Space-age material not an easy sell.

• Author: Rastelli, Linda
• Position: Hightech Coloradobiz - Outlast Technologies

GEORGE CATTERMOLE, CEO AND president of Boulder-based Outlast Technologies, may be sleeping a little better these days, but his Outlast mattress pad is not the only reason.

Time magazine chose the company's bedding for its annual list of "2002 Best Inventions." More than that, however, after a slow start, Outlast has discovered how to market its innovative product.

Outlast's fibers, foams and fabrics absorb heat from the body and release it when the skin temperature drops -- so a user experiences fewer uncomfortable fluctuations of body temperature. The technology involves embedding microscopic paraffin particles in a material or onto a fabric so they interact with the body's temperature and store or release heat as needed.

It's a high-tech product that, unlike many services of dot-coin flameouts, actually fills a consumer need.

But it took Outlast Technologies a little time to figure out how to get that message across.

Consumers didn't understand how the technology would benefit them -- that it makes sleeping more comfortable, takes the edge off cold-weather sports such as skiing, and reduces sweating in hot weather.

Early on, Outlast's marketing team tried various advertising approaches, including a print campaign based on Eastern spiritual enlightenment that was more confusing than enlightening, according to one company insider. Technical terms such as "phase change materials," temperature regulation," and "adaptive comfort," while accurate, generated big yawns.

Outlast concluded then that promoting a product's benefit beats explaining how the technology works.

A national marketing campaign launched last fall for "thermally incompatible couples" is based on extensive focus-group testing that indicated...