If consumers were paying attention during the last quarter of 2007, they may have noticed something surprising beginning to appear on the shelves of their local drug, department and convenience stores. Neatly tucked among the condoms, lubricants and feminine-care products, a new category began a discreet push into the mainstream: vibrators. By the end of the year, at least four manufacturers had merchandise in stores like Sharper Image, Wal-Mart, CVS pharmacies, Walgreens, 7-Eleven and Circle K. Although online mega-stores like Amazon.com and Drugstore.com have sold so-called "bedroom products" for a couple of years, suddenly it seemed as if sex toys had been invited to the debutante ball.
A NEW MARKET
A new market for manufacturers like Trojan, Durex, Jimmyjane and OhMiBod, "mainstreaming" widens the market for products unfairly consigned to back alleys for too long. After all, vibrators are among the tamest sexual-enhancement products on the market these days, and it's not like anyone's going to a great deal of trouble to hide them. Supermodels like Kate Moss cause media frenzies when they purchase gold-plated Jimmyjane vibes at upscale boutiques, noted sculptors like Barbara Hepworth lend their designs to upmarket product lines, and characters in mainstream movies and television shows talk about them openly. So why shouldn't Mr. and Mrs. Middle America be able to purchase vibes right alongside the less-titillating accoutrements of daily life?
The answer is not as simple as the question may seem, according to manufacturers. As normal and natural as sexual pleasure-seeking may seem, it still carries quite a bit of baggage. Even in an age where explicit sexual imagery is available at the flick of computer mouse and condoms, breast augmentation and male-potency drugs are openly advertised across the media spectrum, the stigma attached to adult toys remains: Users either have "problems" in the bedroom or they're way too liberated for their neighbors' tastes.
THE RIGHT APPROACH
That's why manufacturers like Church & Dwight Co. Inc.-which produces Trojan condoms, in addition to brands like Arm & Hammer, Brillo, Pepsodent and Arrid-approach mainstream retailers with a mainstream message. Their vocabulary doesn't include the old axiom "Sex sells."
Instead, Trojan's Vibrating Touch fingertip massager premiered during the 2007 holiday season on shelves of retailers like Wal-Mart, CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreens with a very mainstream rationale: Sexual health is important, especially in the age of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, so selling products that promote the use of condoms (which have been used for disease prevention since the 16th century) represents responsible corporate citizenship.
"People's sexual health is important to their overall health and well-being," said Jim Daniels, vice president of marketing for Trojan Brand Condoms. "The U.S. has the highest rate of STDs and unintended pregnancies in the developed world: Every year in the United States, almost 19 million Americans will contract an STD, and there will be nearly 3 million unintended pregnancies. Vibrating products could make consumers use condoms more often." Trojan's finger vibe, like the vibrating ring the company released into the mass market in September 2005, is a portable product designed for up to 30 minutes of excitement; it comes packaged with premium Trojan condoms for a retail price under $20, making it both affordable and responsible. Condoms have been a mainstay on pharmacy shelves since the mid-20th century, although they only recently became a product both men and women could purchase without a tremendous blush factor.
"Our retail partners understood the consumer proposition and public-health issues," Daniels said of Trojan's somewhat unorthodox product pairing. "For many of them, the stats [collected by the Trojan Sexual Health Advisory Board, which includes former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jocelyn Elders] were shocking, as well as they saw an opportunity to help improve the sexual health of this country."
Like Trojan, other companies that have found success in mainstream markets also have found that packaging and attitude are keys. Packaging must be discreet and sophisticated, although marketing messages that are fun and a bit risqué aren't entirely taboo. Trojan's now-retired Trojan Man commercials on radio and TV delivered a message wrapped in humor, and most consumers-even conservative ones-responded well to it, Daniels said. The company's current mass-marketing theme, "Evolve," is intended to "spark discussion, change behavior and challenge outdated attitudes about condom use and sexual health." It humorously employs pigs morphing into men to represent the shift from self-centered, immature, thoughtless behavior to sexual responsibility.
Companies like Jimmyjane are less concerned with encouraging responsible sex than they are with making their products available to upscale consumers in environments those consumers already frequent. When Jimmyjane's Form 6 water-resistant vibrating massager landed in Sharper Image stores in September 2007, it was a coup for the manufacturer, but it wasn't entirely unexpected or "odd," noted Creative Director Ethan Imboden, who was a design and product-development consultant for mega-brands like Nike, Motorola and Colgate until he founded Jimmyjane in 2002. "We did not set out to be different," he said. "We did not set out with a goal of adding a mainstream market. We designed these products for ourselves." That the Form 6 proved to be a "natural fit" for high-end mainstream companies like Sharper Image and W Hotels merely reflected the "playful, optimistic modernity of what it is to be American," Imboden said.
By positioning Jimmyjane as a "lifestyle brand," matching designs and packaging to the desires of tech-savvy consumers with healthy disposable incomes and focusing on the emotional and psychological aspects of sexuality, the company has managed to push its products primarily "through channels that don't carry other sexual products," Imboden said. Stores like Sharper Image, he said, are known for "featuring innovative products that push the boundaries of technology."
MOOD SWINGS
That mainstream retailers-who long have lusted after the profit potential represented by adult products-are beginning to stock a category once consigned only to seedy adult stores indicates an opening of the American mind, according to Imboden. "There's a sweeping change under way, and it will continue," he said. "We're only beginning to see the new role of understanding in sexuality."
