14 / 102
[ 10 ]
TOBACCO BUSINESS
[
SEPTEMBER
/
OCTOBER
|
17 ]
sumer’s point of view. Taste is a personal matter. We
look for cigars that manage to divide panelists. People
may strongly love or strongly dislike cigars—we don’t
want in between. That is when you achieve big success-
es. We’re looking for aspects that actually create innova-
tive taste experiences deriving from the combination of
various leaves. Our objective is to inspire cigar aficiona-
dos to open up their eyes and minds to new and diverse
cigar experiences, to taste the huge variety of tobaccos
growing in the wider world. This has happened in wines,
coffees and whiskeys. It is now happening in the world
of cigars across the globe. The consumer is ready to
experience the wider world and move away from purely
Cuban smokes.
How do you market your products to females
differently from males?
I think marketing to women is the wrong phrase. Female
consumers don’t want a defined feminine cigar, they
don’t want a slimmer cigar—they want a cigar. You
market to women and men the same way. For those who
are beginners and don’t know much about cigars, you
would take them along a cigar journey with a strong
focus on education and would need to keep the con-
versation going. It is about taste education—everyone
needs understanding of what cigars are about, what
makes a great cigar and how to choose a cigar. Women
will take the same journey as a man would with cigars.
What does it take to be a trendsetter?
Innovation within our industry usually refers to the blends
that are being rolled out. The first thing I look at are the
stories we can tell. People, when they enjoy a premium
cigar, need to dream—they’re not just enjoying a blend.
Technically, you can describe a cigar as a wrapper, a
binder and a filler. But innovation has to go beyond the
technical summary. For example, our Davidoff Winston
Churchill line was rooted in going deep into who Winston
Churchill [was], his various facets of character, how he
enjoyed cigars and understanding what made him tick.
We spent countless hours speaking with his great-
grandson and people in the Churchill Foundation—
that’s where you get the inspiration for what the cigar
should be. You have to go deeper. When you look at
innovation, particularly within the cigar world, it is really
about the stories behind the cigars and what inspired the
master blender to blend such a cigar.
What advice would you give to other market-
ers in the tobacco industry that are trying
to carve out a place for their products with
everything that’s going on today with the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)?
Cigars are not just a product, so go beyond the product
and look at experience. You cannot launch 20 cigars
a month. Some of these new products are here for a
year and then they are gone, which I don’t think is a
good thing.
People in the cigar world tend to enjoy smoking the
classics, and there are a lot of classic cigars that are fan-
tastic and need to see the light again. So in a world where
we cannot innovate a lot on the product side as we used
to, you will have a lot of opportunities to focus on what
makes your current cigars great and to bring them back
to the forefront. The FDA situation is an opportunity to
focus on what is great and to get consumers to experi-
ence them again.
What are your goals for 2018 and onward for
Davidoff and its brands?
From a business standpoint, we aim to have more con-
sumers include Davidoff in their repertoire. Some of the
hurdles that hold us back from growing faster is value.
A cigar smoker who spends $15 or $25 on a cigar does
so occasionally. The opportunity is to grow the share of
occasions and their repertoire. So instead of being the
occasional cigar for a Sunday night with a best friend,
our challenge is to make that Davidoff cigar the choice
for many more occasions.
You can get a Davidoff cigar [for] between $10 and
$20. When you look at $20 for an hour of smoking plea-
sure, who would say this is a huge amount of money
to pay for a cigar? I want to hear more people say, “I
cannot believe how good this cigar is; I love this cigar
experience; it was absolutely worth it!” There are lots of
things people spend their money on that you ask if it’s
really worth it. An hour of time is ultimately an hour of
luxury time—and as we often say at Davidoff—time that
is beautifully filled.
TB
I think
marketing
to women is
the wrong
phrase. Female
consumers
don’t want
a defined
feminine cigar,
they don’t
want a slimmer
cigar—they
want a cigar.
Charles Awad
Continued