It dons on me that if I want to keep this thing I've got going on here long-term, and keep posting content faithfully on the schedule I've laid out for myself, then I probably need some kind of schedule of content. I think you guys, my readers, should know what to expect a few times a week out of whatever I've got going on here. That being said, I intend to introduce a series of regular posts, reoccurring weekly, to tempt you guys into maybe coming back.
My week-end Friday Update will be entitled: "What Works, What Doesn't", and will focus on what improvements have worked within my storefront, and what tactics we're abandoning or modifying due to their previous failures.
So, first, what's worked?
Samplers: We recently introduced discounted samplers at the front counter in three varieties: Mild-to-Medium, Medium, and Medium-to-Full. Each sampler contains five cigars, for the price of four. We essentially write off the lowest price cigar in the sampler.
This is a win-win for many reasons. Customers who come in to buy gifts for others often become shell-shocked when they don't have product knowledge. I have to query them on what the recipient might be interested in smoking, and only about 2-3% of these customers actually know what they're looking for, whether it's a specific brand, wrapper, or type of body. For the other 97%, I have precious minutes to figure out what their significant other might appreciate receiving when the gifter has no idea what the giftee likes.
This is challenging, frustrating, and I'd be lying if I told you it was an exact science.
I could do like my boss wants me to, put them on the most expensive cigar in the store and pray the customer doesn't freak out at the price and leave, and pray the recipient has a taste for fine Davidoffs or Diamond Crown Maximus. However, this doesn't seem like the most successful way to build long-term customers.
I'm not introducing them to every cigar in the store. Ain't nobody got time for that.
So these samplers, they're my solution to satisfying my boss, the customer, and myself. Boss man is happy because I still sell the customer on about 35 dollars worth of product. Customer is happy because they didn't get bombarded by a bunch of information they have no idea how to process - they get something and get out. I'm happy because with one question, I can usually put the gifter on the right sampler. Slip a business card in the bag, and boom, Return Monthly Revenue.
These samplers have been a huge hit. Specifically the Mild-to-Medium ones. I attribute this to the fact that customers who come in without any cigar knowledge usually lack the experience to appreciate the fuller side of the spectrum. They're Flavor Smokers, and the milder Romeo y Julietas, Montecristo Classics, and Fuente Rosados are the perfect fit.
As an unintended benefit of these custom samplers, I have the opportunity to promote new cigars, and cigars with sluggish sales. Let me be clear, we don't stock any "bad" cigars. I don't stock a cigar that I wouldn't smoke. I don't stock anything with huge inconsistency, with a terrible flavor profile, or a really artificial flavor. We only stock Premium Hand Made, Long Filler, Cigars. So when I slip a less popular cigar or something new into one of the samplers, I'm not doing it to cheat the customer, to make them buy something they didn't want in order to get the superior deal. I'm doing it because we have some amazing cigars in the store that just lack a cult following to move very quickly. These blends are still great, I'm just hoping that someone will hit on them and come back to buy more.
What crashed and burned?
I wouldn't call it a spectacular failure, but we recently stocked Aging Room's new Wild Pack. The principle behind this 10 cigar sampler was pretty cool: There's two each, of five different blends. Each cigar is identified by only a letter and a number, like M356, or F55. Each cigar has a supplementary foot band with a little star-rating chart. Smokers are supposed to smoke the cigars, fill out the ratings, and go online to input them on a website. The highest rated cigar by average will become Aging Room's new blend in the next year.
This is brilliant, it's cool, and it feels awesome. Get cigar smokers involved in the product testing? Perfect, then you don't have to pay someone else to do it. Charge them for the privilege of smoking your new blends? Sure, if you have the fan base, why wouldn't you charge for a sneak peak and what might be the new blend.
You're all sensing the "but". Well, here it is. I asked the boys over on reddit's /r/Cigars if they would be interested all things considered, and the price was too damn high. The Wild Pack retails for 99.95 MSRP, or thereabouts (within a few dollars, including shipping), and that works out to about ten dollars per cigar. Most of Aging Room's other stuff is 7.95 in it's largest vitolas. So they're effectively charging a 25% premium for new, unproven, blends.
The wild pack bites, hard.
The folks on /r/Cigars suggested prices ranging from an insulting 40$ (where I would be losing a few dollars on every sale) to about 75-80$, which seems a little bit more reasonable given Aging Room's stuff. Someone over at corporate oughta swat these dudes upside the head for pricing their samplers so damn high. (While they're at it, roll across the pond and smack Altadis for what they did to their holiday gift packs. No one wants to pay a twenty percent increase for a tire gauge in their Romeo Gift Pack. It's stupid).
Corporate pricing is a bit off this Holiday Season, like Santa Claus saw us putting Christmas shit up before Thanksgiving and rolled around town magically, beating people with the stupid stick.
So the wild pack, I only asked for two units to pilot, and my boss ordered four. I managed to sell three of them at a tasting event with some buddies of mine, so we made our money back and then some. It's safe to say I will take price into consideration before making a snap judgement on a "cool" product like that again. I'm just glad I could get out of it without a loss.
Enjoy your Friday, folks. It's certifiably not hump-day.
-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
Current Smoke: La Mousa Melete Robusto (Mild and unoffensive)
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