According to OhMiBod co-founder Suki, "From a cultural perspective, we are at a tipping point. The toy industry has a chance at a broad new market. Young adults have a different vibe these days: They're much more open and honest about sex, and older women are beginning to feel empowered by the younger ones." Consumers also are beginning to look at the use of sexual-enhancement products as "a health and life-satisfaction issue," she said. "They're also for fashion, [especially after "Desperate Housewives" star] Eva Longoria came out and said every woman on the planet should own a vibrator." As a result, Suki said, retailers across the spectrum "are starting to dip their toes in the water. Everybody feels it, but not everybody's willing to talk about it."
Consequently, "it was like pushing a rock up a hill to get in [mainstream stores] with our one little product," she said. Eventually, Walgreen's picked up OhMiBod's signature vibrating iPod accessory for its online store, but "it's only a matter of time" before it also shows up in brick-and-mortar stores, she predicted.
One of the reasons for mainstream reticence, Suki proposed, is "there's a traditional attachment between porn and [adult] toys. People automatically tag toys with porn labels. We have to divorce ourselves, at least a little bit, from the porn industry." She said "companies like ours are changing the way products are perceived."
Imboden said Suki isn't the only one who's noticed the dawn of a new era in adult-toy manufacturing. "I'm really thrilled with the progress and innovation I'm seeing in the market," he said. "It's great to see the industry aligned and working in a direction that will benefit consumers. People might be surprised by how little push-back there is to these kinds of products, and the backlash is dissolving. Only through a positive experience at retailers" will it completely dissolve, though.
A CHANGING MARKET
According to Paradise Marketing President and CEO Dennis Paradise, mainstream retailers already are experiencing what only can be described as a positive experience. None of the "tame" vibrating products has been in stores long enough to yield reliable sales statistics, he said, but "it's safe to assume they're doing well with the products; otherwise, they wouldn't be expanding product lines."
Paradise represents at least three large manufacturers that have vibrating products in mainstream stores, and the momentous nature of such a development cannot be understated, he said. "You're talking about big, loud, serious players going into the merchandising of sex toys on mainstream shelves," he noted. "What large companies are going to do is legitimize the purchase [of adult products]. They make it OK to look at, to purchase, to use adult products. The negative stigma is going to go away."
Paradise thinks that's good news for traditional adult-product retailers and manufacturers. The apparent shift in the mainstream's attitude about sex "is not about entry into stores as much as it is about buying habits and the way America looks at these products," he said. "It's going to give the entire industry more legitimacy." With that legitimacy comes opportunity, Paradise said, because it's highly unlikely that family-friendly stores ever will carry high-end sex toys. "In five years, will [mainstream stores] be willing to put Rabbit [vibrators] on their shelves? I don't know. I don't think so."
Mark Franks, president and chief executive officer of adult retailer Castle Megastores Corp., agreed. "I don't think family environments are conducive to selling adult products," he posited. He said he would be extremely surprised if "big boxes," grocery stores and pharmacies begin carrying anything overtly phallic. Most consumers probably never will be ready to approach the checkout lanes at Wal-Mart with a shopping cart full of toys molded from porn stars' private parts. But "at an adult store, they don't have to worry about somebody [who is] buying toothpaste looking at them funny," Franks pointed out.
In addition, the atmosphere at adult retail stores is changing dramatically. In part because of declining DVD sales-the traditional bread and butter of "sex shops"-many of the most profitable adult stores are becoming boutique destinations that stock wide-ranging product lines and bountiful selections in order to attract high-end consumers. As part of the experience, they provide their shoppers seminars, workshops and other educational opportunities about all things sexual, and they employ staff members who are knowledgeable about the products they offer. "You won't find that in a big-box store," Franks said.
That's part of the reason for the success of Passion Parties Inc., a company that, for 14 years, has built on the Tupperware tradition of living-room sales events-with a twist. President Pat Davis also believes the mainstreaming of adult toys will benefit the adult-novelty industry as a whole by introducing new, possibly naïve consumers to products they previously might have considered "sinful." Much like online retailers, companies like hers have spread the word that "it's OK to have great sex," she said. "Good girls can have great sex, too."
With education and fun, titillating games, Passion Parties representatives introduce women-a growing segment of the adult-toy-buying public-to new realms of sexual freedom and enjoyment. "Women are hungry for information," Davis said, especially in areas where upscale adult stores are scarce. That mainstream stores are offering adult products "is good for all of us," she added, noting that tame products tend to whet consumers' appetites for more exploration and retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers say they cater to the desires of consumers. Still, "I think it'll be a long, long time before a phallic-type toy will be in the [mainstream] stores," she predicted. "I don't know that it ever will, at least not in my lifetime."
The bottom line, according to California Exotic Novelties Director of Marketing Al Bloom, is that the mainstreaming of adult toys "is opening a new venue, not taking consumers away from traditional markets. There's only so far these other retailers are going to go. There are only certain products they'll carry: lotions, massagers, condoms ... that's about it. They'll capture a segment of the market that won't go to adult stores. [Mainstream stores] give new buyers permission [to indulge in a former taboo]; it whets their appetites for more features, more options, more technology."
Bloom likened current concerns about market cannibalization to a similar phenomenon 20 years ago. "In the '80s, the same concern came up with the video guys," he said. "They worried the major [Hollywood] studios might start producing X-rated titles, but they didn't, and they never would."
