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By: Dale T. Read
David Karr Defines What It Means to “Take Control” of Airbed Technology
Karr explains that using the corporate foundation of the successful Order’s family mattress business, the new company contracted with an air bed product engineer by the name of Bob Walker, making him vice president and general manager. The basic air bed, as we know it today, did not simply develop (pardon the pun) out of thin air. In fact according to Karr, under Order’s leadership Comfortaire conducted extensive research from 1980 to 1983 seeking to perfect the right engineering, materials and systems to offer a truly revolutionary air sleep system for retailers to sell to the public. “The company looked at various air chambers, control systems, pumps, bedding materials and even fashion designs before Comfortaire could say they got it right the way they wanted it. In the early 1980’s Karr says the new airbeds were introduced to the consumer by rolling out a line through Rich’s Department Stores in Atlanta, and also locally in South Carolina through Belk-Simpson, the predecessor to the present day Belk Department Stores.
Karr, who joined Comfortaire in 1985, has a BS degree in Accounting and a double minor in both computer science and, yes, psychology from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Prior to joining Park Place Corporation and Comfortaire, Karr worked in the apparel industry during the late 1970’s thus he has a keen understanding of the impact of global sourcing on U.S. mattress manufacturers.
When asked to focus on the overall philosophy that Karr and his team embrace, he states, “Remember Comfortaire is the ‘Original Air Bed Company™’. We did not go into this industry on a whim. We have been producing customer-centered products for over 25 years.” Karr says that from day one Comfortaire focused on all three of the important benefits a truly responsive sleep system should provide: comfort, posturization and support. “From the top of the bed, to the base, from edge-to-edge and adjustability features, we set a tough standard. We continue to explore the best sources for latex, for urethanes, for foams, for the cotton air cushion chambers, for motors, and for control systems. From our entry level product up, our message has been, let us show you innovation and truly superior quality with excellent performance at a fair price.”
Many traditional innerspring companies and even other specialty sleep companies may focus on one or more of the sleep benefits touting their products as offering comfort, correct postural alignment and support. However, Karr contends that Comfortaire looks at these not only as features and benefits, but as actual structural or physical performance standards that each of their airbeds meets.
“Many companies speak of one or more of the goals as marketing or overall performance objectives. We see them as essential parts of an overall mission of product development which we call ‘intelligent design.’ Support is the starting point of our design. It is imperative that you have the right base support system in each mattress. To assure proper support we use high-grade, specialty engineered foam cores at the base of the mattress. On top of this we place low profile urethane air chambers in our Box-Top Aire™ mattress designs with Edge-to-Edge™ adjustability.” These air cores are great for contouring to the body. With the high performance foam base as support and special air cores designed for posturization, Karr says sleeper comfort is achieved with special comfort layers featuring latex, or visco-elastic topper pads all secured inside a full line of fashionable covers. Karr also notes that since January 2006 all Comfortaire beds in its GS collection of mattresses are fully FR compliant.
Karr works daily to provide the leadership and innovation so that his team manufactures and markets products that are the highest quality and the top value in the market. “We defined this category. We created it! Our extensive experience in our own airbed technology allows us to offer a product line that gives our hundreds of retailers the advantage of proven products. Our selling story is demonstrable, and they reach the emotional reasons for why people buy mattresses, namely meeting individual sleep needs without compromising the needs of their partner,” says Karr. “We offer our customers a superior nights sleep allowing them to ‘awake refreshed” by giving them the means to individually take control of their sleep needs without compromise. Our marketing position and value proposition flowed directly from the benefits that our mattress provides: ‘Take Control . . . Awake Refreshed’.”
When asked to look at the future Karr says, “We will continue to be true to our mission, which stated simply is, ‘Comfortaire is committed to providing a lifetime of superior, innovative sleep solutions for the discerning customer who values the importance of sleep to her overall wellness.’ Comfortaire will remain an airbed innovative leader. Our Box-Top Aire™ mattress designs with Edge-toEdge™ adjustability will continue to be the direction for our research and our growth.”
Retailers interested in learning more about Comfortaire, “The
Original Airbed Company” and their Take Control Airbeds are invited
to contact Comfortaire at: |
“When we say ‘Take Control . . .
awake refreshed’, we are talking about far more than a simple
marketing slogan,” says David Karr, President of
Comfortaire Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Park Place
Corporation since 1981. (See cover story in this issue.) “We are
talking about our under-lying philosophy and the reason for our
heritage as the original manufacturer of air cushion sleep systems,”
Karr, who has been President of Comfortaire since 1988 says that the
airbed company has taken a different approach to addressing sleep
needs of the consumer since day one. Right from the beginning, back
in 1980, Jimmy Orders, present-day CEO of Park Place, was looking at
consumer comfort and the customer’s sleep needs from a different
perspective. At the time, most of Park Place’s competitors were
innerspring companies who were focused on posturization and
innerspring or coils designed to provide support (often firm) by
pushing back on the sleeper as he/she compressed the coils. Karr
says, “Jimmy was looking for a way to adjust the sleep surface to
the sleeper as opposed to the sleeper having to adjust to or conform
to the compression of the sleep surface.” The entire idea was to
engineer and create a product that responded to, and complied with
needs of the individual sleeper rather than create a series of fixed
products that more or less offered a feel acceptable to the
consumer. It was a customer-responsive, needs-driven concept as
opposed to simply an engineering and design process promoting
traditional product development.