They had their first own mattress on the market less than four months ago, it was at the beginning of 2016 when the Emma founders got mail. Sender: Stiftung Warentest. Germany’s best-known consumer protection organization. And the most powerful: according to one Yougov survey around 80 percent of people in this country read one of their test reports at least occasionally before making a purchase decision – and are presumably influenced by the verdicts. A good rating can boost sales like hardly any paid advertising campaign. However, a bad judgment can be downright devastating for companies – especially young ones.
This was clear to Dennis Schmoltzi when he read: “One of your mattresses was bought and is part of a test”. He therefore felt a little queasy when he received the following information about the upcoming test program: Among other things, it was also evaluated what kind of handles a mattress had and the declaration was checked. “We knew then that it could be difficult,” Schmoltzi says in retrospect in an interview with Gründerszene. The very first generation of Emma mattresses had no handles at all, and the young, digital company provided information about the product primarily online – not on the label of the mattress itself.
You can hardly defend yourself against Stiftung Warentest
The problem was: Schmoltzi couldn’t get out of the number anymore. Nobody gets out when Germany’s most famous product testers have decided to put a product through its paces. 124 comparative product tests according to the foundation In 2022 (and 6,540 since it was founded in 1964), it examined 69 comparative service studies and 32,491 products in just one year. Participating in the test is not a free decision of the companies – Stiftung Warentest is free and independent to buy and test any products available on the German market. Whether the manufacturers want it or not. “The selection of the products to be tested is based on their relevance on the market,” explains Dr. Holger Brackemann, head of investigations at Stiftung Warentest, opposite the start-up scene. “Manufacturers can neither wish for a test nor reject it.”