MIUZU

For the past few years, the Canadian television show Dragons’ Den has been gaining momentum as popular entertainment for Canadians.  If you haven’t seen it, you can see past episodes on the website.  It’s fun to watch, even tho half of the entrepreneur pitches can be described as train wrecks whose only business value proposition is to create drama for television viewers.

Not just about business.

I have been urged several times to make the moves necessary to pitch the Dragons. This of course means auditioning in person or via video.  I didn’t really take the idea that seriously.  But with our recent move to launch a high end chaise for the bedroom, it now looks like we’ve got something suitable or even ideal for prime time television.

So… two weeks ago, a friend of mine tipped me off that the producers were going to be in Vancouver and that auditions were open to the public.  Of course, at the time, I wasn’t at all ready.

The next few days were a whirlwind.  We had to firm up cost estimates for the product, and we had to shore up some prospective wholesale partners (retailers) to back the product.  Add to that the work it took to make reasonable sales estimates and the plan for driving to those numbers.

Well, on Mar 27, 2010, I leapt into the audition with a story and images to appeal to the producers.

How’d it go?  Well, given we didn’t have a sample chaise to to show them, and given it was just me in front of them, and not a wild-eyed team of acolytes to add sensation to the pitch, I think I did ok.  By the end, I was promised the pitch was good, and that our invitation to Toronto to meet the Dragons will rely on results in the prototyping phase over the next week-and-a-half.  So I may get the call, likely at the very last minute…

Wish us luck!  Either way, we have a really cool and innovative product on deck for release in the next couple of weeks!

Some time back, I had the extreme pleasure of finding out about this program.  Very simply, it’s a campaign to give new choices to young women in underdeveloped nations.  Instead of being born and raised into a life of abject poverty and servitude, they are able to get an education and a shot at real independance.

It’s a spectacular example of vision, global consciousness, and impactful design.  Take a close look at the profiles of the four women on the website.  You’ll see hope, opportunity and revolution in the stories of these people. I deeply believe that even while powerful forces conspire to keep the existing control infrastructure in place, there is an unstoppable renaissance brewing. It’s opening more doors to those possessing both the ambition and the creativity to reinvent the future.  It’s giving audience to those with the courage to speak up, and with something of value to say.

While the lives addressed directly by Girl Effect are obviously lived far outside of our target market, there is no doubt that the revolution taking shape in many of these underdeveloped nations stands to affect all of us.  Tho profits are still a long way off for MIUZU, I look forward to the day when we can lend a financial hand to Girl Effect.

Dave

My goal is simple: to help couples in long term relationships have fun and meaningful sex on a consistent basis.

What a challenge!  The daily grind of life discourages many couples from having or keeping any momentum in their sex life.  Matters are worsened with major events, like having a baby or relocating for a new job.  It is incredibly easy for couples to create poor sex habits in a relatively short period of time.

Sexologist Dr. Bernie Zilbergeld researched what makes for happy, healthy sexual relations between long term couples. He found two keys:

1. Being good friends;
2. Consistently making an effort to have sex.

His claims may seem simplistic,  but my experience has convinced me he is absolutely correct.  It`s therefore these two things that I try to emphasize in all of my writing, speeches and media work.

How Do I see My Role?

As a sex educator, it is my job to get the correct information about sexuality out to the masses. There’s so much misinformation floating around about sexuality that the average person has a very skewed perspective on what healthy sexuality actually is.

My commitment is to educate people on what is true. This isn`t always easy when we all come from different backgrounds. I strongly believe meeting people where they are at in their sexual mindset—even if it goes completely against what I believe.

Shoving my opinion down someone’s throat is counterproductive and a waste of everyone’s time. When I’m able to empathize with a person’s viewpoint and help shift their perspective just a tiny bit, I feel I feel I`ve been successful.

What impact have I seen in the lives of women (and men) I’ve coached?

Most couples who come to see me feel their sexual differences are insurmountable; when in fact, with just a few mediated sessions sexual differences are often bridged. And, not surprisingly, it opens up a flood gate of sexual desire leading to much more fulfilling sex.   Unless the couple has past sexual dysfunctions or other challenges (i.e. rape), it’s relatively easy and quick to get their sex life back on track.

What is most satisfying for me is to see couples walking in with BIG smiles on their faces. They’ve reconnected not only in their sexual relationship but in their overall relationship as well.

Why does the MIUZU concept interest me?

MIUZU also believes that sex is so much more than the ten to fifteen minutes focused only on orgasm. They take a more broad look at sexuality, sensuality and the setting for intimacy.

MIUZU has exceptionally high standards and I feel very comfortable encouraging couples to consider MIUZU products.

Why do I think it’s important?

