This week I started research to purchase a new pair of bed sheets. Over the last few years/months I have been seeing a lot of targeted and OOH advertising for new premium sheet companies claiming to have revolutionary and patented sheet technology. I have not paid the industry much attention, although, it apparently stuck with me as I was able to quickly recall some of the leading new-age brands from memory: Brooklinen, Boll and Branch, Percale, Parachute, etc... I surprised myself with how many I recalled strictly from my subconscious. In that way their advertisements worked.
As I dug in to each company's website I quickly realized it would be impossible to decipher the quality of their offerings and calculate a value equation. Each company had made up their own patented technology with a name that sounded scientific and authoritative but likely with comparable meaning and quality.
So my next step was to look for independent reviews online to get an idea of the differences and the internet favorite. This is a product I would be willing to pay more for if they could demonstrate value. I was in luck as there were many review websites on the first page of Google. As I read through each one, each with more grandiose marketing speak than the next, I started to question the legitimacy of these review websites. Somehow every single sheet/linen manufacturer had a superior product with no issues... So I took my search one step further and started to dig in to these review websites themselves. At the bottom of the page, each of these websites had a disclaimer stating they receive payments for customer acquisition from the sheet companies, and some of them even disclose being financed by the sheet companies themselves!!
While this raised a red flag for me, I think this is a very clever strategy for the sheet companies. If a consumer is researching one particular company and wants validation to support their decision, it would be very easy for them to go to google, click on a few links, and see several "independent" validations for the quality and value of that product. This seems to be an essential step to convert people to buy a product that is very censorial and historically people wanted to feel in person. However, if you are me, and are naturally suspicious of online marketing tactics, you might just comparable quality sheets without the hip new age name for 25% the price on Macy's.com. Buyer beware!
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