82
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
MAY/JUNE 2014
trench marketing
app, they’ll come back in. At worst, you’re keeping yourself in
front of that customer and keeping your name in their head all
the time.”
The Power of Facebook Friending
In addition to his website aspirations, Alberto already relies
heavily on his store’s Facebook presence to stay in contact
with his clients and to constantly expand its presence to attract
new customers. “We started doing it about three years ago,
even though I was opposed to it for a while,” he comments.
“People started coming in and asking me about posts [that] I
had created, and they called the store and sent me messages,
so obviously it was working on its own. I saw the value of it and
started running Facebook-only buy three, get one free specials,
and that clearly boosted sales on days that we needed help
during winter months.”
The store already has more than 380 Facebook friends
following Alberto’s every post, and he says that he will increase
that number by continuing his practice of posting various
offers throughout the summer to encourage customers to try
something different, or to let them know about a discounted
product that they wouldn’t necessarily have come in for if
it wasn’t discounted. “Sometimes it’s as simple as telling
customers [that] if they mention a particular cigar and buy one,
they’ll get one free,” and that’s all it takes to get them in the
store.
While Facebook and his website are paying dividends,
Alberto didn’t find as much success with Twitter and Groupon.
“I started out using Twitter to get the word out quickly and
easily, but it turned out to be annoying for me and for users,”
he recalls. “There were people following me from out of state.
Facebook just seems much more appropriate for conversing
with customers. I also tried using Groupon, but it didn’t work for
me. I was trying to attract a different demographic into the store,
but it was a complete failure because those customers who
came in for that deal bought the product, didn’t want anything
else, and never came back. They were just in it for the deal. Out
of 80 people who participated, I had one who came back in, so
I won’t do that again.”
Tie Everything You Do to Your Branding
Ultimately, all of Alberto’s effort put in to creating the attractive
environment with the diversified product mix and the right level
of traditional and online customer engagement and community-
building boils down to a solid branding strategy. “I believe in
branding, and in doing a lot of stuff that other retailers don’t or
won’t do,” he says. “I make sure [that] the store’s name is on
matches, cutters and bags that we give out, and I do holiday
season gift boxes that look like chocolate boxes—the wives
and girlfriends love them, so I do it even though it costs a lot
of money.
“I go above and beyond in branding and I treat people
differently, with more ambiance and more attention to details,”
says Alberto. “That works with whoever your clients are, and
we’ve got all types here. I meet lawyers, politicians and street
sweepers. They all get along because their common bond is
smoking cigars. Whether they’ve got a Ph.D. or a G.E.D. doesn’t
matter because they’re all talking to each other—everyone
from every walk of life, with the cigar being the commonality
between them. And they’re all here.”
TBI
A website and Facebook presence drive business for Fume. The store already
has more than 380 Facebook friends, many of whom post to its page regularly.