Plain and simple, it helps get you in the mood.

Surrounding yourself with sensual beauty can only help to enhance your sexual desire. MIUZUs line of products can help a couple create an aesthetically appealing, constant reminder that sexuality does play an important factor in their lives.   I love the idea of creating a space for sexual adventure…without the need to dismantle and hide it when friends and relatives drop in!

I`m very excited to work with MIUZU well into the future.  I hope you`ll love what we do…

Dr. Trina

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If you’d like to know a little bit more about me, and what’s behind my inspiration, I think this interview says it all:

We have a proposition for you.

We at MIUZU are all about envisioning an experience.  To that end, we are building a collection of contemporary objects that help make an experience richer.

And…

We want to have those products visualized within stunning environments so that users can see the products in full bloom.

This has traditionally been the purview of staging designers.  This requires the use of an existing space, the acquisition of all the pieces involved, and a laborious effort in decorating that space with said furniture plus all the accessories necessary to dress it up.  And then there’s lighting….

But it’s a new world!  DIGITAL frees the imagination from many burdens.

YOUR DESIGNS:

• show  a sensual space, befitting memorable erotic moments
• show off your imagination
• express a modern aesthetic
• incorporate at least one piece from the collection featured on our site (more the better!)

• explore the boundaries of fantasy, or
• stick to a very “buildable” space and decoration

YOUR IMAGES:

• edit in high rez (we may need high rez later)
• production images should be 465 pixels x 250 pixels to suit our site layout.

PROCESS:

• we will review your images as quickly as we can get to them
• we will give you feedback where appropriate
• if we choose to use it, we will embed your image in a Flash widget that will both enable click through from the image of a catalog product through to the corresponding detail page AND enable user clickthrough tracking so the buy can be traced to your image.
• we will post the Flash widget on our site
• if your image is the LAST image visit prior to a user’s purchase, you will get credit for helping initiate the sale
• that credit will come in the way of a 5% of product sale payout (not on the total sale, but on the individual piece clicked on)

NOTES:

This process is in its infancy. It’s therefore inefficient and klunky.  It’ll take some time to smooth it out.  If the program really works well for all of stakeholders, then we’ll automate it so that you can do it easily yourself.  Until then, please be patient as we work through it.

Remember that the person viewing your design needs to believe what they’re looking it.  That does not mean that it needs to be a real-world space.  But the geometry needs to work.

Avoid just trying to jam products into a view in order to give them exposure and try to sell them.  Be clear on the emotional effect you’re looking to create.  If you do something exciting, unusual, sexy, erotic, or just simply beautiful, the image has a better chance of having a desirable long term commercial effect.  Go for that “wow” response.

If you want to capture a moment of fantasy, do it WITHOUT exploiting nude bodies.  At this fragile early stage, we want to be known for creative innovation and the erotic appeal of abstract form.

Make it yours!  What would turn YOU on?  Be bold and creative.  Have fun!

Here are a couple of samples of work from European designer Marlena Witek:

Dave

ps. I just HAD to post this.  Marlena took a little extra time to spice things up (with humour):

Sex is an awesome privilege.  A gift of being human. In it, we can escape the frenzy of the day, seek refuge from worries about duty, connect with ourselves and others, and experience moments that we remember for the rest of our lives.

But like in any grand human pursuit, we need the guidance of sages.  No matter how smart and sophisticated we may think ourselves.

At MIUZU, we love DESIGN.  But DESIGN is worthless if it doesn’t connect with people. So I’ve always known that we needed to offer more than just objects and environmental concepts.

A few months back, I had the pleasure of meeting a Canadian sexologist whose main thesis addresses the challenge of keeping eroticism alive and well in modern life.  And when I read her book, Til Sex Do Us Part, I was sold:  we need this gal to strengthen the foundation of our proposition.

After all, where there is sex, there are people, and where there are people, there are agenda.  Trina’s work is all about aligning agenda – so sex works for people.

To get started, Trina will be mining from her massive collection of writings to provide you with advice and insight that you will find compelling and useful.  In the future, expect all sorts of interesting new ideas to emerge from our collaboration.

Trina, we’re glad you’re here!

Dave

This post may seem slightly orthogonal to our theme, but it’s not. Sometimes lessons in business come from the most unexpected places.

Here is one such place:

You may wince,

you may laugh,

you may cry,

But you will react.

Weddings can be mundane, and they can sure be stuffy.  Can you imagine anything less appealing than tuning in to a stranger’s wedding video on youtube?

Yet, I watched the whole thing, and loved it.

It’s not the setting.  It’s not the people, given I don’t know them.  It’s sure not the dance technique.

