20 / 60
IN ITS 20-YEAR HISTORY,
Drew Estate
has produced more than 1,000 cigars, but its
most impressive and impactful release may
have come in the summer of 2016 with the
new Drew Diplomat app. Available on iOS
and Android devices, Drew Diplomat is more
than just a mobile application built around
Drew Estate. It’s an extension of the Drew Es-
tate brand that, much like its cigars, sets out to
change and even challenge the status quo of
the cigar industry. Drew Diplomat is a bridge
that connects consumers with other fans of
Drew Estate. Best yet, it transforms Drew Es-
tate from a brand into a movement fueled by
technology and social media.
It’s important to understand that the story
of Drew Diplomat doesn’t begin when the app
went live for consumers to download back in the
summer of 2016. The app is a natural evolution
of the company and its origins. Back in the late
1990s when the company first launched, cigar
smoking was seen as a rich man’s activity and
was marketed as such. From the start, Jonathan
Drew and the founders of the company want-
ed their cigars to be smoked by everyone. The
company was able to bring in new consumers
by embracing a wide range of consumers—rich
and blue collar, young and old, men and wom-
en—equally and enthusiastically.
For two decades, Drew Estate has carried on
in the spirit of being the rebels of the cigar in-
dustry. Rather than follow trends, the company
set out to create products that spark new trends.
This philosophy isn’t limited to its popular ci-
gars like ACID, Tabak Especial or Java by Drew
Estate–it extends to it's new app Drew Diplo-
mat. The company has always rallied around its
mantra “The Rebirth of Cigars” and has been
hard at work over the years to build a commu-
nity and subculture around it.
“Drew Diplomat is a place where our com-
munity, our subculture of people, are able to
interact with our brands,” explains Sam Mo-
rales, Drew Estate’s director of marketing.
“The app is a way for us to connect our most
crazy consumers with our most crazy custom-
ers and really align the two together. It’s a stra-
tegic advantage to join the program and to be
a Drew Diplomat.”
Joseph “Joey” Reichenbach adds: “Drew
Diplomat is the evolution of all things Drew
Estate. More importantly, it is about a culture
where our customers are more like brothers,
sisters and friends. I’m on Diplomat even more
now than I’m on Facebook. It is a direct line be-
tween our company and the consumer, where
we are listening and seeing what’s going on with
all the real hardcore Drew Estate fans.”
Looking at the state of the cigar business as
it is today, it’s easy to see why an app like Drew
Diplomat is crucial to the success of a compa-
ny and brand the size of Drew Estate. You’re
starting to see integration, alignment and con-
solidation within the cigar sector, mostly influ-
enced by anti-smoking legislation across the
nation and increasing government regulation.
Many large-scale manufacturers are purchasing
retail establishments to increase their market
footprint. However, as they’ve done in the past,
Drew Estate is resisting this trend in favor of an
alternative path toward success with the devel-
opment of its Drew Diplomat program.
DREW ON DREW ESTATE
The company has invested more than $1 mil-
lion in the development of the Drew Diplomat
program and application. Technology is key
to Drew Estate’s business model and growth
plan, and it stands to gain a great deal from its
investment in the application because of
[ 20 ]
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
[ 01
/
02
|
17 ]
I