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6 Recognize that a premium cigar smoker is
a completely different smoking animal. The
way Roberts views it, cigarette smokers are smok-
ing largely because they have an addiction. Cigar smok-
ers, on the other hand, are doing it more for enjoyment.
“There’s a social aspect—it’s relaxing and it gives you
good flavor,” he says. “There’s a whole segment of the
cigar-smoking population that wants to experience great
blends, so you really have to stay on top of the business,
which partly means having good relationships with all of
the manufacturers you buy from.”
7 Get in on the cigar buzz. In other words, be
tuned in to cigar social media and the various
blogs that go along with it. “If something gets a lot
of buzz on the blogs, we want to get it into [our stores],”
Roberts states. “We like to be a forerunner in the indus-
try, or at least, in the state of Arizona. We strive to get
popular products first.”
Roberts further explains that cigar customers who
frequent his lounge are very social-media-savvy, so Big
ot only gets the hottest cigars, but it gets them sooner.
“There are about 65 cigar lounges in the Greater Phoe-
nix area—it’s incredibly competitive and we have to be
on top of it. Sometimes when you do that you get an
exclusive, so we really keep our ear to the ground be-
tween social media and reps. [There are] some reps that
we’ve had relationships with for 25 years—Paul [Buza],
in particular, has served us well here. Our reps know we
give their products fair trial and enthusiastic exposure to
customers.” He guesstimates that 25 percent of the busi-
ness is obtained by people responding to social media
buzz. “They’re really cigar geeks,” he says.
“Halfwheel” is one of the obvious cigar blogs that
Roberts and his lounge staff follow and “have a rela-
tionship with,” but there are some less formal blogs that
are free-flowing and just as beneficial to business. In ad-
dition to , some of the online blogs that
Big Sticks follows, in no particular order, include ci-
, ,
, , cigaraficionado.
com, and
8 Do something more interesting with events.
Rocky Patel recently told TB that retail cigar events
are still relevant to the industry but are overplayed,
and that to truly engage with the premium cigar customer,
cigar retailers need to get a bit more creative than offering
the same old bi-weekly or monthly deals inside the store.
Roberts agrees—to an extent. “We agree, but continue to
do such events due to the competition doing the same,”
he reasons. However, he does think it’s important to “one-
up” that by offering creative themes and venues such as
craft beer pairings and value-added food elements like
having local food trucks at the event.
Regarding the craft beer, Big Sticks has 12 varieties
on tap, and at least half of those are from local brewer-
ies that are all too eager to partner up with the lounge
at events.
CIGAR
SENSE
[ 42 ] TOBACCO BUSINESS [ MARCH / APRIL | 17 ]