Sophie He.
to miss the boat when it comes to the huge Chinese mainland market, and is poised for a big push into the country over the next few years.
The key marketing strategy in the trade, he contends, is to “push marketing”. When a customer comes to the store, bedding companies don’t push sales — they just show their products and offer some discounts or incentives. But, as the customer may have already decided to buy something, it’s better to close the deal at the store.
At present, airweave doesn’t have many stores — only small shops. In order to get into the industry and let more people know and trust what it sells, the company has to come up with a different marketing strategy.
“We’ve to educate people to visit our shops or website. We don’t offer discounts, if they like and trust our brand, they’ll buy.”
Brand building crucial
To win the trust of consumers, airweave has to be constantly on its toes in building up its brand. Since Takaoka firmly believes its products are great, it has started providing them to athletes competing in the Olympic Games. People can thus see for themselves that if the mattresses are good enough for Olympians, they should be good enough for them.
According to Takaoka, just before the London Olympics in 2010, the Japanese government had asked airweave to develop mattresses for Japanese Olympians and the athletes took the mattresses with them to London.
“Since the products are good, we don’ t have to pay anything to get the athletes to use them. They just try them out and then start using them.”
Apart from Japanese Olympians, airweave had also supported Olympic athletes from other countries, including the United States, Germany and Australia, in last year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Airweave’s major market at present is still Japan, but is striving to reach out to other countries like China, Singapore and the US. The company entered the Chinese mainland market in 2012 and came to Hong Kong in March last year.
Takaoka believes the company ’s mainland effort has only just begun, with revenue generated from the mainland standing at between $1.5 million and $2 million last year. For Hong Kong, its revenue was less than $1 million.
“For the first one to two years, we’re just testing the waters (on the Chinese main- land) in the past two years. We’re hiring more local staff there and we’re very positive about the future.”
Olympic pride
Airweave has been a sponsor of the Chinese mainland’s Olympic Committee since 2016, and it’ll continue to team up with top-tier hotels and airlines, says Takaoka, adding that its brand recognition is gaining weight in China.
The company’s current tally of brick-and-mortar outlets
CAPITAL IDEAS: PETER LIANG
on the mainland stands at about 10, most of which are in department stores in Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou, besides those in Hong Kong. Its mattresses are priced at between 6,000 yuan and 12,000 yuan.
“If we can get more revenue from the mainland and Hong Kong markets, we aim to launch some mid-range products which will be slightly cheaper,” Takaoka says, explaining that for a new market, high-end products have to be brought in first, otherwise, it would be very difficult to switch to the mid-range bracket later.
He says although having shops in department stores is good for the brand, the foot traffic in department stores is less than ideal, so airweave is contemplating other venues, like shopping malls or places with heavier foot traffic.
E-commerce is another sector that has to be relied on as far as the mainland market is concerned as online purchasing is fast becoming the in-thing.
Doing business in China has also enabled Takaoka to take a leaf from Chinese beliefs and culture. Red, which is normally associated with good luck and prosperity, seems to be the favorite color of mainland consumers even when it comes to cushions.
“I didn’t know that before. Now I understand that doing business in China, one has to understand what they like, including their favorite color.”