The challenge of selling a controversial product
The first, and only, rules of new business might be to have an innovative product and a ready-and-willing market, but what if your product is so controversial that nobody wants to do business with you?
Adam Lewis certainly found this out the hard way back in 2007 when he was launching his business. Though Lewis had been with the same bank for 30 years, when they found out what he was selling, they told him he couldn’t have a business account. Lewis’s product, Pulse, was a “guybrator”, a vibrator for men.
What was innovative about it was that it used the latest medical technology to offer a solution for erectile dysfunction as well as a host of other medical conditions. But, says Lewis, “there was no time to explain any of this because they always put the phone down.” He laughs: “We were a reputational risk, apparently, and they made this decision with no information on the product or what we were trying to achieve.”
Lewis says it was a scary time for the business: “Basically, you don’t have a business if you don’t have a bank account.” NatWest eventually stepped in. But then it was on to the next hurdle – payment solution providers, with whom he also struggled: “They get so caught up in the nature of the business and are always looking for the lowest common denominator.”
It was even hard work trying to find people to help him create the product. “We interviewed about five design agencies on one day and three of them bolted out the door almost while we were explaining,” he laughs. “Some of them were very prim and proper engineering companies and the whole concept appalled them, as well as the idea that adding us to their portfolio could be damaging to their reputation.”
Very quickly, Lewis realised he was approaching it all wrong. “I was being naive,” he says, “and honest. I said we were trying to develop a sex toy and as soon as I stopped saying that and called our product a ‘therapeutic massager for the health and wellness sector’, there was a complete U-turn. It was almost hilarious.”
From then on, Lewis says, the company was more careful about the language it used with different groups: “This enabled us to access more people and it opened a few doors.”
Edinburgh-based company Blu Ecigs also found that choice of language was critical in promoting its product. “Our biggest mistake was to call it an e-cigarette in the first place,” says chief executive Jacob Fuller. “This means that people are automatically associating it with a traditional cigarette, which it isn’t, other than the fact it looks a bit like one and produces a vapour.” The word “cigarette”, says Fuller, makes people think they can’t use it in a restaurant, for example.
One way in which Blu Ecigs gets around the cigarette associations is to make the product look as different from a traditional cigarette as possible. It’s black with a blue tip (hence the name) so onlookers always know it’s an e-cigarette.
Another way the company deals with the negative associations with smoking, says Fuller, “is that we never call it a smoking cessation device. The Blu Ecig is a lifestyle choice.”
Although Blu Ecigs advertises using most traditional mediums, there are restrictions on how they can portray their product as they can’t show people actually “smoking”. They’re also not allowed to advertise on TV until after 10pm and they can’t advertise on billboards near school zones. Moreover, says Fuller, “85% of the TV viewers must be over the age of 18”. This side of things isn’t too much of an issue, he says, “as that’s our target audience anyway, it doesn’t affect us too much.”
Partnerships and endorsements can be a bit of a pain, says Fuller: “There are people who don’t know much about the product and getting them to that stage before they put the phone down can be hard.” The main way to get around negative connotations, says Fuller, “is to be creative and engage the customer. We do have to think outside the box a bit.”
Thea Wright founded Koibito Love, which sells bespoke intimacy kits for hotels, in 2009. Wright, who also founded a high-end sex shop in Ibiza, started the company after living in Japan and becoming entranced by the idea of kitsch “love hotels.”
She finds that sometimes hotels won’t let her get past the initial introduction: “Especially if I get the ‘wrong’ person. They block it and say it’s not right for their guests and that is that. But I always leave it and try another person at a later date. I never give up.”
Being controversial can have its downsides when trying to collaborate with the mainstream too. Wright has been asked at travel trade shows to hide any sex toys: “I think people think children will ask tricky questions,” she says.
“Controversy is everywhere these days,” says Jim Prior, chief executive of branding agencies The Partners and Lambie-Nairn. “Tobacco, betting, and payday lending are the obvious areas of concern but increasingly fizzy drinks, fast food, high-emission cars and a more general sweep of financial services are being called to account. Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned by the morality of the brands they engage with.”
Nonetheless, the controversial nature of the product has been good for Pulse, certainly in terms of PR and marketing. “What we do always stops people in their tracks and, even if they don’t want to admit it, people are intrigued,” says Lewis.
Prior’s advice to anyone selling anything remotely controversial is to take a leaf out of someone like Red Bull’s book and “do it with conviction.”
“Even if there are strong arguments against you, a cleverly executed, confident strategy can still win you friends,” he says. “Red Bull is a brand that could have many searching questions aimed towards its product but there’s something so energetic and inspiring about the brand’s activities – like having a man parachute from a helium balloon at the edge of space – that keeps the focus positive.”
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