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An interview with Shawna Williams,
Western Regional Sales Manager
at Drew Estate
tobacco. You need to create an awareness that
you’re in the business of selling pipe tobacco.
That’s your primary challenge.
How can people put a new spin on pipe
tobacco and get people excited about
this product?
Part of it is not just reflecting the pipe smoker
of the past, but the pipe smoker of today. The
reality is that there’s a completely new influx
of pipe smokers who don’t look anything like
your stereotypical image of a pipe smoker.
But that’s not usually reflected in either the
brands or in a lot of the marketing that’s out
there. It’s usually all very old school. A lot
of what you’ve got to do if you’re catering to
somebody who’s just getting into the hobby
is to show him or her that they’re not alone.
There are plenty of folks in that 21-30 age
group that are really aging into this hobby.
Speaking of the new generation of
pipe smokers, how do you go about
reaching new customers and people
who are interested in pipe smoking?
I think you’ve got to do some of it at the pure
grass-roots level. Part of it is getting out to
pipe-related events because there are plenty
of new pipe smokers there and people who are
new to pipe tobacco who are really trying to
get their heads wrapped around it.
What we’ve been trying to do at Scandi-
navian Tobacco Group Lane (STG Lane) is
get outside of those pipe events and into ci-
gar events where there’s got to be a crossover,
such as craft beer festivals, wine events and
other areas where people are experimenting
with different flavors. When they get into pipe
smoking, they want to go onto forums and
review sites, and that’s another place where
you can reach out to them as well. We’ve
just kicked off social media to have a broad-
er presence there in January. Just as with the
imagery, you need to be reflecting the users
who are coming into it. You also need to be
speaking to them in the platforms they are
truly comfortable using.
As a marketer, is it still important for
you to reach retailers, or are you focus-
ing on social media and online market-
ing to reach new customers?
Th retailer is absolutely still important, so I
don’t think it’s an either/or situation. One part
of it is filling gaps within retailers who should
be carrying pipe tobacco, even if they don’t
think they should. We’ve got a lot of really
good unbiased data that can show us where
pipe tobacco is being sold, down to the zip
code area. We can tell a retailer if pipe tobac-
co is selling really well in their area and which
brands are performing best in their area. Or if
they’re already carrying it, [we can tell them]
what opportunities they’re missing out on by
not carrying certain brands, whether it’s our
brand or someone else’s. We firmly believe
that in order to use this data properly, we have
to use it in an unbiased way; we have to let the
data show what the data shows.
What’s the key to getting people excit-
ed about pipe tobacco?
A lot of that is getting more grass-roots and
getting people interacting more with the to-
bacco itself. They need someone there to help
them navigate through how to pack a pipe
and how to manipulate a pipe. For us, it’s not
just about building awareness of the hobby,
but supporting the grass-roots areas that are
already out there, including the pipe shows
and pipe clubs.
TB
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TOBACCO BUSINESS
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