Here's How Casper is Helping Their Audience Wake Up to a Refreshing Content Strategy
brought to you by WBR Insights
Content marketing is at the core of any modern digital business strategy, and innovative startup Casper is approaching theirs with the same thought and imagination as their business model.
Before Casper came along, mattresses were a $7 billion industry dominated by a tiny group of highly consolidated manufacturers and retailers. Mark-ups were sometimes reaching 100%, and the shopping process was widely perceived to be unpleasant and confusing - including the inevitable final effort to get a new mattress up a flight of narrow stairs.
However, Philip Krim, Neil Parikh, T. Luke Sherwin, Jeff Chapin, and Gabriel Flateman, thought of a way to do things better - and Casper was born in 2014. Casper offered just a single mattress in a selection of sizes, and that was it. The mattress came vacuum-compressed in a box, and automatically decompressed when unpacked. By removing the confusion and stress from purchasing a new mattress, Casper has gone from strength to strength.
"All this basically just means that the customer is going to keep getting hosed and hosed and hosed because there is no price comparison in this market," says Casper's co-founder Neil Parikh . "How can there be, when Sleepy's, 1800Mattress, and Mattress Firm are all owned by the same people?"
However, one area in which Casper also excels, is in its clever use of content.
Web Copy
Casper's innovative use of content is evident from the moment a customer logs on to their website. The whole thing is styled in a beautifully dreamy tone, which immediately communicates what the company is all about.
Dig a little deeper and you find a load of great information about Casper's products. Not only what you can buy, but why you should. Casper treats sleep like a scientific subject - which it is - and breaks down every consideration they went through when designing and testing their signature mattress.
"How do you play with support of the mattress in different zones, like under the hips, under the shoulders?" said Jeff Chapin , Casper co-founder. "You can't add a lot of that support to the top of the mattress - you have to put it deeper down. And that requires some new materials and manufacturing methods that aren't in this industry. So, we're having to create some new things and then port some stuff over from other industries."
By putting all this information on their website, Casper uses compelling content to drive customers to reach the conclusion that the company really knows what they are talking about, and increases buyer confidence in the brand.
Pillow Talk
Casper's attitude to content continues in its two blogs as well. The first, cheekily named " Pillow Talk ", is a light-hearted endeavor dealing with a mixture of comedic and informative articles. The topics range from how many pillows is the optimal number, to articles poking fun at content marketing cliches.
However, the content marketing channel which really catches the eye is an independent publication that has its own website, separate from the primary Casper domain. Named " Van Winkle's " after the character in American history folklore, the e-zine sets out to create the genre of " sleep journalism ."
Van Winkle's posts articles on all manner of sleep-related topics, from the science behind circadian rhythms, to conditions such as insomnia and sleep paralysis , and personal stories such as the lady who has been unable to sleep since the death of her cat. The magazine explores sleep as a scientific, health, and cultural topic, and is a goldmine for any fan of the subject - or even simply of the act itself.
"Sleep may account for one-third of our time, but it influences us around the clock," said Van Winkle's Editor, Theresa Fisher . " Van Winkle's is a website dedicated to exploring the relationship between sleep and the rest of our lives. Whether it's sleep as it relates to science, health, family, pets, sex or travel, we're eager to learn more."
Final Thoughts
Casper has had tremendous success breaking into a market dominated by a few big players, and no small part of this success is down to how it presents itself through content marketing. From its web copy to its two fascinating blogs, Casper establishes itself as a sleep expert, and a company anyone would be confident betting a good night's sleep on.
The final word goes to Casper's co-founder, Philip Krim .
"We think we have much bigger, brighter days ahead of us. We view what we're doing as building something that will be great for decades to come."
You can hear Casper's General Manager for Canada, Nicole Tapscott , speak at eTail Canada 2018 in May, at the Hyatt Regency, Toronto, ON.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.