ASB Magazine

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ounded in 1994 by Susan Colvin, it can be argued that California Exotic Novelties, affectionately known as CalExotics, was the first-ever woman founded, owned, and operated adult novelty manufacturer in the industry.  In only 13 years, CalExotics has burgeoned to become one of the biggest and most dependable adult novelty manufacturers in the world. 

   Prior to founding CalExotics, Susan was the General Manager of California Publishers Liquidating Company, a full service adult products distributor that went out of business in 1993.  Susan purchased the adult novelty division of the expiring California Publishers Liquidating Company in an effort to make a go of her own company, thereby forming CalExotics.  And make a go of it she did.     CalExotics now manufactures and inventories 2,000 items, introduces as many as 350 - 400 new items annually, enjoys a 95% to 98% order fill rate – the best in the industry – ships all orders within 48 hours of receipt and produces another 2,000 private labeled lines for Home Parties, catalog resellers and leading production companies.     Based in Chino, California, CalExotics employs 90 workers and continually enjoys a steady growth rate of 10% per year selling their products to literally every adult novelty store in the world, through every major distributor.  All manufacturing is handled at U.S. and overseas facilities and the Chino headquarters is responsible for final assembly, packing and shipping, as well as administrative functions.    Al Bloom, marketing manager of CalExotics, along with Scott Stein, publicity director, both seasoned adult industry professionals, took the time out to discuss the past, present and future of one of the most respected novelty brands today, California Exotic Novelties.   Al Bloom, an adult entertainment industry vet of 37 years, has been with CalExotics for four years.  Getting his start in the distribution end of the adult business in Chicago in 1970, Al soon began distributing 8 mm Swedish Erotica before going on to start and operate several of his own companies, such as Caballero Home Video and Vidco Entertainment, which he operated through to the early 90’s.  Getting out of the video business in 1993, Al worked for Doc Johnson for about five years before joining as a partner with M & M sales, and then moving on to where he is now, with CalExotics.    Scott Stein got his start with AVN in the mid 90’s as a freelance writer and worked his way up to Managing Editor, then Vice President before moving on to work in other adult and mainstream industries, before coming back into adult to start his own PR and Marketing Communications firm.  With the growth of his leading client, CalExotics, Scott dissolved the PR firm that bared his name.  Scott quips, “It’s safe to say I’ve been assimilated.”     In terms of retail sales, Al notes, “CalExotics dominates on the retail store floor.  The reasons are the overall quality and the fact that we’re able to deliver.  The competition simply cannot deliver the way we can.  We’ve also spent the last 14 years working on the brand, so I believe people are confident to know that if they buy a CalExotics product, not only is it a good product, it’s backed by CalExotics.”    CalExotics also prides itself at being one of the first adult novelty manufacturers to introduce a product warranty registration program, which has been in place for ten years.     “Other companies are only now touting they have a warranty program,” states Al, “but we’ve had it all along.  We’ve also recently launched a new web site, www.vibetronics.com, where people can register their CalExotics products, and before we had the site, we included a registration card with every product.”   Years past, when a cheap sex toy broke, almost right out of the packaging, no one would bring it back to the store or seek a replacement at the store level or return it to the maker.  But with the cost of better sex toys getting into the $50 - $90 range and beyond, a defective sex toy is something worth complaining about and having replaced.     With 60% of the people buying sex toys being female, Scott states, “You have to remember, CalExotics is a woman-owned company.  There is nothing a woman hates more than finally getting the nerve to go out and buy a sex toy and get home and it doesn’t work!  Susan wanted women to have recourse.  The bottom line has always been that a retail store will not take the product back because of health reasons.  Better stores test a product before it leaves with a customer, but if you get home and it doesn’t work, you used to be dead in the water.  From the manufacturing end, we made sure we would cover the customer, which is a way of building brand loyalty.”    CalExotics covers their products from 30 days of date of purchase, “Because,” continues Scott, “If a product is going to fail, it will fail right away.  After 30 days, we consider that a working product and don’t see many failures after the initial ‘infant mortality’ period of first 30 days.”
