In 2016 Satisfyer hit the U.S. marketplace with a bang. A mass product giveaway kicked off the reign of Satisfyer — and that was only the beginning of a branding campaign that has established the company as an industry heavyweight that will not be ignored.
For those that don’t follow the international pleasure products marketplace, Satisfyer may have appeared to come out of nowhere — however, for those that do know their way around the global biz, perhaps it wasn’t such a surprise that Satisfyer would employ such aggressive marketing tactics. Behind the Satisfyer brand is its parent company, EIS GmbH.
Education is another key, as always, and nothing is better to convince store staff than to try [a product] themselves to measure its efficiency.
Founded in 2006 in Bielefeld, Germany, EIS is a pioneering German-language online shop for intimate lifestyle products. In 2018, EIS positioned itself beyond the borders of the industry in the retail category next to Amazon and eBay in Germany — with a turnover of more than $200 million from more than 9 million customers. The online retail giant offers more than 25,000 products, updated daily, for women, men and couples. The owner of EIS is described as an international investor who has previously launched and sold popular adult brands, including Baci Lingerie and Ovo. With Satisfyer’s owner being involved behind the scenes, VP of sales Jerome Bensimon has become the face of the company.
The tall, stylishly dressed Bensimon, who is of French descent, has made a name for himself as a jack-of-all-trades who just about singlehandedly has established Satisfyer in the U.S. He now works with a team of about 20 representatives — some of whom were present for last month’s ANME photo shoot for this spread, where they exhibited visible enthusiasm and reverence not just for the brand but for their leader, Bensimon, as well.
In a 2016 interview regarding the brand’s expansion into the U.S, Bensimon said, “Being closer to our distributors and our retailers is the only way to learn, to improve and to develop our brand with efficiency. ‘Be global and act local,’ you know the famous phrase…”
Satisfyer’s marketing efforts appear to know no bounds, with major advertising campaigns and event sponsorships that extend beyond the world of adult retail. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Elle Magazine to offer the women’s fashion and beauty periodical’s core readership — 35,000 subscribers to be exact — the chance to opt-in to receive a Satisfyer product with the April issue of Elle, which featured Taylor Swift on the cover. Those who jumped on the invitation received a Satisfyer Pro Traveler, priced at $39.95, in a tailor-made pink box. According to Satisfyer, feedback from consumers confirmed that the operation was a success. Additionally, Satisfyer's full-page ads can be found in leading lifestyle magazines Cosmopolitan and Elle, which are distributed throughout the U.S., Canadian and European markets, reaching around 30 million readers per month.
Since the company’s launch, Satisfyer has been a regular at consumer events such as Sex Expo New York, which the company has been sponsoring for the past three years. This has helped Satisfyer make its presence known to the throngs of attendees and press that make their way to the annual sex-positive expo each year to check out the latest products in sexual wellness.
Back in our adult retail business-to-business neck of the woods, Satisfyer is also taking a similar approach, dominating publications and events with branding. The brand’s prevalence has piqued much interest and sparked frequent conversations that mostly end with the consensus, “If you got it, flaunt it.”
Satisfyer has also proactively supported retailers and distributors. When the company launched its mass giveaway of the Satisfyer Pro 2 stimulator, it gifted more than 50,000 free units to distributor and retail staff.
“Education is another key, as always, and nothing is better to convince store staff than to try [a product] themselves to measure its efficiency,” Bensimon said in a previous interview. “In addition to our videos in eight languages on our website (www.satisfyer.com) we also supply, free of charge, all retailers with a designed counter display and a free tester.” Throughout the years since its launch, Satisfyer has fiercely defended its Air Pulse technology, which is now registered for patent protection around the world, including in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, China, Russia and South Africa.
Satisfyer’s product line now spans beyond the oral-sex-simulating clitoral stimulator. Satisfyer brands include Satisfyer Men, featuring male masturbators; Satisfyer Partner, a collection of couples’ toys; Satisfyer Balls kegel exercisers; Satisfyer Plugs anal toys; Satisfyer Vibes, featuring fun, colorful vibes; Satisfyer Luxury, a range of stylish new clitoral vibrators made with genuine leather and precious metal details; Satisfyer Beads for anal play; Satisfyer Rings (rechargeable vibrating cock rings); and the Lay-on line of vibes that can be used on the entire body.
At the upcoming Sex Expo N.Y., Satisfyer will also showcase the new Satisfyer Men’s Wand. Megwyn White, a sexual wellness expert and Satisfyer’s director of education, said that the product “adds to a growing men’s line and will be focused on edging arousal through its winged design, meant to harness vibration into his sexual parts and making the experience of oral sex and erotic touch even more exciting.”
The upcoming eroFame convention, which is set for Oct. 9-11 in Hannover, Germany, will see a whopping 70 new product releases from Satisfyer. The company is gearing up for an even bigger 2020. In May, Satisfyer made another bold move, announcing that the company had acquired the worldwide trademark rights to the Penthouse magazine brand. That deal goes into effect Jan. 1 and secures the permanent product usage right for the Penthouse brand, as well as makes EIS/Satisfyer the main supplier for all Penthouse stores currently open worldwide. EIS says it aims to make the service and the products even better in order to provide the customer with incomparable quality. Beginning in 2020, Satisfyer will embark on a large lingerie, drugstore and toy line launch.
In the meantime, XBIZ caught up with Bensimon to talk about how far Satisfyer has come within the last three years, as well as what we can expect in the future.
