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THIS IS A CIGAR PARTY? WOW!

The unstoppable promotional machine of the Outlaw Cigar Company

Los Angeles, June 25 – It’s not every day that an Apache helicopter participates in a cigar party.

But then the Outlaw Cigar Company in Kansas City, is not exactly traditional when it comes to cigar marketing.

“We know the key to creating cigar smokers,” said owner Kendall Culbertson, “is to partner with industries that have similar demographics and bring them to the party along with their customers and win them over.

“We have grown by 42% each of the past two years and 36% the year before that. Our cigar parties never fall below 850 people at each party.”

And what parties they are! Culbertson’s program is more like a rock & roll tour than a simple tasting:

• His 2007 program is called the “Bad to the Bone Tour” with massive parties scheduled for 11 months during the year from January through November.

He started in January with a visit by Mike Chiusano of Cusano Cigar Company, followed by Avo Uvezian, Manuel Quesada, Christian Eiroa, Jorge Padron in May and Ernesto Padilla and Pepin Garcia on June 16. His last event was one of his biggest yet!

“The party was a big hit,” said Culbertson. “Over 1,000 people, 250 lbs. of pig, 450 Italian Sausages, 10 kegs of beer, a Golf Pro with swing-analyzing equipments, Hooters girls, Outlaw Calendar girls, Benchmade Knife Co. and the Colibri Lighter Co. . . . and, of course, the Apache helicopter and Jose “Pepin” Garcia rolling cigars . . . [and] we have a Poker tournament at each party.

“The Apache come from Whiteman AFB and they loved the big crowd . . . so they are going to bring it back two more times this year. The next time will be August 25th.”

• The remainder of the year includes a visit from Bobby Newman (Fuente & Newman) on July 14, Litto Gomez (La Flor Dominicana) on August 25, Rocky Patel and Eric Nording (Rocky Patel Premium Cigars and Nording Cigars) plus a golf tournament on September 21-22, Tim Ozgener (C.A.O.) on October 13 and a program featuring Ashton cigars on November 3.

And the July 14 program with Newman will be graced by another military icon: an Abrams M1 tank!

• Culbertson has already set up his schedule for 2008, the “Big Guns Tour.” Twelve more events, with featured guests such as Jose Oliva, Carlos Fuente Jr., Carlos Torano and others.

Beyond the sheer torrent of activity is a lot of selling. “We estimate, based on data we collect on our customers, that our parties create 50-80 smokers per month,” said Culbertson. “We sell tons of humidors and accessories directly after each event.

“My customers do all the work after I get the customers in the store. So it is really easy to get the non-smoker to try a cigar. The trick is getting them to the store. As our events have grown, I no longer have to convince other business to get involved, but rather they come to me and ask if they can get involved, so the whole process is much easier now.” He promotes his programs through to his own mailing list and via television ads on cost-effective local cable television. And most importantly, as he emphasizes over and over again, through the promotional partners he attracts to his programs.

“Some of the industries that are perfect for event partnerships,” he noted, include “Harley Davidson shops, custom motorcycles, sports team cheerleaders, military, sports collectibles stores, restaurants, car clubs of all types, golf pros, knife companies, liquor companies, Poker tournaments, gun stores, custom trucks, Hooters girls, etc.”

Culbertson’s programs may be unusual, but they are effective. Although not every store can accommodate helicopters and tanks in their parking lot, every store can offer its customers (and prospective customers) an opportunity to experience the cigar lifestyle. The Outlaw Cigar Company makes that possible . . . albeit in a big way.

From the Cubador:
The history of the Cuban tobacco industry was explored by 170 delegates to the second International Symposium of Tobacco held in Havana last week, including a look at the development of machine-made cigars in Cuba.

A specialist at the Tobacco Research Institute, Norma Castillo, noted that the use of paper for cigarettes was developed in France in 1843 and was first used in the La Honradez factory in 1853.

From there, the creation of a machine to roll cigars was inevitable and was developed by the end of the century. However, as Cuba was the center of the cigar industry, it wasn’t introduced until 1925 at the Por Larranaga factory.

The machines weren’t popular with the rollers. In fact, the response was so negative that the machines were discarded until 1950 when the Cuban cigar industry was trying to recover from the effects of World War II when its European markets – especially Britain and France – were in recovery.

By then, the machines were needed to keep up with the wide sales of machine-made cigars in the U.S., then as now the largest cigar market in the world. By the late 1980s, the Cubans had developed specific markets for machine-made cigars, primarily in Eastern Europe.

Today, Cuban-made cigars by machine are made for distribution for emerging markets in which price is an important factor. They’re not the handmade gems Havana is famous for, but it’s Cuban tobacco nonethless.
~ Rich Perelman

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