With Sleep@10, we want to highlight the criticality of sleep: Anil Mathur

Godrej Interio has launched a new health awareness campaign – sleep@10. Launched by Olympian Geeta Phogat, the campaign was born during the product development stage of their healthcare range. #sleepAt10 is an initiative that aims to spread awareness about the importance of good sleep for one’s physical and mental wellbeing.  

To aid the sleep@10 concept, Interio has created a sleep-o-meter that hopes to encourage and track people’s sleeping patterns, thus helping them to maintain a healthy sleeping habit. 

Commenting on the sleep@10 concept, Anil Mathur, COO, Godrej Interio, said, Sleep@10 is a concept that actually emerged from the product development stage of our healthcare range. As we delved deeper, we realised the concern was much larger than just selecting the right mattress. Most of India is sleep deprived. This has to be spoken about in order to ensure a much productive and healthier us. Misuse of new age technology might be playing an important role towards this and it’s our responsibility to seek for a healthier lifestyle.” 

Dr Devnani, Clinical Director at Sleep Disorder Clinic, also spoke on the benefits of sleeping early and how this was a very pertinent conversation for India, given that 93 per cent of Indians are believed to be sleep deprived. 

Expressing her appreciation to the Godrej Interio team for taking up this vital issue, Geeta Phogat said, “Athletes need immense discipline owing to the high-octane physical activities that we engage in. Sleeping@10 was non-negotiable in my house. My father ensured we all slept by then. I believe this routine is not just essential for a wrestler, but all of us if we wish to have a stress free and healthy lifestyle. Take your diet, daily exercise and even your mattress very seriously, because all of this will lead to a healthy sleeping pattern.” 

The new healthcare mattress range is priced between Rs 7,500 and Rs 75,000 and is available pan India. 

Currently present in over 650 cities with 250 exclusive showrooms and 800 dealers, Godrej Interio is one of the largest divisions of Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Co, part of the Godrej Group. 

In conversation with Adgully, Anil Mathur, COO, Godrej Interio, speaks at length about the #SleepAt10 initiative, associating with wrestler Geeta Phogat, e-commerce plans, the furniture market in India and more. Excerpts: 

What is the #SleepAt10 initiative all about?
The whole objective behind the #SleepAt10 initiative is to create awareness amongst the people about how sleep is becoming more critical from a health point of view – not just sleep, but the quality and the time when we go to sleep. Thus, along with the kind of food that we consume and the workout that we do, sleep has become equally significant. 

Having entered this industry much later than the other players, we needed to focus on aspects that the others were not addressing. When we looked at what the other players were talking about, it centered mostly around different body postures. So we decided that there has to be something more to it than just posture. When we started out research we found that what was important was the quality of sleep and not just the posture. Posture is just one element of it. Our research made us realise that as a mattress manufacturer, this is where we could contribute more and build a product accordingly. 

There are 3-4 elements that a mattress manufacturer can help in. One is the physical comfort, second is physiological comfort, third is maybe the temperature, fourth is the lighting arrangement, and the fifth is the housing judgement. We have already worked on two elements – physical and physiological comfort, and are working on the other elements as well. We aim to create an eco-system that a consumer will be able to use. But I think the larger picture we want to do is take this to the public that sleep is going to be more critical for you. No one has ever talked about sleep and we find that medically people are suffering. 

How are you creating awareness about this initiative? What kind of activities have you lined up for this?
We have started this as the first initiative for the launch of #SleepAt10 to create the buzz. We intend to go on social media and create forums, where we can talk about it and we have a large base of customers to whom we will circulate the advantages and criticalities of #SleepAt10. For example, even in the sleep wear segment, we have taken up ergonomic as a platform and have sent a huge number of emails to over 2 lakh direct customers, some of whom are institution based. We will be sending out these emails every Wednesday. We won’t be talking about our furniture in these mails, but how people can perform better in their office/ work environment. This initiative is not just around the mattress range, but also about making people aware about how to lead a better lifestyle. 

How did the association with Geeta Phogat materialise?
We have got Geeta Phogat specifically for the #SleepAt10 initiative, because, as I have mentioned, our idea was to present an aspirational example to the common man whom they could relate to. Geeta is such a simple person who has been following a regimen of good diet, intense workout and a healthy sleep pattern. So, it made more sense for us to bring her on board rather than a celebrity. 

How do you plan to tap the Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets?
We have a large number of outlets – around 3,000 outlets – across the country. We have increased the number of our outlets considerable. Godrej has always been present in both Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities – be it Ladakh or the Andamans, you will find our distribution network. In order to increase our reach in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, we plan to talk to the people there at the points of purchase; forum sets can also be organised. Thus, we intend to take it to a greater level in the coming years. 

Please tell us about Godrej Interio’s tie-up with IBM? How will it fortify the company’s e-commerce plans?
Our idea was to present a complete omni-channel presence across the country for our product line. So, we tied up with IBM, who are the leaders in this platform for e-commerce, to develop an e-commerce website for our brand as well as a complete social media network. The idea is to give customers a real time experience. This is a touch and feel project and can people get a real time experience on the web and they have a similar experience when they come to our stores. 

What is the current market size of the furniture market in India? What is Godrej Interio’s share of this market?
The current market size is about Rs 35,000 crore-Rs 40,000 crore as per various estimates. The market is largely unorganised, amounting to almost 80 per cent, while the remaining 20 per cent is the organised market, which is valued at around Rs 6,000 crore. Of this, our share is Rs 500 crore.