With incentives provided under brand support program, the company invested in 20 countries in four years and opened 30 centers abroad. Aiming to improve their awareness in Europe and in Middle East, marketing manager of Arzu Copur informed about their activities to facilitate the decision of consumers.
What lies behind your company’s success of being a leading brand?
Isbir Yatak is a fast growing company that emphasizes on quality, on having customer centered production and known as a quality brand. At the beginning, furniture companies were also selling mattresses. As a foam producer, Isbir Yatak entered in the mattress industry and tried to establish an independent market for mattress, an item that has to be evaluated separately, as an important item for a healthy life. We did much in this regard.
For this end, we tried to take the lead in developing new products in our field, the mattresses only. We keep close watch on the developments in the world and applied them into market in Turkey. By opening sleep centers that are focused on sleep products throughout the country we emphasized that we are the masters of sleep. Our brand was built by right positioning with quality products depending on our main resources.
Technology has caused serious changes in mattresses as well, that was reflected by Isbir Yatak. Would you kindly mention about your sleep products and their characteristics you offered? What were the responses of your customers to these?
Our product development team has been following fairs in the world either as participants or visitors. There are a range of products in our product portfolio, including massaging mattresses, mattresses with vitamins, lavender scented, mattresses made of horsehair and coconut fibers, special mattresses for sports people and event heath conditioned ones.
Recently we not only working as product oriented, we decided to pursue a consumer-centered policy aiming to improve the buying decisions of consumers by investing on their shopping experiences. In our sleep centers we have special software that we called 3D catalog that visualize all alternatives for upholstery on our base sets. Customers can decide on by seeing their choices on the screen. We have a special test system that guides buyers to choose the best alternative by their sleeping habits. They all make our customers satisfied and happy about their decisions.
What investments did you make last year?
One of our operations includes renovating our stores that we started in 2013, achieved by 70 to 80 percent by the end of 2015. We will continue opening new stores as well, whereas we managed to have about 50 exclusive sleep centers and 50 corner selling points up to now.
We have been participating in two fairs in Germany and Italy with our booth. We began to harvest our investments in these events thanks to our new technology products. Our activities abroad will be intensified thanks to the incentives of brand support programs.
What can you say about mattress production in Turkey? How should it be carried out and in what conditions? How far has Turkey gone in this regard?
Having more company in the industry is both have advantages and handicaps. Every entrepreneur can produce mattresses without any investment or ability. Besides most of the buyer were not aware of the importance of mattresses for their life for decades. It is said that there are about 500 mattress producers only in Kayseri. Products can only be distinguished from others by their materials and technology used in the production. Customers cannot understand the quality of mattress even they saw the inside of it. Differentiation is difficult in this market. It needs serious investment on technology. However, consumers have begun to be more conscious. They now demand better products. In short, competition is good for product development but a problem for manufacturers. Major companies in the industry follow closely the developments in the markets abroad, so their products are at global standards.
What are the similarities and differences between sleep products in domestic and international markets?
Products of leading brands are at competitive standards against their universal brands. Even they have serious price advantages over foreign rivals. But Turkish brands need to be promoted heavily in markets abroad. In this regard, governmental support and incentives are important.
Signing powerful contracts with distributors and increasing the number of outlets in abroad, especially in Europe and in the Middle East is on top of our agenda. We have a five-year development plan. The brand support program of the Ministry of Economy that we are a part of it since 2014 brings us great advantages.
You deliver your products to a wide geography in both Turkey and in the world. What are your targets in order to increase your exports and to open new shops?
We targeted to open 30 franchise sleep centers in abroad this year. In four year’s time, we will invest in 20 target countries including Germany, Denmark, Holland, France and Saudi Arabia.
