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TOBACCO BUSINESS
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a missing piece in terms of tobacco-related products,
Cricket Lighters will present a new challenge for STG
Lane’s sales and marketing team as they attempt to revive
a once-popular brand in the U.S. market. As with any
of the products it sells, STG Lane has a plan to keep its
customers interested and engaged with Cricket Lighters
and all of its other products.
“Once we’ve introduced them to our products, what
we try to do is work closely with our retailers to create
as much of an appropriate presence for those products
in store. We also do as much one-on-one consumer
engagement as we possibly can,” Michols explains.
Staying connected to consumers and gathering their
information through its websites is a key part of the
company’s overall marketing strategy. This enables
STG Lane to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the
customers and ensure they stay interested in its products.
It also gives them another chance to add to their
valuable research and data to improve future marketing
and sales. With the FDA deeming rules, the launching
of new products is uncertain, which makes it important
for them to be able to understand how their older and
current products are perceived and performing in stores.
“At the end of the day, unless things change, the
rules are the rules, and what we’ve got to do is be smart
enough and creative enough to work within them to
find ways to continue to move the business forward,”
says Michols. “Rules don’t mean ‘stop,’ they mean
you’ve got to do things a certain way, and we’ve got to
apply our intelligence and creativity to find a way to do
that and that’s our plan.”
For its historical products that are already on the mar-
ket, STG Lane will be looking at how each can perform
better in stores and how it can create some new excite-
ment and buzz around those products. The company is
fully prepared to work within the new rules as defined
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but it
doesn’t plan on letting those new rules and regulations
slow down its progress or innovation. Michols and his
team are constantly reviewing the FDA regulations and
any new developments, as they would like to be able to
take full advantage of any changes, especially if they are
for the better.
“It’s sort of the beauty of being smaller and more
flexible—we can move and groove based on what these
regulations dictate,” Michols explains.
A POSITIVE FORECAST
When asked what STG Lane’s plans are going forward,
Michols has a very simple answer: STG Lane will con-
tinue to be a trusted resource for retailers, wholesalers
and other business partners. Whether it be with data, or
information about regulations, taxes and rules, Michols
and those at STG Lane want to be a source of valuable
information and data that can help businesses flourish in
today’s market.
“We feel very excited about the future. For us, we have
the benefit of not being alone in this,” says Michols.
“We’ve got this big company that lets us do our thing
based on what’s appropriate and what’s required in the
U.S., but we’ve also got this global organization that we
can draw ideas and inspiration from and support each
other, which gives us even more confidence in where
we’re headed. I expect STG Lane to be around for a
very long time and to be an influencer in terms of what
will happen with tobacco down the road.”
TB
Rules don’t
mean ‘stop,’
they mean
you’ve got to
do things a
certain way.
STG Lane
Continued
STG Lane
Continued