Breaking into new market like PH   

Kyne Lim —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Kyne Lim is the regional business manager of Southeast Asia at Emma, the world’s largest direct-to-consumer sleep brand with revenue of $1 billion in 2023. He was the country head for the Philippines and Korea prior to his new assignment. In this interview, he shares insights into Emma’s entry into the Philippines.

Question: What was Emma’s market entry strategy for the Philippines? How did you tailor your approach to fit the local market, and what challenges did you face?

Answer: We had a twofold challenge in entering the Philippines: one, overcome top-of-mind brands that are synonymous with mattresses and two, differentiate ourselves from those available in the market. These are important because if people are not aware of your brand, then they won’t even consider you when they do want to make a purchase.

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These were the areas we dedicated our efforts to. We mainly used social media and influencers to spread our key messages. We used these channels to not only inform potential customers that Emma exists, but also to educate them about what’s different about our product. An example is how our ads, even back then, were communicating our seven-zone technology and motional isolation technology. Marketing became a cornerstone of our market entry strategy to the point that we may have appeared too often for some people.

Q: I researched Emma mattresses and found that they have multiple layers of foam, including memory foam and Airgocell foam. Briefly, why do people need these? How do they differ from what’s available locally?

A: Our combination and configuration of these layers of foam and spring allow us to offer our seven-zone technology and our motion isolation technology. We believed these features would help us in the Philippines.

To quickly explain, our seven-zone technology is a feature wherein your body part “sinks” to a different level depending on which part of the mattress you are. This is to allow your spine to remain aligned whatever your sleeping position may be.

We were probably one of the first to market these technologies extensively to the public, so Emma stood out versus other available brands.

Q: Emma undercuts the price of high-end imported mattresses.  Beyond price, why should people consider Emma?  

A: Emma really values innovation; we value the technological part of our mattresses. Our mattresses undergo validation across these third-party test companies in Europe whose main job is to rigorously test mattresses across different dimensions. So, when we say, for example, our Diamond Degree graphite foam dissipates heat, these are backed up by testing. This is genuine.

Our mattresses are also consistent award-winners in multiple countries, so Emma has both the technological proof and the social proof.

Q: You are an online company with no physical store. How did you come up with this channel decision?

A: Our principle is centered on customer satisfaction. By operating primarily online, we can offer a 100-day home trial period, allowing customers to experience our mattresses in their own environment and ensuring they make a fully informed decision. This is in contrast to in-store trials, which only last a minute or two.

Additionally, we do have physical stores in Europe to be closer to our customers, and partner with wholesalers globally to reach those who prefer to try the mattress in-store before making a purchase. In the Philippines, our products can be found in showrooms like Abenson and Habitat.

There are numerous factors to consider when establishing physical stores, including the costs of construction, rent and staffing. These expenses can be substantial, especially with multiple locations. By saving on these costs and investing in online marketing instead, we can pass the savings on to our customers. This strategy allows us to offer competitive prices compared with other international brands, making us an affordable premium brand.

Q: Prospects can actually try Emma in some of your partner stores like Abenson Home and Habitat. How do you protect these retailers when you also encourage prospects to buy directly from you?

A: It is a win-win partnership. The sleep market is gigantic; everyone that sleeps needs a mattress. They see our potential and instead of only acting as a competitor, they want to profit from our growth. By having our products, we bring traffic to their stores and if we grow, they grow.

I believe both of us, Emma and our partner stores, recognize the reality that online purchase of goods is a recent phenomenon and that a sizable number would still choose to purchase offline given the chance. But, at the same time, for us, partnering up with retailers allows us to reach that customer that still prefers to buy it offline.

To give more insight, we do have marketing activities that we do for our retailers, but even when we market normally, it has a trickle-down effect wherein people who are interested—but are not yet convinced of buying an Emma mattress online despite the 100-night trial—will still head to one of our retail partners to test out. In this sense, there is no clash at the moment.

Q: How does the 100-night risk-free trial work? What is your return rate for online purchases compared with in-store purchases, and how does this compare with the 12-percent industry average? When do you offer a 100-night versus a 200-night risk-free trial?

A: The 100-night trial is our guarantee wherein after you receive your order but are not satisfied with it, we’ll take back the mattress and refund you how much you bought it for within the next 100 nights. This stems from our belief that it takes more than just a few minutes to understand if a mattress is for you or not; you need to have slept on it for a few days or even weeks to really know if it suits you.

Emma is a company that values that local insight–this is what has helped us grow wherever we set roots on. The team here surveyed the Philippines landscape and deemed the 100-night trial was the most effective duration. In fact, from those that returned their Emma products, we see that Filipinos tend to return them much earlier than 100 nights.

To add though, what I can say is that our return rate is lower than the industry average, which is a good indicator for us that Emma’s products are being accepted by the market.

Q: How has influencer marketing impacted your brand’s reach and customer engagement? What strategies have you found most effective in working with influencers? How do you measure its effectiveness?

A: One of the things our company is good at is performance marketing. We think of ways to measure our marketing. When available, we use the platform’s available data. For example, if we use Facebook, they have Facebook Ads Manager that allows us to see this information.

For influencers, it’s a mix of a few things. We have our own created attribution model, which is a mix of factors–part of it is the coupon code usage. For influencers, we ask them to also include a coupon code that they can share to their followers, so we’re able to measure performance through that. In addition, if we use influencers in our ads–we’d measure those ads’ performance too. We then put it all together, we have a better view of how this influencer was able to help us.

We learned that in working with influencers, it is very important to play to our strengths. This means that instead of dictating 100 percent of the content, we work with their branding and their style to communicate the key messages that Emma wants to say. We follow and watch influencers because we enjoy the way they present after all.

Q: Filipinos appear to be sleeping an average daily of six hours and 22 minutes, less than the seven hours recommended average. What should Filipinos know about quality sleep?

A: Quality sleep is very important. We need good quality sleep to tackle the next day ahead. In the Philippines, we chose our influencers such as Kryz Uy, Small Laude, Anne Curtis-Smith–all of whom are personalities who demonstrate a tight schedule juggling different things. At Emma, we believe that they are able to perform at their 100 percent all day because of having a good-night sleep.

Our mission statement is to “awaken your best,” because we believe in the power of good sleep. It allows you to rejuvenate not just your body, but also your mind–and that in return allows you to do your best in your day ahead, to achieve whatever you want to achieve. —CONTRIBUTED 

Disclosure: This interview had been requested by Emma but no compensation or other considerations were received in exchange.

Josiah Go is the chair and chief innovation strategist of Mansmith and Fielders Inc., as well as the coauthor of Marketing For Beginners (the No.1 book in marketing) and Entrepreneurship: The Four-Gate Model (the No. 1 book in entrepreneurship.)