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More than just
pillow talk
Lu Haoting
BEIJING, May 5: They are really just cloth bags, stuffed with
soft materials such as down, cotton, or plastic fibre. But Ms Zhang
Jing, a native of East China’s Shandong Province, believes there are
huge opportunities in pillows.
“You spend one-third of your life
asleep,?Ms Zhang says. “That little thing that cushions your head
can determine whether you get a good night’s sleep.?
Her vision
has served her well, too. Ms Zhang has made this idea work by
turning it into a multimillion-yuan business. Since she opened
China’s first specialised pillow boutique in 2001, Ms Zhang has
opened more than 200 outlets.
Ms Zhang says the secret lies in
her extensive selection of pillows, which come in a diverse range of
materials and sizes to cater to different customer needs.
“As
long as you go deep into it and diversify your offerings, there are
lots of opportunities in businesses related to people’s daily lives
eating, drinking, sleeping, and even going to the toilet,?says Ms
Zhang, general manger of Qingdao Suitable Bedding Co. Besides common
pillow fillings, Suitable Bedding offers pillows filled with more
than 10 kinds of herbal mixes, each in five different sizes. There
are even pillows designed for special purposes, such as
horseshoe-shaped travel pillows and little cushions for use in cars.
The company also offers products for babies and children and even
pillows shaped like a man’s arm for lonely single women. Ms Zhang
admits that China’s pillow industry is still “underdeveloped and
backward?compared with markets in Japan and the USA. “Many Chinese
consumers would prefer to spend thousands of yuan on fancy mobile
phones rather than 100 yuan ($12) on a new pillow,?Ms Zhang says.
“But I believe more people are starting to pay attention to
their health and the quality of life as they begin earning
more.?BR>Ms Zhang stumbled onto the novel idea of opening a pillow
boutique in 2001 when she was working in the logistics industry. Her
company was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, and she was having
a hard time getting to sleep at night. “I had a slight (degenerative
spinal condition known as) cervical spondylosis,?Zhang recalls. A
friend noted that her pillow was too high and was possibly worsening
her neck problems, but Zhang was unable to find a satisfactory
pillow after searching almost every shopping centre in Qingdao.
“They were either too high or too low, too soft or too firm,?
Zhang says. She finally ended up making her own pillow. When she was
slowly recovering, she hit upon the idea of opening a speciality
boutique. The rest, as they say, is history. China
Daily/ANN
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