XBIZ Premiere is pleased to present “Execs of 2016: The Year in Review” — a special showcase of the thoughts and strategies of 2016’s most influential and motivational leaders as they offer their take on the year’s top trends.
Each of the executives we spoke to is among the finalist nominees for the retail industry edition of the 2017 XBIZ Exec Awards.
This year, I am most proud of our work with Living Beyond Breast Cancer through the Inspire collection. Inspire is a collection designed to improve the lives of women on their journey for heightened sexual experiences. -Jackie White, CalExotics
The following question about the year in review was asked to those running for the Businesswoman of the Year Award:
XBIZ: What business achievements are you most proud of this year?
Alicia Sinclair
Managing Director, B-Vibe
“The achievement I am most proud of this year is the strong and positive response to b-Vibe’s focus on sex-positive education as a core value. I’ve enjoyed watching the gap between sex educators, sex-positive education and sex toy manufacturers and retailers shrink. Sex-positive education is power. It decreases stigmas, normalizes, enables an enjoyable experience, and contributes to the development and sale of great products. It’s fantastic to see this trend growing and empowering us as an industry.”
Bethann Smith
Director of Purchasing and Co-Owner, Williams Trading Co.
“Not only am I the only female co-owner of Williams Trading Co., I am also head of the purchasing department. I think our success as a distributor is due, in part, to our ability to keep the appropriate mix of top sellers and adult industry standards in stock for our customers to quickly access. We have a 95 percent fill rate and continuously monitor seasonality and buying trends, as we do every year. This year, the adult industry was introduced to amazing, new technologies such as Womanizer and its air-pulse technology. What a game changer right out of the gate! Normally, it could take a new product up to three years to gain traction on a retailer’s wall. Product advances like The Womanizer require meticulous attention to distributor stock levels to create a successful launch and continue growth, which is what I bring to the table to Williams Trading Co. I look forward to welcoming more new technologies to the adult industry.”
Bonnie Feingold
President And CEO, Honey’s Place
“There is an overall greater push for sexual wellness and more sexual awareness education. Vendors are also stepping up to the plate to protect their brands. There are many more MAP policies and Amazon restrictions that vendors have put in place to protect the integrity of their brands. These things have motivated me in several ways. We have expanded our product selections to include these new, unique brands, and with the redesign of our website, we have made sure that all product data is detailed, accurate and easily accessible so that the customers we supply to can learn about everything that we stock. As for the MAP policies, there has been a strong push by the manufacturers, and their policies are followed. We built a system into our website to track all MAP policies. They can all be tracked, viewed and downloaded in multiple places.”
Rebecca Weinberg
Sales and Marketing Director, XR Brands
“There’s so many things to be proud of this year at XR. The most important achievement is the team we’ve built within the company from top to bottom. Our team now is strong, works well together — and morale is at an all-time high. I’m extremely proud of the ‘back to our roots’ rebranding campaign. This is showcased through our brand new dungeon style ANME and eroFame trade show booths, massive marketing, fresh catalogs and our XR Dungeon inside the famous Chichi LaRue’s West Hollywood store. We’ve grown leaps and bounds this year, developing relationships with new customers worldwide. The creativity coming out of our product development department and our art department this year has blown me away. Last but definitely not least, our three wins this year for Fetish Company of the Year: XBIZ, StoreErotica and Sign Magazine. When you put in the work, the rewards are plenty.”
Shay Martin
Vice President, Vibratex
“The push and thoughtful thinking about creating products that utilize new sensations is, for me, overwhelmingly exciting. People are thinking outside of the traditional vibration box to come up with unusual tactile sensations that allow users to experience more than the typical vibration/bam/orgasm model. Our amazing bodies can produce such unique sensations if we present the opportunities. It’s great to see this happening, and I’m looking forward to developing this idea more. The creativity out there is making companies work harder to be on top, as you could say — and this drive is making technology develop at an unbelievable but exciting rate. I’ve loved watching this industry morph over the last 30 years into a beautiful, sensual, committed legitimate mainstay.”
Jackie White
Executive Vice President, CalExotics
“This year, I am most proud of our work with Living Beyond Breast Cancer through the Inspire collection. Inspire is a collection designed to improve the lives of women on their journey for heightened sexual experiences, with some of the proceeds benefiting LBBC. The products are high quality and provide a variety of sexual health benefits, along with helping support LBBC. Our contributions are providing much needed support for the LBBC community. Plus, our customers are following suit and donating to the organization. I am proud of my team and even more proud of our customers. I look forward to our newest Inspire items and further supporting such an amazing cause.”
Julie Stewart
President, Sportsheets International
“I have been really excited to see many retail chains embracing the concept of brand merchandising. As a designer and manufacturer, we work really hard to develop our brands and to give them an identity. We want our brands to create a mood, a visual reaction, a sensation with the consumer that makes them feel comfortable, intrigued and excited about how our products can help them connect with their partner.
So often, the consumer experience can be really overwhelming for many new to an adult store. And with so many products on the market, selection can be really difficult. I think that brands and brand merchandising can make it easier for the retailer and the consumer to make product selections. Brands also help bring customers back and create consumer loyalty. Seeing this merchandising shift in our industry helps the consumer and elevates the adult store experience, which really benefits all of us.”
Stephanie Berman
CEO and Founder, Berman Innovations
“I am, first and foremost, extremely proud of being an LGBTQ women-owned and operated business. In this past year, we executed a manufacturing deal as well as a distribution deal with Fun Factory, which was a huge accomplishment and step forward for us. We did a rename and re-brand and officially launched the second iteration of the toy, now known as POP Dildo. Another major milestone was receiving our full utility patent for the technology of POP. It’s been a year filled with growth as well as focusing my personal efforts on training and education. Sexual health and education is something I value greatly and see as being crucial to the future of adult novelty products.”
Wendy Crawford
President, Adult Source Media
“This business is changing very rapidly. We are proud to be a part of the evolution of how media is delivered. By establishing great relationships with the top brands in our business and having great relationships with some of the top broadcasting companies around the world, SoCal Licensing has been able to grow another 25 percent this year. We recently closed a deal to bring adult content to 300 million smart televisions in 144 countries, and that’s just the beginning. Adult Source Media is very excited to have brought X-Art and Colette to DVD for the first time; their product is some of the most stunning and beautiful erotica that I have seen in some time. In 2017, we will be expanding our distribution with more top studios.”
