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TOBACCO BUSINESS
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
trench marketing
very aggressive about paying attention to what’s new in [this]
market every week,” says Deutsch. “There are a lot of products
being discontinued, plus lots of new ones being launched. You
have to stay on top of it or you’ll get lost.”
Doing so requires constant research. “If you don’t do the
legwork, you can learn some expensive lessons,” Deutsch says.
“In fact, we have a few thousand dollars worth of product from
our early days that we won’t ever sell because we don’t believe
in it. What we know now we didn’t know then. E-cigarettes are
like any other electronic product[s] in that if you don’t keep up
with the category, you get behind really quickly—and if you fall
behind the competition, you won’t last long.”
Deutsch expresses that the rapid growth of the industry on
a national basis means you have to stay on your toes. “If you
don’t know what you’re doing when you enter this market,
or if you don’t stay on top of things once you’re in it, it won’t
take much for someone to come in and overwhelm you,” he
explains. “There’s so much product out there that if you carry
junk or don’t know who makes the good ones, you won’t last
too long.
“We private-label all of our stuff,” he continues. “Kanger is
one of our biggest-selling product lines, and it’s also one of the
best known. They’ve been doing it longer than anyone else. We
also carry all the Ego and eVod tanks, coil heads, along with a
host of regular e-cigs, disposables, all the liquids and flavors
and different nicotine levels, the different batteries, including
the “mods,” which are big batteries that deliver up to six volts—
people like themwhen they modify their PV (personal vaporizer)
because they’re variable, which means the higher you turn them
up, the bigger hit you get.”
Wary of reGulaTion
Deutsch also spends quite a bit of time making sure he
reads the news about the industry, both from the industry’s
