Electronic cigarettes.  Talk to those that regularly use them and they will sing the praises, and continue to do so until you stop them.  Nicotine, without the tar and other carcinogens has all the makings for a home run.  So marketing electronic cigarettes would seem to be an easy endeavor on the surface.  As with any marketing you first decide your target audience.  That’s easy.  There are an estimated 44 million smokers in the United States.  Jackpot!  Most of these smokers are looking for an alternative.  Reasons can range from the associated health risks, general hygiene, the ability to smoke when and where they wish, or maybe a family member wants them to quit or smoke outdoors because of second hand smoke.  In any event you would think that marketing to these individuals would simple.  You would think that, and you’d be wrong.

If smokers are able to get the nicotine without the health dangers it’s a win-win for them and everybody, well everybody except the tobacco industry that is.  This is where this marketing game gets very fuzzy.  Let’s break it down.

Electronic cigarettes cannot be marketed as a smoking cessation, so that eliminates the marketing approach that they will “help you quit”.  Logic says they “may” help smokers quit.  Some electronic cigarettes such as the SiGCiG “Encore” allow you to vary the amount of nicotine concentration via an assortment of refill cartridges.  This allows the user to slowly reduce nicotine intake until that last reduction to zero nicotine, or dare I say, “quitting”.  The FDA has a problem with that.  Stating that marketing electronic cigarettes as a cessation device will put them into a “new drug” category.  Roughly the same way they “requested” that General Mills submit Cheerios to be tested as a new drug.  General Mills has claimed their cereal reduces cholesterol and under the Obama administration’s FDA that qualifies it as a “new drug”.  Thus allowing the FDA to require they be approved.  A very lengthy and expensive process.  Ok, electronic cigarettes are not a smoking cessation device and I’ll just eat my Cheerios because I like them.

Electronic cigarettes eliminate combustion, therefore second-hand smoke is also eliminated.  This allows you to smoke indoors where it is warm, or where smoking bans are in place.  That makes for a great marketing point right?  Just be sure as an end user you are prepared explain to the establishment’s management and smokers alike that it is NOT a traditional cigarette, and without combustion is not included in the smoking ban.  Several states are contemplating including electronic cigarettes in their ban.  I’m sure there are great reasons for this, but I’m at a loss right now what those reasons could be.

Smokers concerned about the smell of cigarette smoke in their hair, clothes, homes and even their automobile can benefit from electronic cigarettes.  The vapor emitting from the electronic cigarette is virtually odor free, and simply evaporates without a lingering effect.  Another great marketing strategy, but what is it?  What’s in the Vapor that’s emitted?  Well, it depends on whom you talk to.  There are several results from reputable sources including doctors and professors that can found by a simple google search.  These state there is nothing in electronic cigarettes that causes harm in human consumption.  The FDA however has claimed to have found 2 known carcinogens.  Let’s say that for a moment they did find 2 carcinogens.  Not good for your marketing strategy, not good at all.  Let’s however compare this to a traditional cigarette and over 4,000 known carcinogens, what is the best choice for a smoker?  Not exactly a resounding way to market your product, but it sure seems like a relatively easy choice for the smoker.  Apparently not an easy choice for the FDA.

There are questionable companies (with questionable products) running “free trial” offers on the radio and internet that will definitely pollute the industry.   Mall kiosks that are accused of selling to minors won’t help the industry either.

The electronic cigarette could be an invention that may be found to save lives, end segregation of smokers and non-smokers, and quite possibly change the world in which we live in.

This all begs the question.  How do you market the product that could be the best invention to come along since cigarettes were sold to the general public, yet tip toe through the political cow pasture of FDA and big tobacco companies?

I don’t have the answer to that.

“This case appears to be yet another example of FDA’s aggressive efforts to regulate recreational tobacco products as drugs or devices,” U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said in granting a preliminary injunction barring the Obama administration from blocking companies from importing e-cigarettes into the United States.?

Let’s not misunderstand what the ruling means to you, the end user.  For now, it means the FDA cannot block shipments of electronic cigarettes, which means you can continue to enjoy the benefits of electronic cigarettes.  It does not mean the FDA can’t control them in the future, tax them heavily, or find another way to get them off the market.  Tobacco lobbyists, big brother, and the entire administration will do all they can to make electronic cigarettes big business for THEM.  For now, “light” up and score one for the smoker!

On Oct. 14th the terminator lived up to his name. Governor Schwarzenegger declined to add his signature to Senate Bill 400. In that bill there was wording banning the sell of e-cigs to minors (which absolutely should be upheld), but within the bill there was also verbiage banning electronic cigarette sales to adults as well. Schwarzenegger stated it was up to adults to decide as to whether or not they will use the product, and that there was no current law labeling them a federally regulated product (drug). Good job Terminator! But I have to ask in this volatile marketplace, as he walked away from the table… did he mumble “I’ll be baaaahk”?

I subscribe to several blogs, but I have deleted most all of them.  Out of probably 20 blog subscriptions I’ve attempted I probably still belong to 5 at most.  I say “at most” because there are probably a couple I need to “unsubscribe” to, but they don’t keep up on the blog enough to remind to get off the list.  I read blogs to get ideas, keep up on the small world included within that blog, and hopefully someone knows more than me about the subject and I actually learn something.  I’ll do my best in my blogs to live up to my own expectations, and hopefully at the same time pass on some useful and entertaining information to you…the reader.

-Brett