The Role of Blogs within the Cigar Industry

[Mr. Ed]

The brands that do participate in the blogosphere and social media such as Tatuaje, Illusione, Padilla, are 'boutique' brands. It seems they make and market cigars for those of us invested into the hobby and lifestyle, not your casual cigar smoker. I think many people that participate on forums like this or regularly follow cigar blogs are serious cigar smokers, so it's only logical to go after this group because it's their lifeblood. I rarely see anyone reviewing something from General or Altadis anymore.

I'm amazed that there are 53,000 unique visitors to Stogie Guys a month. How big do you think this "serious" cigar smoking population is?

[OHRD]

Originally Posted by Mr. Ed

The brands that do participate in the blogosphere and social media such as Tatuaje, Illusione, Padilla, are 'boutique' brands. It seems they make and market cigars for those of us invested into the hobby and lifestyle, not your casual cigar smoker. I think many people that participate on forums like this or regularly follow cigar blogs are serious cigar smokers, so it's only logical to go after this group because it's their lifeblood. I rarely see anyone reviewing something from General or Altadis anymore.

I'm amazed that there are 53,000 unique visitors to Stogie Guys a month. How big do you think this "serious" cigar smoking population is?

Very true - reviews are definitely boutique heavy these days, and the big guys seem to be ok w/ that for whatever reason. I guess they bring in enough money to not have to worry w/ it all that much, which to me says "disconnected."

No idea how big the population is, interesting question, but for those online, and socially active, I think SG has a fair share of them!

[Mr. Ed]

Originally Posted by matthewjmichael

. I guess they bring in enough money to not have to worry w/ it all that much, which to me says "disconnected."

Maybe a lack of dynamism in the case of Altadis and General. Altadis is itself part of Imperial Tobacco, a multinational corporation. The big boys in every industry always seem to lag behind in social media trends.

In the case of Fuente and Padron, I think most people (including both casual and serious smokers) know they produce high quality product that doesn't need to be advertised (Opus, Anejo, 1926, 1964 basically sell themselves).

The Tatuajes, Padillas, United Tobacco, Illusione need this sort of participation to stay afloat. I would wager that most of customers that buy their product are serious cigar smokers (people that can be reached through blogs, websites, and forums).

[darkleeroy]

As long as there are specialty cigar stores, I wouldn't say our beloved boutique cigar makers need to have an internet presence. Cause honestly, cigars speak for themselves. Sure, there's fancy bands and what not. But ultimately a "serious" cigar smoker makes his decisions based on the qualities of the cigar itself.

Likewise, a bored B&M owner is going to sit there and smoke all of the cigars he has in stock, and he's going to develop an opinion on what's good and what's bad. And as a result, those boutique brands still get sold.

I've been away from the online cigar community for a couple of years, in that time, I still knew the boutique brands by stopping by my B&M every couple of weeks.

Online media aids, it doesn't define. If there was no online media, I still think our boutique brands would be kicking.

Ultimately, General, Altadis, and JC Newman still sell more cigars a month than boutiques sell a year.

[awsmith4]

Does social media include forums? If so Fuente has Cigar Family

[OHRD]

Originally Posted by awsmith4

Does social media include forums? If so Fuente has Cigar Family

I'd say it does, but the only thing with forums, is that companies can set them up, and then step back, and let it run itself - it looks like the company engages b/c they own the forum, but really they are just creating a vehicle with their name on it.

For instance, Camacho owns Social Cigar, but I am not sure how much they really interact on it...