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Dunhill’s and Webb Peterson, but the Savi-
nellis don’t sell well here because of the price
point.Our popular price points are between
$60 and $90. We carry Randy Wiley, and
we’ve had TimWest’s stuff.”
Pipe tobacco now accounts for between
15 percent and 20 percent of the business,
and much of that is done through mail or-
der. The shop still creates exclusive blends
that have a following as far away as Maine
and Hawaii. The most popular is the first
blend that Bruce Barnes made: Carolina
Home, a mixture created to help him quit
smoking cigarettes. It worked for him, and
many have since found the same success
with it, though its particular magic remains
a mystery. Barnes prefers selling through
mail order, getting requests by phone or
email, because it’s the only way he feels con-
fident that the buyer is of legal age.
It’s the strict laws around verifying the
age of the purchaser that has made selling
through a website a nonstarter for Barnes.
“On the Internet, I can’t verify the age of
the people buying the smokes. I spent 40
years enforcing the law, and I’m not going
to take a chance in violating it. We have a
mail-order business and we have a lot of
people who buy pipe tobacco, but I know
most of them. The ones that I don’t know,
before I sell to them, they’ve got to send
me a driver’s license with a current ad-
dress. We don’t take credit cards over the
phone—that’s something I don’t want to
get into. We package the tobacco up and
mail it to them with an invoice and they
send us a check. We go the extra mile to
verify if we don’t know them.”
That strict sense of right and wrong also
informs on the shop’s approach to market-
ing. “I’ve got a personal issue with trying
to make somebody into a tobacco user
who isn’t one already,” explains Barnes. “I
have turned people away. If a 19-year-old
kid comes in with his father and says he
wants to smoke a pipe, my first question is,
‘Why? If you don’t have a bad habit, why
start one?’ So we don’t attempt to convert
anybody in our marketing.”
But they do try to preach to the choir;
they have community pages on Facebook
(The Smoke Filled Room—B&B Tobac-
conists, Asheville) that list events and
where followers share their cigar-smoking
exploits. They also have a long-running
presence on local North Carolina radio
through the airwaves of WWNC. Barnes
explains, “My dad was in advertising so
he tried every print media there was and
found it didn’t work. He told me, ‘Find the
right radio station and stick with it.’”
A conservative talk radio channel that
runs 30-second spots on a daily basis during
Rush Limbaugh’s show has proved the most
reliable. The store is also an ongoing spon-
sor of Cigar Dave, a syndicated radio show
run out of Tampa, Florida. Cigar Dave is
known as “The General” and “America’s Al-
pha Male.” He’s also become an important
vocal opponent of the FDA’s new rulings.
Closer to home, most of the shop’s mar-
keting efforts seek ways to engage with
existing customers. “What we try to do for
our loyal customer base is to provide them
with things to do—here in the shop, or
somewhere else in the area,” says Barnes.
Of course, that means having access to
outdoor venues that allow the enjoyment of
cigars al fresco.One such place is the legend-
ary Grove Park Inn, built out of granite in
the Blue Ridge Mountains more than 100
years ago. Here cigar smokers can enjoy an
evening of good food, live music, a cash bar
and special promotions of new and classic
cigars brands in a magnificent, history-filled
setting. Barnes says he tries to promote the
boutique brands, but finds that they’re a hard
sell to his regular clientele.The one exception
to that is the PDR brand, which immedi-
ately won over followers.
On the first Thursday of every month
B&B hosts an evening that features a visit
from a cigar manufacturer focusing on a
specific cigar or line of cigars, with special
deals for those in attendance. Also, on the
last Wednesday of every month the store
sponsors a Sip & Smoke event at a local
restaurant. Patrons are given an outdoor
area to pursue their favorite pastime and
TRENCH MARKETING
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016