Burke Morley has worked in creative strategy for brands like Nike and Sonic. But as Vice President of Brand and Executive Creative Director at direct-to-consumer mattress company Purple, he’s had to create a marketing strategy to win hearts and minds for a product with a unique sales cycle. “People don't really think about or care about mattresses until they need one. Then they care a lot about it, very intensely for a short amount of time, and then they kind of go back to not caring about it,” Burke says on The Empowered Challenger. Though mattresses aren’t top-of-mind for most people on a daily basis, Purple’s passionate customer base gives the five-year old brand and edge — referrals continue to be its top acquisition channel. Warm associations are critical for Burke’s approach: “I want to be in the ether,” he says. “We can't really anticipate when people are going into that buying cycle. So we have to be in the air with a positive impression so that when they do move into that buying cycle — where we're at the top.”In this episode of the podcast, Burke talks about what it takes to market an upstart brand in a crowded and competitive market, how he incorporates the mattress’ unique technology into advertising — and how he’s setting the brand up to move out of the bedroom. Featured Challenger👨🏻 Name: Burke Morley⚙️ How he challenges: As the Vice President of Brand and Executive Creative Director at Purple, Burke has brought his unique approach to brand strategy to a company disrupting the world of mattresses. 🛏️ Company: Purple💎 Noteworthy: Burke previously led marketing and creative campaigns at places like Sonic and Nike. 🔍 Where to find Burke: LinkedIn | Website Challenger Wisdom Highlights from the conversation appear below.💡 Changing things up (even when they’re working)“We had this campaign that was so successful, which can almost be handicapping in a way, because it's like we can't mess with it. We've got to stay on that, on that trail. I placed a pretty big bet when I first came on to do a campaign that was so different.”💡 Rethink how you view your demographic “[Our customer base] is much more about a mentality than a demographic with age and income and all of that. We call them the re-imagineers: the people who are looking at genuinely improving their lives and making the most of what they’re doing each day, and they’re willing to invest in some things that they believe are truly going to improve their lives.” 💡 Think outside the industry box“At Sonic, we did a lot of work with what we call, ‘craveability,’ looking at what it is about food that makes it craveable. A visceral craveable reaction comes from things like steaming hot bacon sizzling on a griddle. We've kind of applied that craveability mentality to an industry that may not make sense at first blush, because there is something very craveable about crawling into bed. That craveability piece is important because we have a job to help people understand why Purple is different.” 💡 Word of mouth can’t be bought“Even with all the money we spent on advertising, our number one marketing tool is referral. It’s the number one best-selling marketing strategy for us by a long shot. We’re lucky that when people try our products, they’re actually our best converters.”💡 Imitation — and attack ads — is the sincerest form of flattery“We actually gave high fives to each other after some attack ads came after us by the big dogs. We were like, That's awesome. That means we're doing something, we’re a legit competitor with some legit innovation and not just some hokey thing. Now, not only are they aware of us and have attack campaigns coming after us, but they’re actually coming out with their own versions or trying to do things similar to what we’re doing. All of that is quite flattering.” Top quotes from the episode:Burke Morley:Quote #1“I think most people think that the most creative ideas come from a blank canvas; a wide open space. But actually, I think the smaller the box you get pinned into, the more creative you get.”Quote #2“We won't release a product and say, ‘we did it.’ It's this ever growing pursuit to reinvent comfort, and to always be topping ourselves.”Quote #3“So many brands say, ‘Follow us on Twitter, follow us on Facebook.’ I always ask my team: ‘Where are we going to take them that’s interesting and improves their lives?’ The more brands have a purpose to take the people who follow them somewhere, the more compliance there’s going to be.”