   As a brand that has the highest visibility on the store level, Scott points out, “Al is very much, in large part, responsible for the high visibility CalExotics has on the retail store level, in as much as the company is very much ahead of the curve in creative POP display and packing design.”   Explaining the thought process behind the company’s sexy and vibrant packaging, Al states, “We have one packaging design firm that has worked for CalExotics since the day the company was founded, which is a real marriage.  Packaging is sexy, informative, clean with unencumbered graphics.  The branding image and style is consistent from product to product, which reinforces the brand and reputation.  We’ve never been afraid to spend the money to put some nice looking, happy people on the packaging.  After all, we want the customer to be happy and nice looking after you use our products.”   Scott adds, “Again, as a woman-owned company, really much of the image of the company comes from a woman’s sensibilities, which appeal to other women, and that accounts for the major percentage of our customers.  Susan has even been integral in the way the products are designed, such as using softer designs, more natural designs, materials and colors that appeal to women.  The greatest single innovation of CalExotics was the fact that for the first time ever in the adult novelty industry, you had a woman designing sex toys for women, when in the past it was men designing the toys for everybody.”    Ten percent consistent annual growth is very rewarding and when asked where is the growth is coming from, Al replies, “Expansion in the marketplace, more sales venues and we’re seeing the Internet as more of an impact.  My feeling has been that our products sell best at brick and mortar stores, because women are very tactile and need to touch and feel the product.  What’s happening now is we’re expanding to people who will never set foot into a retail store, because they’re simply too embarrassed.  So, we’re coming up with innovative ways to demonstrate the product online, where a potential customer can have some reference points on size, materials, and uses.  We hope to put as much information on the web in order for the customer to make the best decision without touching and feeling the item.”
   Another huge aspect of CalExotics’ retail sales success is their home party sales, which, Al continues, “We’re also probably the biggest in supplying that market.  Sex toys have really become the new Tupperware.  The bulk of the sales are still coming from the brick and mortar stores.  Then, as second, I would lump together home parties and mail order and private label.  The one thing that is coming up slowly, but consistently growing, is internet sales.”   Celebrity branded and signature series products are big business for CalExotics accounting for 10% of their overall sales.  The branded products are described by Al as an add-on category.  The licensed products allow CalExotics to categorize, essentially creating another company, to get additional placement for their product, albeit under a different brand, into the stores without overwhelming the retailer in CalExotics-branded products.     Al notes, “For instance, Adam and Eve is a huge supporter and supplier of CalExotics, we also do a lot of private labeling of Adam and Eve products, and they stock a lot of CalExotics-branded products, so there’s a lot of reciprocity.”    Al states, “We’ve made very important relationships; Wicked Pictures, Shane’s World, and Digital Playground, to name a few branded products.  When they have new girls, they get us involved right away to create a licensing deal on her signature series toys.  When we brand products, we create something more than just another vibrator with a production company’s name and their star on it.”   Continuing, Al states, “After we begin working with a new starlet, we can have her product on the shelves in six to eight months.”    An interesting point of fact is the long life cycle of some celebrity-branded novelties.  While some starlets are a flash-in-the-pan, something CalExotics works very hard on trying to avoid, as there’s nothing worse then investing a lot of money on a new product line only to have the starlet bail from the industry in a year, other starlets likenesses will carry on for years.     Al states, “We still have products out there with Houston’s image on them and they are huge sellers.”   Continuing, Al notes, “We try to be very selective and we like working with Wicked and Digital Playground because they understand the stars, the investment required to nurture, but not over-expose them so they can comfortably stay in the business and not burn out.  We try to stay away from licensing individual girls, since they burn out like moths.  It’s a huge investment to bring a girl to market.”    When it comes to advertising, CalExotics finds success in a combination of methods including print and Internet advertising, but Al states, “It’s a combination of all.  We’re trying to do more in-store promotion, and we’re implementing video commercials for those stores that are equipped with closed-circuit television.  Home shopping programs, like ‘Shop Erotic,’ are getting our support, and dealers that do television ads get support by extra discounts, incentives, POP materials, and more, all of which promotes business.”   “Additionally,” Scott points out, “We’re aligning CalExotics with legitimate mainstream personalities like Dr. Sue Johansen and Dr. Laura Berman further enhancing the brand and visibility.”   With a product offering consisting of 2,000 items, I ask if CalExotics has ever devised a sales manual so distributors can better sell their products onto the stores and the stores sales people can better sell the products onto the customers.     Al notes that the company has six national sales managers that train the distributor’s sales people on all new products and promotions all the time.  They also “push from the ground up in the retail stores,” says Al, actually going into the stores and assisting with Ladies Nights and Open Houses and other retail special events in an effort to educate the consumers and the clerks.”   I ask both Al and Scott, what do you enjoy the most about the adult novelty/entertainment business, and Al is first to address the subject.    “I have been in this business for over 36 years,” he states, “in all facets.  It's the great people in our industry that kept me around all these years.  I have had plenty of dealings in the mainstream, and my choice has always been the adult business.”
   And what does Scott like most about working in the adult entertainment business?  He quips, “Working with Al.”   In conclusion, I ask, what are your concerns about the current political climate and its adverse effects on the adult novelty/entertainment industry?     Al states, “Over my career, I have seen it all.  Politics create our enemies, and election time always brings them out in plain view.  I have been indicted federally three times and State indictments are too many times to recount.  It's a game of perseverance and you either have the will to stand up for your beliefs or you don't.  If you can't take the heat, better get out of the kitchen.  I will say that there is a dramatic change since I started in 1970, but unchecked, the government, driven by the current crop of evangelicals could try to push us back into the dark ages.”