Last year saw the launch of Bonner Trading USA, with Jerome Bensimon, formerly of Satisfyer, at the company’s helm. With the recent addition of Ian Kulp as global sales and marketing director, the company has increased its presence in the U.S. and abroad with new distribution deals and the acquisition of pleasure brands BSwish and Zini.
Kulp says his goal is to highlight what Bonner stands for — quality at reasonable prices — in order to get its products into the hands of more consumers.
At Bonner, we are not doing it for the trade; we’re doing it for the end consumer.
Kulp’s journey in the pleasure industry began at New York City’s Museum of Sex, where he served as director of retail. Prior to that, Kulp was a global manager for a hotelier and chocolatier in St. Lucia and in the U.S., providing retail strategy and heading up merchandising.
Upon first entering the sexual health and wellness industry, Kulp says, he didn’t expect to develop such a passion for it.
“At first I just saw it as something fun to talk about at the Christmas table,” he recalls. “But it soon became a very absorbing challenge. There was a lot I needed to learn about and work on, such as safer materials, building out a network, creating affiliates and partnering with sex educators.”
Kulp’s responsibilities at Bonner Trading include defining the company’s goals, which he says are still evolving — particularly as they relate to the newly acquired but decades-old BSwish brand.
“The core of BSwish is being an approachable, energetic and joyful brand,” he explains. “Those are the three pillars we are emphasizing. In a nutshell, they are at the heart of this brand and reflect our approach to intimacy and sex. Most of all, it’s important that BSwish is accessible and viewed as body-friendly.
“We are really injecting the brand with new shapes and colors during our facelift, to elevate the brand to align with the three pillars,” Kulp elaborates. “We embrace the pillar ‘joyful’ to make sure users feel good, no matter their age. We find the younger generation is not always targeted to purchase a toy, so we want to include them but at the same time not alienate our current and aging customers. We want all generations to be involved with our brand without feeling left out or aged out.”
More than 70% of the SKUs in the BSwish catalog are battery-operated, which is somewhat of an anomaly in the pleasure industry these days.
“Being battery-operated keeps the price point very reasonable,” Kulp notes.
The company offers four specific collections within more than 100 SKUs in the BSwish catalog.
“Our Basics, Classic, Deluxe and Infinite collections make our brand approachable,” he says. “Within the collections, there may be some of the same styles but different iterations.”
Last year, BSwish’s Infinite line debuted, offering the brand’s premium collection of rechargeable toys, each with a micro charger.
“We didn’t cut corners when it came to materials,” says Kulp. “We worked directly with manufacturers to create these quality products and yet stay within a retail price point of $39.95 to $69.95. In fact, we plan to stay within that range as we continue to add products to the line, and have recently added even more styles within the Infinite range.”
Along with BSwish, Bonner Trading also added South Korean pleasure brand Zini to its lineup last year.
“The Zini brand is elevated, a premium lifestyle brand that is groundbreaking in design and manufacturing and is set to reshape the landscape of sexual health and wellness with its products,” Kulp says. “We will have more oversight into its craftsmanship, culminating with a better experience for the user. We’ll be relaunching the brand with new products, and we are quite excited about bringing Zini to the consumer. Currently, Zini has 11 SKUs and six styles, and retails between $34.95 and $99.95, which is a sweet spot. Zini offers a one-year warranty too, and is already available for preorder.”
Kulp sees all of these developments as important steps toward fulfilling Bonner Trading’s core mission.
“We want to do our best to make the end consumer happy and feel good about our products,” he says. “We’re deeply rooted in this. At Bonner, we are not doing it for the trade; we’re doing it for the end consumer. We want them to enjoy and talk about their purchase, and feel comfortable in doing so.”
