Pure Romance is a United States-based multi-level marketing company that sells adult products including sex toys.
History
Patty Brisben, a former pediatrician's assistant, founded the company Slumber Parties in Loveland, Ohio 1993. Her business used contract salespeople to sell sex toys, lotions and massage oils though at-home parties. In 2000, the company had six full-time employees and had annual sales of less than $2 million. Brisben's son, Chris Cicchinelli, joined the company in 2000 and encouraged his mother to expand beyond local sales into markets such as St. Louis, Missouri. By 2003 the company had $30 million in sales, 3,500 consultants and was active in 46 US states and the US Virgin Islands. The company was renamed Pure Romance in 2003. In 2011, the Pure Romance expanded into South Africa and Australia. In 2012, Cicchinelli took over the position of President and CEO while Brisben stayed on as chair of the company. At this time the company reported to have $100 million in annual sales and 75,000 consultants, building on the popularity of the recently published erotic romance novel50 Shades of Grey. In February 2014, the company moved its headquarters to downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2014 Pure Romance purchased Slumber Parties, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, based multi-level marketing company which sold similar products. In 2016 the company purchased Passion Parties, another competing multi-level marketing company with a similar product line, expanding the company into the Canadian market. The company reported $217.92 million in sales in 2017 and claims to have more than 30,000 consultants.
Business model
Under the multi-level marketing model used by Pure Romance, all products are sold exclusively through independent consultants at women-only at-home parties. Consultants can also receive a portion of the sales of any new consultants that they recruit. The MLM model has been criticized since the overwhelming majority of participants participate at either an insignificant or nil net profit. Indeed, the largest proportion of participants must operate at a net loss so that the few individuals in the uppermost level of the MLM pyramid can derive their significant earnings. Said earnings are then emphasized by the MLM company to all other participants to encourage their continued participation at a continuing financial loss. In particular, Pure Romance has been criticized for targeting military spouses in the United States, who often have trouble finding traditional employment, since they have to move frequently for their spouses's career. Independent consultants must leverage their social networks, which may end up damaging those relationships. To increase sales, sellers must branch out to more distant acquaintances, which is not sustainable on the long-term. Interviews with former consultants by the blog Jezebel described a high-pressure culture where consultants were pushed to sell product and recruit new consultants. The blog Bottlesoup calculates that a consultant will have to sell 47 vibrators per month in order to earn the equivalent of a full-time, minimum wage job.
