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April 1998 Volume 25 Number 2 |
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Satellite
Retail Cigar Program -
page 3 Unlike other cigar retailers who require exclusivity, Ginsberg doesn't mind if someone else's cigars end up in his humidor. "For the most part, if I put my humidor into a business, I'm also filling it with cigars, so there's no room for anybody else," he noted. He also adjusts the types of cigars and their price points to the type of business. He puts less expensive bundle cigars into barbershops, while more expensive cigars will be available at upscale restaurants. In addition, Ginsberg provides his outlets with informational brochures that he has printed about the cigars they will be selling.
Ginsberg said he views satellite sales outlets not only as an opportunity to sell cigars, but also to eventually bring customers into his store. "I try to keep the locations within an hour's drive so that I can service them easily, and maybe increase the traffic in the store." Tony Tecce, co-owner of Tahoe Cigar Co. in Incline Village, Nev., started to sell to satellite locations before he opened his store. "It all depends on how ambitious a retailer is," Tecce said. "It's pretty easy to do. The most important thing - having an inventory of cigars - the retailer already has." Tecce sells into 22 satellite locations that include restaurants, bars, convenience stores, and casinos. He opened a retail store last August, "mostly as a place to keep our inventory," he said Matthew Siebenlist, president of Private Plantation Cigar, LLC of Dallas, said that with an outside sales staff of four and 52 satellite accounts, 70 percent of his store's sales last year were made away from his retail store. Plantation's accounts include the local Mortons of Chicago restaurant and other high-end restaurants and country clubs. The company also markets the "official" cigar of the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys. "We are very target specific. Our company motto is 'Smoke only the best' and that's where we want our cigars - only in the best places." Siebenlist said Plantation sells as many as 10,000 cigars a month at satellite locations that may include charity balls, golf tournaments, business dinners, and other short-term events. "We are very customer-minded, and we focus an extreme amount of time on that, to the extent that we will hold training seminars for the sales staff at a restaurant. If the wait staff is not knowledgeable about cigars, they are not going to sell them and we are not going to make any money." Money is the key. For retailers not content with a declining market share, the common message being voiced by those involved in satellite cigar sales is that changing markets should lead to changed thinking about where and how to sell cigars.
SMOKESHOP - April 98 | |||||||
