Casper, the online bed-in-a-box maker that launched in April 2014, is on a mission to dominate the sleep market. The company with a latest valuation that puts it at about $750 million is unapologetically stating a current aspiration to become the ‘Nike of sleep’ – this is a clear departure from its less lofty goal at launch to be the ‘Warby Parker of mattresses’. Casper is one example of many relatively recent companies that are taking everyday items (that we have all gotten used to and have submitted to their mundaneness) and converting them into fresh new concepts.
Other examples include Quip, a toothbrush (oral health) company, Ritual, a modern vitamin company, 4moms, a baby product company and Tapp, a reimagined padlock company.
Quip
Ritual
4moms
Tapp
Realizing that the mattress industry had a $16 billion ceiling, Casper has decided to expand its horizons by targeting the sleep market which has boundless possibilities. The key to innovation in the realm of converting the mundane into fresh concepts is not necessarily what the product becomes but rather the re-envisioned story that serves as stilts for the item. For Casper, it is efficient convenience and the promise of a better sleep as well as the belief that we all know we slept when we actually have a good night’s sleep.
The key takeaway from the phenomenon of transformation happening across what most call boring products is the fact that this transformation, although being mostly driven by millennials wanting to be different, cool, environmental, carefree, difference making, minimal, etc., is accessible and doable by almost anyone. You or I can look in our house, garage, bag or workplace and pick an item that is used frequently and decide to spruce it up with a compelling story that invigorates that item and creates a rebirth of sorts. Gone are the days of breakthroughs predominantly wrapped in mind-bending code – these days, a toothbrush, a water bottle or a stroller can hold the key disruption in a unicorn-esque manner. There is something very empowering about this truth because it proves and makes very concrete the fact that nothing in life is immune from change (mostly for the better). So we at Style.No.Chaser are encouraging all ye malaise-ridden homo sapiens to embrace change by injecting new life into all animate and inanimate objects – even the ones that seem embedded in stale dogma and irreparable oldness.
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