There was a topic brought up on Twitter tonight centering around sex toy reviews and manufacturer feedback. In a nutshell, it was proposed that reviewers ought to contact manufacturers and work hand-in-hand with them, providing feedback and helping make the sex toy industry a better place. (Peace on sex toy earth, if you will.) I’m all for conversing with a manufacturer and providing them with my opinions on how they rule, what they could do better, etc., BUT (and there’s a but) only if they genuinely want my feedback. I’m not going to bombard them with e-mails and shove my opinions on them if it is not wanted or appreciated.
I want to make this loud and clear: I do my reviews for you guys, my wonderful readers. I hope that anyone who might stumble across a review that I have written walks away as a more knowledgable consumer, armed with more information than they previously had. I do not do reviews so I can score a free vibrator (lord knows I’ve spent enough money on sex toys already, spending more won’t kill me). I do not do them so I can try to chase down some shadow of a customer service person, hoping they give a crap about what I have to say about Product XYZ. You, person sitting there reading this, are the reason I started this blog in the first place.
I have a job, a life, and two attention-whore cats. I have friends, bills, and a relationship. I have priorities other than this blog (shocking, I know). I keep this running because I love it, I’m passionate about it, and I think educating people about something so commonly misunderstood, such as sex toys, is important. This is not my job, my life, nor my paycheck. I have no obligation to contact every single manufacturer of every single product I review. I encourage their feedback on my reviews, as well as an open dialogue about their products in whichever direction they wish to take it. If they want to know my thoughts on something, I would hope that they would ask. I should not have to clutter their inboxes with links and comments about their products, nor do I want to.
I suppose what I’m getting at here, through all of this rambling, is that it’s not solely my responsibility (as a reviewer) to contact a manufacturer. I believe if a manufacturer really wants to gather thoughts on a product, they should be proactive. I’m not saying they need to hunt down every single reviewer or blogger they can find, but they at least need to put themselves out there. Manufacturers: get on Twitter, leave a comment, send an e-mail saying hello, have more of a presence in the blogosphere. If you do any of those things, I guarantee you will get the feedback you are looking for.
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July 14th, 2009 at 9:53 PM
Right on. That’s how I feel, too. I talk to plenty of companies — cuz they’re the ones out there with a public face, a person I can comfortably talk to. Contacting customer service? Not so much.
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July 14th, 2009 at 10:15 PM
This is a note to every manufacturer without Twitter: GET IT. Seriously, why do Fun Factory and Njoy not have Twitter yet? It’s so easy to @ reply the manufacturer when we post reviews (much easier than an awkward email that just says “so, I reviewed your thing…”).
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Miss KissThis
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July 14th, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Exactly! Much less awkward, much easier, and so much more personable. Twitter is a great marketing tool if you use it right (cough*spambots*cough)
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July 15th, 2009 at 3:57 AM
I agree 100%.
that is all for now. tired.
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July 16th, 2009 at 11:00 AM
First, @epiphora , it’s Freddy/Ian, so you can stop reading now lest you get repulsed and begin to feel nausea coming on.
For anyone else…
I don’t think anyone needs to contact manufacturers unless there’s a compelling reason to do so (like a safety concern or interest beyond having fun writing about sex toys). For example, we were attending a large trade show (actually two of them) this past week and seeing all the new products – prototypes and otherwise – that will be hitting shelves in the next few months. In many cases, my wife and I were asked directly for our opinions on how to make the products better in a variety of ways. Lelo, for example, is releasing a rabbit-style vibe that is amazingly cool and sexy. It has two independent motors (one in the shaft, one in the clit piece) that vibrate at varying speeds and modes. HOWEVER, no one thought to program the vibe to allow for one or the other motors to be turned OFF, meaning the entire thing must vibrate or the entire thing must NOT vibrate. Most rabbit vibrators only vibrate in the clit “ears,” perhaps adding rotation to the shaft or some rotating beads (such as the Rabbit Pearl). In this case, we were able to engage the Lelo OWNER and bring this flaw to his attention, to which he first thanked us, then called the engineer to tweak the chip to allow for this simple modification.
This illustrates a fundamental problem in the review process; that is, bloggers and otherwise only get to see FINISHED products and the industry itself has no prototype testing program outside simple guessing or rehashing products that have sold well in the past and hoping the new packaging or colors or whatever will click with the current market. With so many different items (Topco has over TEN THOUSAND different products alone sitting in boxes in a Chatsworth warehouse that probably served as the Indiana Jones inspiration), there will never be enough reviewers to try them all out in a thousand lifetimes. Hence, most things sent out for review either are requested by the reviewer or simply thrown together randomly in boxes without rhyme nor reason. The goal in almost all cases is to simply get us all to mention whomever sent the box or the manufacturer (or individual products’ names) or both, hoping that this will increase the search engine rankings no matter what the reviewer’s opinion happens to be. In other words, most reviewers are sales “tools” regardless of our opinions.
Which brings me back full circle to why I’m writing this long-winded post in the first place.
The point of MissKissThis is well spoken. Reviewing toys should be first and foremost for YOU, and secondly for the entertainment of your readers. Unless one is motivated to take extraordinary steps to investigate and reach out, there’s little chance of affecting any change in what comes out of the factories churning out sex products from whomever or wherever. It’s a cold but true fact. That said, believe it or not, most companies DO LIKE TO GET FEEDBACK DIRECTLY if you do take the time to write or call with your opinions. And, unlike most other industries, you really CAN affect change if you are sincere and concerned about what they’re releasing into the public’s private parts. In fact, we have contact info for every single one of them if you wish to do so and will happily provide it.
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July 20th, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Reviewers should contact manufacturers? That’s a new one. I mean, the first thing I think of is “why?” LOL I have taken the time to shoot of an e-mail/contact form exactly twice. One because I actually did want to share my review and once because of questions about a product. Both times I relieved no response. (Big surprise there – not!). The fact is, 9 times out of 10, it’s not even manufacturers offering items for review so why would I e-mail them?
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