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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
MAY/JUNE 2012
trench marketing
$60 annual fee receive a locker, discounts on purchases
made at its events and 15 percent off of accessories.
Events Everyone Loves
The store is also well versed in building customer
loyalty by hosting fun-filled events. The Cigar Room holds
a weekly poker game on Thursday nights that draws
as many as 30 players. The “buy-in” for participants is
literally a purchase—each must purchase two cigars
priced at $7.95 or more—and the sessions are run as a
10-week tournament, with the shop providing prizes for
the eventual top three players. “We mix it up a bit,” says
Gonnello. “The prize may be a gift certificate, a flat-screen
TV—sometimes we even ask the winner what he wants
that’s around that prize value. One of our customers
wanted a Kindle for his daughter, so we got him that.”
Poker nights are BYOB for alcoholic beverages because
New Jersey law does not allow The Cigar Room to serve
liquor, he adds.
In addition to bringing customers into the store, poker
night encourages cigar smokers to try out new brands.
“Customers will say to me, ‘I’m going to save that one
Manager Larry Gonnello
in the store’s humidor.
Customers contribute city police patches,
troop flags and other wall decor.