#1: Know your audience
The first good marketing practice is to know your audience. Most people going to tobacconists:
- are either pipe or cigar smokers, or people purchasing gifts for them
- are purchasing upscale pipes, tobacco, cigars or paraphernalia (items you can't get at a corner store or gas station)
- smoke as part of a larger personal sensory experience (people don’t take cigar or pipe breaks the way they take cigarette breaks during working hours)
- are often uneducated about how quality is demonstrated in these products
The first three items indicate consumers with education and money. Item four is in conflict with items one through three, and is often true. Upscale tobacco products are like upscale liquor products. Unless you've been educated to what a good wine is, a $10 bottle of Chianti often tastes as good as a $50 bottle. A 24-year-old Scotch might taste like iodine unless you're prepared for it. It's much the same with tobacco products.
