SAN FRANCISCO — Make no mistake: Casper’s Dog Mattress is a bonafide banger. It is, unquestionably, a hot seller since being introduced last summer; yet the the mattress upstart, in something of a strategic twist, has used it as a Trojan horse designed to get actual people (rather than dogs) hooked on the brand’s way of thinking.
Casper is combining science, design thinking, branding, and a winking sense of humor to redefine the humble mattress and its accoutrements into lifestyle statements. . . . To an outside observer, such excitement for selling mattresses—a single model at that—might seem curious. But, as their foray into dog beds demonstrates, Casper’s founders are on a different mission. “When we talk about becoming a lifestyle brand,” says [co-founder] Luke Sherwin…”it really is about the idea that whatever question you have about sleep, Casper will have an answer.”
And it’s the R&D process behind the Dog Mattress that derives directly from this way of thinking. The facts (and remember, this is just for a dog bed):
- Nearly a year in development. Casper R&D spent exactly 11 months “conducting dog sleep studies.”
- Over 100 prototypes. Casper consulted with “canine psychologists and churning through more than 100 prototypes.”
- The Trojan horse play, via co-founder Neil Parikh, who says: The dog bed shows “people how we think—to remind them that, ‘Hey, here is a cool group of people that thinks in an interesting way.’”
This all taps into Casper’s central thesis: Sleep is becoming a ‘thing’ and Casper is positioning itself to be at the center of this new sleep conversation. In short, it’s a lifestyle play, something we see a lot of new brands gearing towards.
Proof that Casper is onto something here: It’s not just twenty-something consumers in urban areas that are buying Casper beds. The value proposition — a “good enough” mattress sold at a decent price and delivered (with remarkable convenience) straight to your door — not surprisingly, has broad appeal: “[H]undreds of thousands of customers later, Parikh and company found their beds appealing to a much wider group of users: “I mean, people who are 65 who live in Nebraska also need mattresses,” he [said].”