Roger Pickett specifically asked that the new MurMaid Mattress logo he commissioned earlier this year include the stack of mattresses the Cleveland, Tenn.-based manufacturer has used for the last 20 years on its branding and marketing materials.
Pickett told Marietta, Ga.-based content marketing firm Between Pixels to take full control — but keep the mattresses.
Then he saw the new logo, with a prominent white M, and MurMaid Mattress written below, all on a field of red. And he had one question.
“When they presented me the new one, I said ‘Where are my mattresses?'” said Pickett.
But look harder, said the new logo’s designers.
And then, “sure enough I finally saw it,” said Pickett.
Julie Sanfilippo operates a serger machine at the MurMaid Mattress Factory and Showroom on Jan. 15, 2015, in Cleveland, Tenn.The crisp, white M in the center of the new logo, when turned counter-clockwise on its side, is a footboard, with a box spring and a mattress stacked on top. Pickett approved.
The new logo will stay as the third generation of MurMaid Mattress’ corporate logo, succeeding the previous mattress stack image and the line-drawn mermaid of old.
Pickett, owner and president of MurMaid Mattress, has been at the helm of the manufacturing firm for over 20 years. He has overseen its growth from a small, hyper-local manufacturer in a repurposed furniture shop to a regional, high-end mattress brand with name recognition, 13 mattress stores and 45 total employees, with millions in annual sales.
And Pickett, like many smaller domestic mattress manufacturers, is freshening up his company’s image in the wake of one of the toughest periods for mattress sales in modern history.
Around the peak of the recession in 2008 and 2009, MurMaid’s demand dropped so much that factory employees went from having work for five days a week down to three days a week.
To keep people working, stores were painted and clerical work was handed out, to make hours until buyers returned.
Ryan Trainer, president of the International Sleep Products Association, said the recession was “very, very hard on the industry” but “the market is coming back.”
Wholesale mattress and box spring sales hit around $7 billion last year. Retail hit around $12 billion to $13 billion.
And now, Trainer said many manufacturers are going about setting themselves apart from the competition in an industry that’s consolidating.
He said it’s common for companies like MurMaid to remain regional, because mattresses are particularly difficult and expensive to ship. Many of the national brands employ regional manufacturing facilities because of shipping.
“The name of the game is how do you differentiate yourself from the competition,” he said. “The successful companies are always reinventing themselves.”
Reinvention was also behind the first two MurMaid Mattress logo changes. After starting MurMaid Enterprises — MurMaid is a mash-up of “Murray” and “made” — Elmer Murray began using a line-drawn mermaid on company invoices.
Then, when MurMaid Enterprises became MurMaid Mattress, the mermaid got a line-drawn mattress to sit on, and the logo stuck for years and became a well-known local brand.
The logo was changed after Pickett met a passerby at a home convention in the mid-1990s who thought MurMaid used a mermaid logo because it was in the water bed business.
And Pickett began hearing from others that it was actually a common misconception.
“After several years, we had comments from some potential customers that thought we made water beds, because of the mermaid logo,” he said. “So we changed to the logo that we have been using for the last 20 years.”
Joaquin Mendes builds a new mattress at the MurMaid Mattress Factory and Showroom on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2015, in Cleveland, Tenn.Pickett also had “factory showroom” added to the logo to explain to customers that MurMaid is a factory-direct seller, or a company that sells products it makes in-house.
“We were accidentally selling mattresses to walk-in customers,” Pickett jokes. “Not because we tried, it just started happening more and more.”
MurMaid’s new logo coincides with the expansion of the factory-direct model through increased Internet-centered sales.
MurMaid debuted a new website last month with the intention of making buying online easier. The company is offering six new iCool mattresses — MurMaid’s equivalent of Tempurpedic products, with memory gel — on the new site.
MurMaid is also in the process of converting some its Mattress Outlet locations over to the MurMaid name, starting with its 4,000-square-foot, 800 Stuart Rd. store in Cleveland.
The Stuart Road showroom will serve as MurMaid’s second Cleveland location — in conjunction with the Georgetown Road showroom — and add 4,000 square feet of show floor, in additon to the 2,400-square-foot showroom at MurMaid’s Georgetown Road factory and showroom.
More of the 13 mattress stores that MurMaid operates in the greater-Chattanooga area will drop the Mattress Outlet name and take MurMaid in coming months, said Pickett.
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.