14 THE PARTY WITH EXTRA TOYS

In 1981, Ann Galea was working for Pippa Dee, a clothing company that sold its wares through parties organized in people’s homes. She had just arranged for a party to take place in the front room of her house in Thamesmead, Essex, UK, when she had an idea. She decided to ask her friend, Jacqueline Gold, to bring along some of the merchandise from where Jacqueline worked.

Now, Jacqueline Gold’s merchandise was more than a little unusual. She was working for her father’s sex shop business at the time, so Galea asked Gold to bring along some sex toys, hoping it would spice up the event.

Looking back on the evening, Gold remembers: “It was like a Tupperware party, but at the end of the evening, out came the toys. The girls’ reaction was amazing. Suddenly everyone was having fun and giggling. I could see there was a market.”

Despite being just 21 and on work experience, Gold developed a radical business plan for what was at that time effectively an adult publishing and mail order company that happened to own a couple of shops. Her radical plan was based on selling sex toys to women in an environment where they would feel relaxed – at a party in a friend’s house. Chatting to the women after the Pippa Dee party had made Jacqueline realize that, while women were just as interested in sex as men, they didn’t want to visit or be seen to visit the sex shops of the time.

On hearing the plan, one Board member was supposedly outraged declaring “Women aren’t interested in sex!”, but thanks to support from her father and uncle, Gold’s plan was given the go-ahead.

The first party organizers were recruited through advertising and seminars held in the Strand Palace hotel in London. “I had to tweak the ad,” recalls Gold. “I couldn’t say ‘ladies only’ and couldn’t use ‘erotic’; it had to be ‘exotic’.”

The first Ann Summer’s Party generated £85 of sales. There are now some 7,500 party organizers who hold more than 4,000 parties every week. What’s more, Gold no longer has to advertise for organizers. Applicants come to her.

With a successful online business, a chain of women-friendly sex shops on the UK high street and operations in Dubai and Australia, the brand’s sales hit £117 million in 2012. As for the outraged Director, he may still be outraged, but he is no longer being so at Ann Summers!

And the moral is that if your customers won’t come to you, go to your customers. What new channels could you use to connect with your customers?