The sexual wellness industry is constantly growing and evolving, with more and more people embracing pleasure and seeking out education on how to be more sexually empowered and skilled. In what seems like an overly crowded industry, how can new products and young companies break through the noise? The answer lies with authenticity, innovation and ability to identify and fill a gap in the industry.
The founding of Lavinia was your less-than-typical entrepreneurial endeavor and never in my wildest dreams did I expect to create a community like the one we’ve established. My original plan in life was at the complete opposite end of the sexual spectrum — I believed that I was called to a life of study and reflection, to be a nun. That all changed while I was studying abroad. I met a “Francois” who, not surprisingly, took a dim view of lifelong vows of celibacy. In stepping away from nun-hood and into a life where sexuality was expected, my very apparent lack of experience felt like a constant burden. I found myself scared to ask, scared to explore, and doubting my sexual worth. No one gives you the rulebook or the tools to feel empowered, let alone pleasured.
Having a clear set of values as a brand lends itself to the authenticity that consumers crave in a constantly growing industry like the sexual wellness industry.
After spending some time researching, I learned three very important things. First, I learned the chemistry of cannabis makes achieving an orgasm easier, makes multiple orgasms more accessible, and makes orgasms more intense. Second, I learned that the cannabis product I wanted didn't exist. And third, I realized I was not alone in what I was feeling. It was at that moment that I decided to use my experience to supply what was clearly missing from the industry — to create not just a product, but a community focused on normalizing and finding empowerment in pleasure.
According to a 2018 study in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy titled “Women's Experiences With Genital Touching, Sexual Pleasure, and Orgasm: Results From a U.S. Probability Sample of Women Ages 18 to 94, Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy,” only 18.4% of women report that intercourse alone is sufficient to experience an orgasm. That means 81.6% of women don’t orgasm from intercourse alone without additional clit stimulation. With four out of five women not experiencing orgasms from intercourse alone and 95% of heterosexual men usually or always orgasming during partnered sexual activity, feelings of sexual inadequacy are hard to ignore as a woman. But with so many women experiencing the same thing, the concept of creating a space designed for empowering pleasure and conversations around pleasure became less of a novelty and more of a necessity.
Creating a new brand in a crowded space is one thing. Convincing consumers that your product and brand is a necessity in the industry is a whole other challenge. The best way to do that? Communication. Listening to your consumer helps you to grow as a brand and keep making products that fill a gap in the industry. The same way that communication in the bedroom is key to a pleasurable experience, communication between company and consumer is key to bringing authenticity and necessity to the sexual wellness industry.
We have built the brand around the feeling of being alone in your sexual journey and realizing that it takes having a conversation to know you’re not alone in what you’re experiencing. To continue to expand, Lavinia must provide products that meet the needs of the community. Conversation and feedback are therefore major components in being a consumer-centric brand. In addition to communication around what consumers are experiencing and seeking out in their sexual journey, a wider conversation about stereotypically taboo topics is something we pride ourselves on as well. Having a clear set of values as a brand lends itself to the authenticity that consumers crave in a constantly growing industry like the sexual wellness industry.
By valuing the authenticity behind a brand, supplying the innovation to create game-changing products, and identifying a gap and providing a fix for a common issue, new brands can stand out in this growing industry and become leading names in sexual wellness.
Katie Enright is the founder of Lavinia, the maker of oh.hi cannabis lubricant.
