30
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
MAY/JUNE 2013
they start—but as the passion grows
and people develop their palate, they
venture off and we try to educate our
customers about the quality found in
smaller-name brands.”
The day Gehm spoke to
TOB
, which
was about five days before the event,
he was excited to report that he had
just received the shipment of debuting
cigars. “We got them in early to allow
for a little extra time to get them in
the humidor and make sure they’re
acclimated to the weather up there.”
‘Up there’is about as far north as cigar
shops go in Wisconsin, according to
Gehm—he notes that there is another
tobacconist farther north, but it doesn’t
hold cigar events, “so we’re the last stop
of shops that have events like this,” he
says.
Like many forward-thinking cigar
retailers with lounges, Titletown
Tobacco tries to schedule cigar events
almost every month, incorporating
fund-raising activities like golf outings,
bike rallies, car shows and more. “We’re
helping to cement the cigar culture in
this area—there really wasn’t much of
that before us,” says Gehm.
The cigar business promotes all its
events on Facebook and Twitter about
two or three times a week, but it keeps
its email promotions announcing new
cigars and other club information to
members only about every other week.
“We try not to inundate our customers
with too many emails,” Gehm explains.
Keeping emails reasonably paced is
something Titletown Tobacco learned
from its board, made up of a group of
customers, which was recently formed
to help the four owners “make sure this
place is what they want it to be; we want
to address their concerns,” says Gehm.
In addition to reducing the clutter
of too many emails, the board recently
addressed the issue of invited guests.
“Because of our private club atmosphere,
customers were concerned how many
times a member can bring in a guest,”
explains Gehm. “Some customers were
abusing that, bringing in their buddies
all the time, so the board decided a guest
can come in the lounge after hours
with a member three times—after that,
they need to purchase a membership.”
Gehm added that anyone who makes
a minimum $15 purchase in Titletown
Tobacco is invited to enjoy the lounge
during business hours.
TOB
“We’re helping to cement
the cigar culture in this
area—there really wasn’t
much of that before us.”
