Lelo Luxury Sex Toys
Interview with Luka Matutinovic
In the fast-paced world, standing out as the top Luxury Sex Toys Brand requires a blend of innovation, strategy, and an unyielding passion for excellence. Luka Matutinović, appointed Chief Marketing Officer of LELO in August 2020, embodies these qualities and more.
With a career spanning over 13 years in marketing, Luka has honed his skills in prestigious roles, including as an international brand manager at Henkel. Also as a product manager at L’Oreal Adria d.o.o. Joining LELO in 2015 as a Global Product Development Manager.
Luka has since helped propel the innovative luxury sex toys brand Lelo climb to new heights. With a Master of Economics in Marketing from the University of Zagreb, Luka’s has kindly participated in an inteview of the reasons behind the incredible success at LELO.
Luka, many thanks for participating in this interview. It is quite exciting as Lelo is one of my fave brands of sex toys that we always recommend to our customers who want that little extra. So lets get into it –
LELO has become synonymous with luxury in the adult toy market. What drove the decision to focus on luxury rather than affordability?
The last two decades have been marked by changing attitudes towards sex, lifting the stigma around sex and growing awareness about sexual wellness. This, in turn, led to the introduction of innovative pleasure-enhancing products, thus developing new opportunities, increasing visibility and propelling growth for brands like LELO in the global sexual wellness market.
Lately we have been witnessing change as the wellness movement pushes a number of women’s issues, from periods to sex toys, into the limelight helping further lift the remaining taboos, boost education and promote sexual wellness and equality by introducing innovative sexual wellness products accelerating the industry growth and further adoption of it in the mainstream.
It’s safe to say that LELO has been setting trends for over two decades now. When you see a really beautiful pleasure product in a shop or online, it is always our product. And it is our designs and innovation that opened the door and made more elegant sex toys possible.
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That’s a trend that will never die: we will always be leading the charge for more beautiful, more pleasurable sex toys. The design has always been very important to us, as we know people respond to it, and it has really made it easier to talk about sexual health, helping it become mainstream. For decades, there has been an inherent link between the “socially acceptability” of sex toys and the fact that very little thought was given to design, craft, material composition and/or the ease of cleaning the toys.
It had a direct bearing on the, I dare say, unfair perception of sleaziness when it comes to introducing sex toys into your sex life, thus increasing the stigma on those who used them and tried to talk about them openly.
How does LELO prioritize innovation in its product development process, and what role does technology play in your designs?
For us, sexual wellness products are undoubtedly self-care products and, in our opinion, should be designed as such. When LELO launched its first products, they stood out because they didn’t look like a sex toy anyone had ever seen before.
Scandinavian design has a strong culture of blending design with functionality, and being a Swedish brand LELO is all about long, smooth lines, sleek shapes and seductive bodies. Our products help to establish intimacy as they erase the last obstacle in obtaining a sex toy – our sex toys that don’t really look like sex toys. They look like ornaments.
For us the aesthetics of products has always been as important as their function. The history of LELO products reads like the history of the industry ever since we stepped onto the market. It has been our mission to listen to our customers and anticipate their wants and needs, and offer them products that cater to them.
We were among the first brands to make body-safe silicone commercially viable, and now that has trickled down and permeated the industry to the point where more harmful materials like softened plastics and rubbers are virtually non-existent.
How does LELO stay ahead of emerging trends and evolving consumer preferences in the adult toy market?
When we started, a lot of what we were offering was almost thought of as extravagant. There were no premium or luxury pleasure objects at all at the market, and we wanted to use our design and engineering experience to change that: we wanted to offer something better and saw it as an opportunity to make a difference, blending beautiful form with pleasurable function.
But how could we achieve that?
Well, we looked at what competitors were doing – horrendous colours, cheap materials, thoughtless design – and we did everything differently in every respect. That immediately got us noticed.
And this is the way we stay ahead. Through innovation. We were one of the first brands to introduce waterproof products, as well as small and sleek pieces like LELO MIA™, a product that a woman could carry around in her purse without anyone even realizing what it really is.
Lelo Mia
We did not stop there and introduced products for couple play that featured remote controls giving partners the ability to dole out pleasure whenever and wherever they like. And then there was LELO HUGO™.
Lelo Hugo
When it came out, it embodied a small revolution in itself – relying on the findings of independent research, we were able to find fact that there was a 33% increase in male climax following a prostate massage. We have relied on this number and released a series of vibrating prostate massagers, including the prostate massager HUGO. Forward-thinking in designing it ensured that it still represents the very best that our industry has to offer, that it has a devoted following, and is still very much in demand.
Thinking about the future is an all year long process and commitment on part of the brand. Arguably, it is always easier to follow the trends and see what works (or not) but for us this has never been a state of mind we adhered to. In our mind, staying ahead of trends is crucial in keeping your company competitive. Thinking beyond today to how a current trend might affect your industry one, five or 10 years down the road.
One example is the futurist report we have issued recently. This is only one aspect but a worthy one. We teamed up with Tom Cheeswright, applied futurologist to predict scenarios as to where human relationships are going and will be in a few decades, thus enabling us to envision products that people will be using in the future.
LELO has expanded globally. What are some of the unique challenges you’ve faced in entering different markets, and how do you adapt your strategies accordingly?
Every country is a story in itself. That is true for every business but in the sexual wellness industry, this is even more so. When considering international expansion, the barriers to entry can be daunting. But manageable. Yet the challenges that we face are unique as the regulatory barriers or cultural differences are nowhere as pronounced as they are in this industry.
This is especially true of advertising, talking about typically taboo topics as our mission is to destigmatise conversations around pleasure and human sexuality. The stigma is alive everywhere you look and this makes it necessary for us to adopt very different strategies even in the geographically very close countries as their views on sexuality sometimes differ dramatically.
Thus, expanding to any country requires a lot of effort, market research and systematic approach. To make sure we comply with all country (sometimes even regional) rules and regulations. This requires unique resources and support in order for us to navigate and thrive in this booming sexual wellness market.
Finally one dear to my heart. Having openly come out at the age of 14, I wonder how does LELO view its role within the LGBTQI community? What efforts does the company make to ensure inclusivity and representation?
Here we differentiate between our internal and external efforts. Internally inclusivity and belonging are two out of our six company values. Working in the industry of sexual wellness, making people feel good about themselves is one of our crucial goals and it is ever more important to promote these values from within.
We employ a team of people from all backgrounds, and regardless of this background, we do everything to make them feel supported, valued, and included at work.
Basically, these concepts are intentionally integrated into every facet of our organization, from hiring practices, development opportunities, policies and procedures, internal communications. This is then reflected in our external efforts, from supporting the LGBTQ communities in all of the countries LELO is present to creating products that cater everyone. Product-wise this is not easy as it is impossible to create products that will cater to everyone’s needs, but we are investing effort in pushing the envelope with every new product.
The future of sexual wellness in our opinion is creating endless options and distributing them tailor-made to every person.
Once again I cannot thank you enough for participating in this interview and also providing product for our customer Giveaway. I wish you and the Lelo company all the success it deserves as a brand leader in the adult industry.
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Explore Elliana’s journey at Adult Lifestyle Centres! She uncovers herself through quality product reviews and openly shares LGBTQIA experiences in Sydney.
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