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Nick Gibbens of Wickedelic Lingerie
or many men, working at a direct What has been your greatest
F
seller of racy lingerie would be achievement at Wickedelic to
a titillating task. And in fact, Nick date, and what would you like
Gibbens, who joined Wickedelic to achieve next?
Lingerie as online marketing My greatest achievement to date has been
manager in February, does describe establishing pure online PR, which has helped
his job as “exciting”—but not necessarily for enormously with our natural link-building
the reasons you think. “I joined Wickedelic campaigns, which in turn have driven signifi cant
Lingerie with the exciting aim to refresh, traffi c to WickedelicLingerie.co.uk. Next year I
revise, and reinvigorate the company’s online want the website to become more competitive in
marketing strategy,” he says. organic-search results, which should be achieved
when our natural link-building campaigns fully
Wickedelic launched a kick in. Another aim for 2010 is to generate at
wholesale division in June. least 20 percent of our online sales through
Can you tell us about that? affi liate marketing. I am also very keen to
Needless to say, attempting to launch in expand our paid-search strategy onto both
the teeth of a recession was always going to Yahoo! and Bing, become more active through
prove a challenge, but we are blessed with social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook,
some very unique brands with strong selling and improve the quality and effectiveness of our
points and sensible prices. In the main we are email marketing.
offering previously unknown brands from the
Continent—Livia Corsetti, Anais, Chillirose, What else can we expect from
and Veneziana—which are going down well the company in 2010?
with smaller, boutique lingerie retailers, both Wickedelic Lingerie is pushing hard with an
physical shops and online. We are seeing a aggressive PR campaign to establish the brand
slow but steady growth in sales, and as such area near the company’s headquarters in Lee fi rmly in the British psyche. Our recently
the wholesale arm of the business represents a Mill to retain tight controls and to learn the launched model search in conjunction with
very small part of our overall sales. We have a business properly before rolling out nationwide. FemaleFirst magazine, the Help for Heroes charity,
fi ve-year plan to bring it up to speed, by which It is extremely challenging but very rewarding, and ex-Services mental-welfare society Combat
time we would expect it to account for about 30 and we are now beginning to see real progress Stress is working very well. The coming year will
percent of turnover. We see the wholesale arm with the appointment of a regional coordinator also see us working at establishing closer links
as an important part of our strategy of having who has started to make a big impact. The with other businesses as we open up our insert
diversity and width within the business whilst winter selling season is upon us, and we are programmes and mailing lists to general access.
staying within our business sector. confi dent that activity will increase and that we
will reach our target of 100 Wickedelic Lingerie Whom in the business world
Are most of your customers parties per month. do you most admire?
men or women? Steve Jobs, who founded three leading
Our customers are split pretty evenly between What are the main challenges American companies: Apple, Pixar, and NeXT.
male and female. Both genders seem quite of selling adult merchandise Steve survived being ousted from Apple to
happy to buy for each other—we stock a online and by mail? later return and take the fi rm to new heights of
large range of male lingerie too. Our product Selling in the adult sector by any channel has innovation and success. His successful start-ups
range is primarily “fun” or “bedroom” wear as always been something of a challenge. Not only were all in extremely competitive sectors that
opposed to everyday lingerie, which brings a do we face the same problems experienced by required complex and innovative strategies.
different dynamic to the buying process; if a every other kind of business in the country, And he achieved all of this success while he was
garment is only to be worn for a fun night in, but we also have to deal with sometimes heavy- undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.
it does not have to fi t in quite the same way as, handed red tape and local perceptions and
say, a bra that will be worn all day long. prejudices along with marketing restrictions.
Being truthful, ethical, and fair in your business
As well as catalogues, the web, practises can actually put you at a severe
and wholesale, Wickedelic disadvantage to your competition, who might not
sells via home parties. How be so careful about their claims and approach.
did that come about? The internet is a double-edged sword: on one
In July last year we took what seemed a logical hand a marvellous marketing resource but on
step and branched out into party plan. Our the other quite often populated by less-than-
customers were keen for us to enter the market. scrupulous businesses. Like most established
It was always obvious that women were looking businesses we pay our taxes, overheads, business
for extra income opportunities in the teeth of rates, and so on but fi nd ourselves competing
the recession. with internet-based entities operating out of
In the most part we have confi ned our party garden sheds and back bedrooms selling cheap
recruitment to the Plymouth and South Devon and providing poor service.
Nick Gibbens
ceb175.indd 33 7/11/09 13:10:34
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