It’s the fact that these people had the courage to abandon tradition, and even risk sacrilege, to make the experience memorable.  What’s more, if you look at the comment stream, you can see that some people are even offended at the idea of it. Hurray!

Rhetorical Question: how often do we blindly grasp tradition and follow the “expected path?” And what might be possible if we didn’t?

Company valuations need a new paradigm.  The driving forces of securities investment need reinvention.

In  a brilliant piece in the Financial Post, Roger Martin (Dean of U of Toronto’s biz school) illuminates the hazards implicit in the current market orientation toward expectations rather than results.  Read the article now!  He articulates so well how business stakeholders, almost always equipped with company stock, will favor the growth of shareholder value – sometimes at the expense of the long-term viability of the company.  Part of the reason the economy is in such a pickle is because the perception of future value has fallen so out of touch with real market value…or authentic potential future value.  Either expectations are wildly oversold, or wildly undersold.  And the incentive systems in place reward deceptive practices by those in the best position to influence broad opinion.

In retrospect, there is more to say about the benefits available in a re-orientation as suggested.  Imagine the effect on innovation; the birth and commercialization of new ideas…

Today, the bulk of securities investment is directed toward the upticks and downticks of stable, and generally successful companies – and whose balance sheets are largely unwavering.  The big wins have already been won.  The company is already mainstream.

Yet, there are so many small companies with important ideas and revolutionary commercial propositions that are desperate for capital, and cannot find it.  They possess the greatest real market growth potential.  We’ve all heard the cliches: “imagine if you bought Microsoft in ’84.”

Forgive me my bias – we’re loaded with potential and short on cash.

Now, imagine how innovation would spike and how the competitiveness of the economy would be invigorated, if the influx of investment capital went to the real market growth opportunities.

It would be a very different world.  And a whole lot more exciting.

Dave

In his recent New Yorker article, HOW DAVID BEATS GOLIATH, Malcolm Gladwell has identified the genius in ‘being different.’

In this piece, Gladwell describes the game tactics of an under-skilled girls’ basketball team in Silicon Valley.  They achieved incredible success against ‘superior’ teams by breaking with convention: after losing possession of the ball, instead of retreating back to their end to align and prepare for the other team’s offensive, they stay on the attack in the opposition’s end. This is called a “full court press.”  It can effectively squelch the opposing team’s attempts to setup down-court offensive plays. Although totally legal, it’s not how the game is traditionally played.  And that’s the trick – it throws the opposition off their game.

The article draws a parallel between this unconventional game tactic and the biblical tale of David and Goliath – how a small and poorly furnished warrior defeats a well equipped giant.

You might be wondering, “Dave, there are no giants in the pleasure products industry! How is this story relevant to your business?”  Yes, MIUZU has competitors.  Lots of them.  But the battle is not between us.

We are all in a battle together against something much more monstrous than any one of us.  Our opponent is conventional thought about sex, pleasure, and intimacy.  More specifically, the enemy is fear, ignorance,  and arcane belief.  We must draw our audience into a new conversation – one that is easy and compelling to have, rather than uncomfortable and scary.

Read our “About Us” page, and this should make more sense…

Dave

I’m hearing this question a fair bit.

I suspect the term “green” is headed to the bin with other over-hyped, over-used and abused terms.  But having said that…here’s how I answer the question:

1) we have spent a great deal of energy developing new manufacturing methods/materials that are more green than anything commonly attempted today.  It’s where leading-edge technology meets traditional production. The techniques are still in development, and it will be a while longer before we can fully implement them.

2) until then, we are pursuing the “green initiative” the way any thoughtful producer can:  by developing products that are mindful of real utility, and ensuring that what we make will be loved and cherished for a long time into the future.

We are against the development and production of objects that are imminently destined for landfill.

Dave

The world is changing fast.

in 2001, when I first considered making “intimacy products”, some friends of mine raised a great deal of skepticism about the notion, saying that it was a small fragmented business and we’d never make any money at it.

Out of that early effort, Jimmyjane was borne, and is helping to change the consumer landscape with great, luxurious design – specifically for sex

Look what else has happened:

• you can buy Jimmyjane products at Nordstrom
• Philips (the Dutch electronics giant) has started making sex toys
• Selfridges (one of the most prestigious retailers in the world) has been selling premium sex products for over 7 years now, with no intention of stopping)
• other leading premium retailers around the world are taking on premium sex brands in an effort to define themselves as progressive, provocatively fashionable, and smart

This is just a sampling.  I could go on and on…  (I surely will at some point!)

The adventure continues…with miuzu.  With miuzu we aim to appeal to a larger market with products that are cool, hip, approachable, and very affordable.  We draw on many other brands for inspiration: Apple, Nike, Method, and even IKEA.

Stay with us as we progress.  This is sure to get interesting!