XBIZ: Tell us about your career background. What did you do before Satisfyer?
Bensimon: I come from the beauty division of the luxury industry. I’ve worked with big international companies like Revlon. I’ve been in charge of building up brands and distribution around the world. I’ve worked in Europe and also in Asia, when I was based there while working for Revlon. Currently, I’m based in New York City, where Satisfyer has its offices.
XBIZ: What is a typical day of work like for you?
Bensimon: There aren’t any two days that are alike at Satisfyer. Every day has been extraordinary with everything that is going on with us as the brand continues to grow. So that makes it interesting every day. From opening the doors to mainstream media through advertising to disrupting the marketplace with pricing, and trying to see everything that is happening in this world as a new era in which consumers matter more than ever… I’ll say it again, there are no two days that are alike and I think it’s going to be like that for a long time.
XBIZ: Satisfyer has been referred to as a “disruptor brand.” What does this mean to you? How does this reflect the company’s principles?
Bensimon: First of all, yes, we’ve been called a disruptor brand before and I would say that’s correct. For the last 12 years, we’ve been in direct contact with end consumers. It’s funny that what makes people think of us as a “disruptor” brand is just that we are focused on the end consumer — primarily women and bringing them the price point that they expect [for] any sexual wellness device.
XBIZ: How is Satisfyer revolutionizing the pleasure products industry?
Bensimon: I think Satisfyer is just one of the elements that have come to answer the demand. We have always believed that the demand from women all over the world was much bigger than what was being offered. Products were being disqualified either by price or by environment — such as through crappy, offensive packaging or designs that weren’t mainstream-friendly. A lot of people aren’t comfortable shopping for sex toys and they’re even more embarrassed to buy toys that look like stereotypical “toys.”
So, I think that we just came at the right time when the anticipation is growing, universally, all over the world. I think that we just came at the right time and we’re opening the door to this new category of sexual wellness. When I first started with Satisfyer, that word wasn’t being used as much and now it’s a whole category — and not only that but it’s a category that extends into beauty so we’re now linked to beauty. As a matter of fact, next week we’re attending a seminar here in New York City for the Cosmetic Executive Women organization that’s going to be about why sexual wellness is the future of the beauty industry.
XBIZ: Discuss Satisfyer’s marketing campaigns. Why is it so important to make such big, bold statements?
Bensimon: We’ve learned through experience that building a brand takes time and consistency. The investments that we make will only make sense if we bring them into the long term and I can say that I know, confidently, that we’re in it for the long run. So, by having advertising campaigns on those levels for both B2B and B2C, that’s just the company owner establishing visibility and consistency. It’s not just us that does this. If you pick up any mainstream magazine, you see companies have at least four to five pages of advertising — this is what it takes to build a brand.
If you’re counting on just being noticed with a single ad, then you’re mistaken … you’ll get lost among all the other brands out there.
XBIZ: What has been Satisfyer’s most successful product release thus far? What do you attribute its success to?
Bensimon: I’m tempted to say that Satisfyer Pro 2 has been the most popular because it was the original product that started the brand and it established our reputation, but also our success comes from having so many different products at those price points … really, it’s caused many of our products to sell out.
XBIZ: How has Satisfyer evolved since making its U.S. debut? Discuss the company’s growth.
Bensimon: It went from it just being me handling everything in the U.S. to now, we’ve just hired our 20th person and we’re operating out of four warehouses — three here in the U.S. and one in Canada. I remember the times when I was doing customer service out of my car, to now having a pretty large department.
XBIZ: Were there any challenges to establishing Satisfyer in the U.S.?
Bensimon: Well, in the beginning there were a lot of false rumors going around about us. Those rumors were creating a lot of doubts among distributors and retailers. However, thankfully it turned around as more people started seeing the reality among the end consumers every day and they understood that we were not being destructive, we were bringing great products and at margins that were beneficial to them.
There are still competitors that try to tear us down but I think they do it out of fear. There is no reason why a consumer can’t have multiple options when shopping in a particular category. We, on the other hand, never put down our competitors; we keep a low profile, we must remain humble. Sure, we take out a lot of ads in magazines, which may make some people jealous, but at the end of the day, what we’re doing will benefit the industry altogether. It’s part of supporting the industry and I think we’re a lot stronger when we do that.
XBIZ: Tell me more about Satisfyer’s latest release, One Night Stand?
Bensimon: The One Night Stand is a funny name we came up with to describe what the toy literally is — a one-time-use toy, and it’s just the latest item from Satisfyer. We want to have an item for everyone. We believe that in sexual wellness, when a consumer finds the right product that speaks to them then you’ve got a customer for life.
The idea is for us to convert more women into sexual wellness product users because we believe that there are still millions of women that have never used a device for sexual wellness. It’s like when you go to Sephora to buy a day cream and then they sell you on a night cream — we think that the One Night Stand will be another one of those products that will allow women to test out our products and ideally become a customer.
XBIZ: What can we expect from Satisfyer in the future?
Bensimon: I get the feeling that October is going to really be a big month for Satisfyer. We’re coming out with more than 70 new products, full of innovation and made with the most magnificent materials and surprises. We acquired the trademark to the Penthouse brand and we’ll be coming out with a lot more surprises that will be revealed before the end of the year. We’ll of course continue to bring our unbeatable prices with margins that retailers love about Satisfyer.
