of commitment to our brand purpose, which is to help India sleep better. We endeavor to connect consumer insight to a very creative and relatable form of storytelling. Content is helping to make facts and research behind sleep and its importance more accessible and palatable to the consumer. Storytelling and creativity are making it easier to pass on the message we want and making it stick. Hence the collaboration with social media influencers who have an authentic voice and a connection with their followers.”
“To reach across the length and breadth of the country, we use a healthy mix of digital and traditional media. The city and media matrix has arrived through insights and consumption habits in the particular city,” said Smita while talking about the brand’s media mix.
Speaking about the challenges faced due to the pandemic, Smita said, “2020 has been a year of agility for us as a brand. When the country was grappled with precariousness and fear due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and most brands and businesses writhed to stay afloat, we at Duroflex used agility as a key driver to continue our hyper-growth. We used the power of social media and content to stay connected, provide emotional solace and relevant information to our consumers. By staying abreast with consumer sentiments, we were able to identify the newly emerging needs in the sleep solutions space triggered by the pandemic leading to the launch of Duro Safe, India’s first antiviral mattress protector, which went on to become a category disruptor.”
Duroflex grew by 70% during the pandemic period. Duroflex launched easy-to-ship, vacuum-packed mattresses which can be delivered door step pan India targeting digital-native millennials.
“We recently launched India’s first full range of anti-bacterial bed linen. Hence, we adapted to the changing needs and responded with what was needed by the consumer,” Smita added.
We grew by 70% during the pandemic year due to agility, category disruption, relevant product launches, and category expansion.
Speaking about the expansion plans of Duroflex, Smita said, “We are moving beyond mattresses by venturing into sleep accessories, furniture, and home furnishing categories. Regarding channel and geographic expansion, we currently have 15 Company-owned company-operated stores, which will become 30 to 35 by September, transforming how the consumers experience the product before they buy. There is continued investment in critical areas – People, Capex, Technology, Supply Chain, manufacturing plants, and increasing manufacturing capacity to cater to growing demand. “
