Tobacco Business

[ 66 ] TOBACCO BUSINESS [ NOVEMBER / DECEMBER | 21 ] I T H E N EW RU L E S OF Boutique There’s a growing demand and big opportunity for boutique tobacco products. Tobacconist University’s Jorge Armenteros shares seven valuable tips for getting the most out of these unique products. During the Cigar Boom of the 1990s and the years that followed, many retailers favored larger brands over what came to be known as “boutique” brands for various reasons. Larger brands came with more brand recognition, they were the cigars whose manufacturers were able to afford print advertising, and they got the reviews, ratings and the hype that made them far easier for retailers to sell. Today, however, that has changed as consumers now perceive just as much value from a boutique brand as they do from one that was produced by a larger manufacturer. There are many different takes on what defines or makes any particular brand boutique or not. Boutique brands are typically those that are viewed as being smaller in size. Boutique brands can also be more specialized or can serve a particular niche market. Boutique brands, like larger brands, can also be associated with a specific person or family, and oftentimes that connection between creator and product can be a key selling point. “I think most premium brands today would like to be perceived as boutique,” says Jorge Armenteros, founder of Tobacconist University. “This adds value to handmade, artisanal and artistic products like premium cigars. Many larger cigar companies run massive factories with thousands of employees involved from seed to cigar, and marketing and branding decisions are made in offices and board rooms by executives with college degrees wearing suits while sales are handled by call centers and salespeople regurgitating words from sales pamphlets and scripts. Today, you can see some of the larger companies spinning off brands into smaller distribution networks and companies. When a larger company buys a smaller one, they go to great lengths to keep the perception that they are small, intimate and more closely connected to their product and customers. No company wants to be perceived as a large, multinational, Big Tobacco producer. Everyone wants to be boutique!” For tobacco retailers, boutique cigars can make your store, its