Paul said the course looks at the role and portrayal of sex and sexuality in the media. During their unit on advertising, the class studied why sex is used so often in advertisements and whether or not sex really can sell products.
“It certainly is an attention-getting device,” he said.
Also during this section, the class is divided into groups and asked to market a product using the tools they discuss in class, Paul said.
In years past, students would receive a random product, but after he met IU graduate Meredith Davis, the assignment changed.
At graduation last year, Paul said he met Davis, who was then preparing to start working as the sex educator and social media manager at Jimmyjane, an adult pleasure device maker, .
About a month later, Davis contacted Paul, saying she wanted to collaborate with him on the class project.
Paul said Davis proposed marketing and trying to sell sexual products, creating campaigns for Jimmyjane’s products.
“She seemed to be really interested in the idea,” he said.
Davis flew out to talk with the class and discussed marketing strategies currently in use, Paul said. Each group then developed their own campaign for one of the products using the free samples.
Davis said working in a group like this is great preparation for real-world collaboration on marketing techniques.
“It’s hard to sell a product if you can’t hold it and experiment with it and use it,” Davis said, explaining the free products given to students to market.
She said the products ranged in price from $25 to $145.
Paul said the students have been in touch with Davis throughout the process, discussing ideas and concepts they want to try to implement in their marketing.
The project criteria are kept very vague, allowing students to come up with innovative ideas, he said. There are only a few things, like budget constraints, with which he must limit students.
Davis said students had to include a slogan, social media campaigns, print campaigns and video campaigns.
“We left the project very open to students,” Davis said.
Working with social media can be extremely difficult because people are shy to share this kind of information online, she said.
“People aren’t really familiar with sex toy brands,” Davis said.
She said getting to work with millennials was beneficial to Jimmyjane because it allowed them to tap into a new market.
“We want to be that go-to brand,” Davis said.
The company’s focus isn’t just selling product. It also includes sexual health and education, she said.
This might be the only class of its kind anywhere right now, Paul said.
Though unsure, he believes Davis and Jimmyjane may pursue this kind of collaboration in the future as a form of market research.
She said students had been contacting Paul, asking to sit in on the class.
Davis said she would like to see Jimmyjane continuing to pair up with Paul’s class and similar classes at other universities.
The best place to start was IU, she said. Because of the innovative sex research at the Kinsey Institute, it seemed like the perfect location.
“This could definitely be an opportunity for us,” she said.
Paul said he believes the students benefit from marketing a real world product and possibly developing a professional contact with Jimmyjane.
“At some level, there is a degree of discomfort,” he said of having to discuss and handle the devices in a group of people.
They are taboo items, but that is what makes trying to market them interesting, he said. A number of students wouldn’t have come into contact with these products on their own, and they are more comfortable with them now.
“I think that there are positive outcomes for all,” Davis said.
From start to finish, the class had about five weeks to work on the campaign, he said. When the students present their projects next week, Davis will come back to watch them.
She said she and Paul will consider the projects based on a rubric and a winner will be selected.
This winning group’s campaign may be adopted by Jimmyjane, but even if it isn’t, the members of the winning group will be able to select another product for free.
“I know that they will be very impressed by some of them for sure,” Paul said.
Throughout the process, Paul said watching students apply the theories they discussed in class was interesting.
He said he was impressed from the start with some ideas.
“I’m super excited to see how these things turn out,” Paul said.
