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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
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Pipe smoking may seem like a leisure activity en-
joyed by generations gone by, but social media and
the Internet are giving it new life and interest. In
the spring of 2016, Scandinavian Tobacco Group
Lane (STG Lane) set out to capitalize on this of-
ten-overlooked segment of the tobacco industry
by launching a consumer-driven website named
This Pipe Life
. A home to all things related to pipe
tobacco and smoking,
This Pipe Life
(thispipelife.
com) offers both an education on the history of
pipes and an online forum where pipe enthusi-
asts can interact. According to Lasse R. Petersen,
brand manager of pipe tobacco and RYO at STG
Lane,
This Pipe Life
is part of a much bigger move-
ment within the tobacco industry.
“We have this megatrend going on right now, which
is an attempt for the consumers to go back to the real
product, back to the ‘good old days,’ before heavy ma-
chinery took over the world and everything [could] be
created to look like everything [else],” said Petersen.
“The so-called millennials are at the forefront of this
trend, and I think this is part of a larger movement.”
Launching an entire website around pipes geared
toward a younger generation of smokers may seem
like a risk, but for Petersen and those at Scandinavian
Tobacco Group, it’s a no-brainer. What sets
This Pipe
Life
apart from other dedicated pipe-smoker sites
and forums is that the information and articles are
all written for the people who are new to pipe smok-
ing—which makes the site a perfect resource for to-
bacco retailers and their employees looking to get up
to speed on the category.
“We decided to create a brand new community
directed towards the person who does not know a
lot about pipe smoking,” explained Petersen. “We
built
This Pipe Life
in a way that you, as a newcomer,
can get an understanding of how big the commu-
nity is, and that it is very much alive and active.”
One of the goals of
This Pipe Life
is for the site to
debunk the misconception that pipe smoking is a
hobby intended for older generations. The site fea-
tures articles, pipe tobacco education, community
interaction in forums, a growing database of pipe
clubs and events, and a mosaic of pictures from
pipe smokers around the world that shows off not
only the popularity of pipes, but the diversity of
pipe smokers as well. If you ask Petersen if any-
body really smokes a pipe anymore, he’ll point you
to the website as evidence that pipes and pipe to-
bacco are far from being dead in the industry, and
that they are part of a tobacco category that still
has a lot of excitement and activity going on.
TBI
INTERVIEW WITH
LASSE R. PETERSEN
TBI:
What reasons do you
hear consumers giving for
getting into the pipe lifestyle?
Petersen:
There are several:
‘My granddad or dad smoked and
it seemed natural for me to pick
up a pipe’; ‘I wanted something to
get me off cigarettes’; ‘I saw a guy
smoking [a pipe] and I thought
he looked cool’; and ‘My friend
smokes [a pipe].’”
TBI:
Is pipe smoking still
considered a male activity,
or are more women getting
into it?
Petersen:
Predominately male,
but I definitely see more women in
the hobby as well.
TBI:
What type of tobaccos
are pipe smokers of today
generally buying more of?
Petersen:
It’s really the same
trend you see in the beer industry
with craft beer or [in the] liquor
industry with small batch whiskeys.
Pipe smokers seem to really have
embraced the diversity that has
started to show up with a lot of
choices on different blends from
different manufacturers.