I recently had a great conversation with Rachel Braun Scherl, President of Semprae Laboratories, Inc. a company founded by women and focused on women’s sexuality. Semprae’s leading product is Zestra, an over-the-counter botanical oil proven to enhance female sexual arousal.
Since 2008, Rachel and her colleague, Semprae CEO Mary Wallace Jaensch, have teamed with venture capital partners to take Semprae to the next level of growth.
The business case for Semprae’s success is obvious; more women have sexual difficulty or discomfort in their lives than men who experience erectile dysfunction. Our own research shows that 2/3 of postmenopausal women are unhappy with their sex lives and want them to be better.
If the pharmaceutical industry can build several multi-billion success stories addressing men’s sexual health (Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra), surely there’s room for a few successes that address the same issue in the lives of women?
The odds seem good for Zestra to make a dent by serving this important need.
When I asked Rachel what her biggest business challenges have been I certainly didn’t expect to hear that she can’t even advertise her product.
“We never thought the biggest business challenge would be that we couldn’t tell anybody about it,” she told me.
Ads for Zestra have been rejected by network television, cable television, or any one of many likely websites: WebMD, Facebook, dating websites (yes, dating websites!), and even scandal-driven websites like TMZ.com.
We run these ads on VibrantNation.com Why will no mainstream media outlet do so?
Rachel says it’s the result of several double-standards:
- Media are comfortable with stories about men and sex, but not about women.
- If they are going to do something different, media outlets favor big companies over small. They will run ads for Trojan’s vibrator but not for Zestra.
So what’s a start-up that serves the genuine needs of 20 million + women supposed to do?
One solution has been to make the story a political issue: to advertise Zestra as the “brand that mainstream media won’t let you hear about.” This was the story the New York Times covered last year when it wrote about Zestra and the double-standard that impacts women-oriented advertising.
Rachel says this was not their preferred route, since Zestra is not a feminist product and should be about pleasure, not anger. “We’re not trying to start a political movement, but we get the most coverage when we make it a political issue.”
What Rachel knows – confirmed by everything I know about marketing to women – is that this political message is not the best way to sell a product. The real goal? Getting a conversation started among women, which will make more women respond.
So Zestra is now marketing through direct-response, where it can generate a direct response from women. Scherl said, “When we were featured on Dr. Oz in February 2010, we could sit at our desks and watch the orders come in. When we can get the conversation and message to women, they respond.”
Zestra isn’t the first brand that reaches vibrant women by getting them to talk, and market, to each other. But it may be the first brand that did so because it wasn’t allowed to spend money on traditional advertising.
Noting what RamblingRedhead said-there's sexy and there's slutty... A big difference.
For me dressing 'sexy' is about feeling good in what I have on. I might have a sexy lacy bra on, hidden to view, that makes me feel good. The place for seductive c
Kudo's to you Alicia! Wow you've accomplished quite a lot in your life and you will with dating too at some point. Hang in there! Hugs back! Lisa
tried this (as well as the Garnier tinted moisture) in vacation last week ... Liked the Garnier better, but this provides more coverage and does indeed stay on through everything ... not heavy or greasy ... covers my rosacea. Not sure it will be my e
My parents divorced when I was ten and I always felt like my lack of self esteem most have something to do with my Dad's absence but then one day when I was in my firths my mother said or did something that made me realize she was emotionally abusive
Holy crap! What a sad story. Congrats on overcoming that hurdle. Wow.
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