First things first... you should know that I love to sleep.
Seriously.
My first "goal" when I took my business full-time was to, and I quote, never wake up to the sound of an alarm clock ever again. Eventually, I would discover that this goal wouldn't hold up well, but a girl can dream.
I would sleep all day if I could. I love sleeping in late, taking leisurely Sunday afternoon naps, snuggling up with a cozy electric blanket and making myself a soft little nest at the end of a long day... ALL OF THAT ISH IS MY FAVORITE.
Personally, I think the most important factor to achieving great sleep is having a great pillow.
In fact, I have seven pillows on my bed right now. SE-VEN.
But a perfect pillow that supports my neck, strange sleep positions, and emotions is hard to find. I've seriously hunted for that elusive pillow for years.
ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO, I THOUGHT I FOUND THE ANSWER TO MY PRAYERS.
There was a commercial on TV for a pillow that was sworn to change lives. It was creatively named, "My Pillow." (The copywriter is rolling her eyes, people.)
"This is the most comfortable pillow known to man, GUARANTEED!" a mustached man shouted enthusiastically, clutching the pillow to his polo-shirt-covered clavicle. "You can have the best sleep of your life... for the low-low price of $70 each!"
I nearly choked on my iced chai latte.
$70 dollars... for a PILLOW? Surely this meant the pillow was woven from the finest strands of silk, fresh from the worm.
I waited patiently for the mustached man to tell me what the pillow was made of so I could understand its value. But he didn't.
The infomercial simply kept repeating that this was the most PREMIUM pillow on the market and I'd have the BEST SLEEP OF MY LIFE if I just took this stranger's word for it and forked over my money.
NEEDLESS TO SAY, I DID NOT DO THAT. I TURNED OFF THE TV AND WENT ABOUT MY DAY.
When the time eventually came to look into purchasing a new pillow, I ventured to Bed Bath & Beyond.
As a combo stomach and side sleeper (I starfish, okay?) I need a pillow that isn't too hot and won't squish flat on impact. So I squeezed a bunch of pillows in transparent bags and tested them for bounce, reading about their stuffing "ingredients" to make an informed choice based on MY needs.
Then I saw it.
That damn MY PILLOW.
In a fully-sealed BOX.
I walked up to the box and picked it up, flipping it over to each side looking for any text that described what the pillow was made of and found...
NOTHING. ZERO. ZILCH. NADA.
Just slogan after slogan promising the best sleep of my life! And that mustache man SMILING like he was hiding the world's biggest SECRET!
You couldn't even touch the pillow through a cut-out. It was completely concealed.
I was enraged!!!
I stomped out of that store without a soft item on which to lay my precious head. I was not in the mood to buy fancy pillows anymore. My Pillow had stolen my joy away from me and I ended up buying a cheap set of pillows at Target instead.
In my frustration with ONE "luxury" company's refusal to clearly demonstrate a product's inclusions, I canceled ALL THOUGHTS of buying that product from ANY luxury company.
Let this be a lesson to you, dear business owner. If you can't honestly prove the value of your product or service, you aren't just turning people off from YOUR BRAND. You're potentially turning them off from your entire INDUSTRY, making it even harder to sell to them the next time.
You may not want to do that if... ya know... you want your business to succeed!
Anyways.
Like I said, it's been about five years since the My Pillow incident. And I have an update to this saga.
A few months ago, while grocery shopping and getting tempted distracted by home decor, I innocently wandered into the bedding section... and came across another My Pillow box.
The box hadn't aged well. It still looked like the design from the early 2010's. That same mustache graced the front graphics.
I remembered all of the frustration I had felt years earlier and decided I had to know what the pillow was made of. So I looked around to see if any employees were coming, and when it was safe, I pulled that pillow out of the sealed box.
My dudes.
IT WAS MADE OF FREAKING FOAM CHUNKS.
$70... for a pillow made of FOAM CHUNKS.
Can you make the connection as to why they didn't list the ingredients on the side of the box?
It's common for businesses to try to persuade people with vague, emotional promises if their offer isn't anything special.
If you aren't sharing your inclusions openly and honestly, is it any wonder people think your offer isn't valuable... or that you have something to hide?
Do better.
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