{"id":684,"date":"2013-03-06T11:39:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T19:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/mattress-blog\/?p=684"},"modified":"2015-03-20T14:35:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T21:35:25","slug":"consumer-reports-mattress-information-how-useful-is-it-for-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/consumer-reports-mattress-information-how-useful-is-it-for-consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer Reports mattress information: What you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tweet<\/a><\/div>

As founder of a mattress information website, people often ask me what I think of the information that Consumer Reports provides about mattresses.\u00a0 This question comes up enough that I thought I’d share my answer publicly.<\/p>\n

What do I think about Consumer Reports mattress information?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Let me start by saying that I love Consumer Reports.\u00a0 I’m a big fan of their mission and methodology, and a long-time reader of their publications.\u00a0 When I bought my last car, Consumer Reports was an invaluable resource.\u00a0 I’ve also used their information to guide other major household purchases, such as kitchen appliances.\u00a0 In fact, before starting GoodBed, I even read through their many articles about mattresses and found a number of useful ‘shopping tips’ in them.<\/p>\n

That said, when it comes to its mattress ratings, the Consumer Reports approach is completely misleading<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 In the mattress category, the traditional Consumer Reports approach has two critical downfalls:<\/p>\n

Problem #1:\u00a0 There is NO ‘best mattress’ for everyone<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n

This is perhaps the first thing that every mattress shopper should know.\u00a0 In fact, there is not even such a thing as a ‘great mattress’ for everyone.\u00a0 Not even at a given price point. In short, this is a complete fallacy.\u00a0 As a fan of Consumer Reports, it’s very disappointing to see them perpetuate this fundamental misunderstanding.\u00a0 The reality is that everyone’s mattress needs are unique — depending (for example) on your body’s specific size and shape, and your personal comfort preferences.<\/p>\n

We see the value of personal needs and preferences very clearly in the extensive owner satisfaction data that we collect every day.\u00a0 For example, Sleep Number beds are rated nearly a full star point higher by people who say that the ability to adjust the comfort level of their mattress on a regular basis is very important vs. people who say it’s not important.\u00a0 That differential is completely independent of all<\/em> the other factors that go into the owner’s satisfaction during the lifetime of the product — including its ability to provide proper back support, suitable pressure relief, high sleep quality, and even sufficient product longevity.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Tempur-Pedic mattresses are rated nearly a full star point higher by people that like their mattress to have “memory” (so it responds slowly when you lie down or move around on it) relative to people who have no preference on this point.\u00a0 And, people who have no preference rate their Tempur-Pedic bed more than a full star point higher than people who specifically do not like their mattress to have “memory”.\u00a0 So, in aggregate, this one single factor accounts for a differential of 2.1 stars in the overall satisfaction rating<\/em> amongst Tempur-Pedic owners!\u00a0 And of course, this data all comes from people who chose to buy a Tempur-Pedic in the first place — so the disparity would be even greater if it included people who were more certain that they don’t like their mattress to have “memory,” and chose not to buy a Tempur-Pedic on that basis.<\/p>\n

Mattresses are actually more like pants than they are like washing machines<\/strong>.\u00a0 Choosing the right mattress means finding one that matches your body size, shape, sleep position(s), and preferences.\u00a0 As such, publishing a list of the ‘best mattresses’ is kinda like saying the ‘best pants’ are the ‘Levi’s 535 in navy blue and a size 7 Long’<\/em>.\u00a0 Would this exact pair of pants<\/a> be a good match for most people…?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, most consumers don’t know this about mattresses, and many make the mistake of relying on Consumer Reports’ recommendations.\u00a0 This leads to unhappy consumers — as well as unhappy retailers, who need to deal with the resulting returns, comfort exchanges, negative consumer reviews, and the like.<\/p>\n

Problem #2: There are too many good choices for Consumer Reports to cover.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Consumer Reports likes to do deep research on products.\u00a0 They pick some models, bring them into the lab, and test them rigorously.\u00a0 With feature-rich products, they can dissect how easy they are to use, how well they perform their stated functions, and how well they stand up to abuse.\u00a0 In the end, they like to make a ‘one-size-fits-all’ recommendation based on their research of these select products.<\/p>\n

The problem in the mattress category is that there are thousands<\/em> of mattress models available at any given time.\u00a0 This is true even if you ignore all the different names that retailers use to make their models seem unique.\u00a0 Even the 10 most popular models would account for less than 5% of mattresses sold.\u00a0 With over 300 manufacturers in the US, there are simply a huge number of good choices available to today’s consumer.<\/p>\n

So, how many models are covered in the heavily promoted new study<\/a> from Consumer Reports (forthcoming in the May 2013 issue)?\u00a0 A grand total of…drum roll please…12 models<\/em>.\u00a0 Worse yet, many of these models are only available in certain parts of the country, and some have already been discontinued…!<\/p>\n

So, is there a better approach to mattress information?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Having focused on this problem for several years now, we believe that consumers need the following information to choose the right mattress:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Guidance on specific models<\/em> that are available in their area.<\/li>\n
  2. Ratings for those models from people like them<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Who can provide this?\u00a0 We can.\u00a0 If you share our beliefs<\/a>, help spread the word.<\/p>\n

    Is there hope for Consumer Reports in the mattress category?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    As I said earlier, Consumer Reports is a great organization with a noble mission.\u00a0 In many ways, our mission is to be the Consumer Reports of the mattress category, but in a way that a generalist publication could never do.\u00a0 We aspire to the level of trust and respect that Consumer Reports has earned over its many years of consumer service.\u00a0 We believe that our dedicated focus on mattresses allows us to develop a specialized solution that meets the unique needs of this category.<\/p>\n

    At the same time, I would be the first to acknowledge that there are things that Consumer Reports can do that are harder for us to offer.\u00a0 For example, scientific studies of durability require specialized equipment, a large laboratory, and significant expertise in testing and measuring such things.\u00a0 Predicting durability is a very important question in the area of mattresses.\u00a0 We hope to see more from Consumer Reports in this area, and we would even be interested in partnering with them in this regard.<\/p>\n

    In the meantime, I hope Consumer Reports will refrain from misleading consumers into thinking they can rely on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ list of mattress recommendations.\u00a0 Mattress shoppers are extremely confused, and thus are desperate for a simple answer like a list of the ‘best mattresses.’\u00a0 It’s incumbent upon reputable information sources like Consumer Reports to protect them from this type of misinformation, not foist it upon them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Tweet<\/a><\/div>

    TweetAs founder of a mattress information website, people often ask me what I think of the information that Consumer Reports provides about mattresses.\u00a0 This question comes up enough that I thought I’d share my answer publicly. What do I think about Consumer Reports mattress information? Let me start by saying that I love Consumer Reports.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":84,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":950,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodbed.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}