Sheela Foam’s Nilesh Mazumdar on Kurlon relaunch, expansion and its differentiation

Sheela Foam acquired Kurlon Enterprises in 2023, added the iconic mattress brand Kurlon into the fold alongside its flagship brand Sleepwell in a bid for category dominance. Now, one year later, it has decided to re-introduce Kurlon to the Indian market in a new guise.

In its first makeover in 60 years, Kurlon has a new logo and tagline, 'life banegi hula hula' (life will be built slowly slowly). Conceptualised by Ogilvy India, the brand has repositioned itself as the one that stands for comfort and joy in every moment to woo the contemporary consumers and refreshed it overall approach for its existing and new customers.

“Millennials and GenZ are exploring the mattress world for the first time. It was important for us to connect with them,” Nilesh Mazumdar, CEO, Sheela Foam, tells Campaign India.

The new Kurlon logo is modern, minimal and has retained colours red and white from its old logo as the company did not want to do a brand overhaul that completely wipes off its memorability from loyal customers’ minds.

“We wanted to keep changes to the brand Kurlon as incremental so that the existing customer-base doesn’t get alienated and at the same time, it appeals to the modern consumer”, Mazumdar informed.

“We retained the colours red and white of the original Kurlon logo. The gradient colour of the line moves from light blue to orange which signifies the colours of the sky from dawn to dusk, representing our commitment to provide comfort from morning to night”, he added.

New logo

On Ogilvy’s appointment, Mazumdar shared that he called up Piyush Pandey directly and asked him to partner with the company for the brand. “There’s a familiarity I have with Piyush and I just made a call to him and said I want you to partner with us for advertising and communication.”

“Piyush told me that every mattress brand is either about the sleep or celebrity. He said we will stay away from the usual and take a completely different take. And that’s how the campaign idea came in”, he said.

From brand’s marketing mix, budget, launching new products, ditching celebrity push for its campaign to chartering Kurlon’s future growth, Mazumdar, in a sit-down interview, talks about the on-going hustle for the brand at Sheela Foam and thinks “the mattress is the celebrity.”