68
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012
trench marketing
O
n the surface it may seem that an iconic retail tobacco
brand with high-end retail stores strategically
located in cultural hotspots around the world
would have very different priorities from a small mom-and-
pop tobacconist. However, despite their inherently obvious
differences in approach and resources, there’s at least one
thing that both parties can see the same way: selling tobacco
products to consumers ismuchmore challenging than it used
to be, and to do it well you’ve got to minimize the damage
from what you can’t control and maximize what you can do
to tip the scales back in your favor.
With numerous cities and municipalities eager to enforce
rigid anti-smoking laws and create a more hostile regulatory
environment for the tobacco retailers and consumers, the
challenge of marketing, promoting, and selling tobacco
products has become harder than it once was. Challenging
times call for creative solutions, and Kevin Threat, GM
of Davidoff of Geneva at Columbus Circle in Manhattan,
has risen to the challenge, turning lemons doled out by
Mayor Bloomberg’s aggressive legislation against tobacco
consumption into lemonade by rededicating his store’s
attention on personalized marketing campaigns and hyper-
attentive customer care as the best ways to attract new
customers, generate repeat sales, and build customer loyalty.
Location, Location
Threat (pronounced “Threet”), who runs one of the Swiss-
based luxury tobacco goods purveyor’s two U.S. stores (both
The Deep Threat
The GM of Manhattan’s Davidoff of Geneva at Columbus Circle has
leveraged social media and careful event planning to create an iconic
branded VIP in-store experience for customers.
