Cigar of the Month Club -- Need Your Input!
TheCigarChick
Moderator Posts: 328 admin
Hey All --
While I'm working on re-doing our Cigar of the Month Club (aka COMC) packaging, I'm also very interested in your opinions. Whether you're a current or former CIGAR.com COMC member, or just have a good idea, I'm totally open to suggestions. If you're unfamiliar with our COMC, you can read more here: https://www.cigar.com/club/cigar-of-the-month-club/2020372/
We have some ordering options which will be coming down the pike, but I continue to work really closely with our vendors to get an ever-evolving selection of new, boutique, and/or unique cigars within each month's line-up. Shipping is always free. Do you think there are sizes I should focus on more, or even vendors I should use more often? That's the kind of info I'm seeking. Please feel free to tag me in your responses, or simply email me directly (lindsayh@cigar.com).
Thank you.
Lindsay
Comments
Luciano, Dapper, BLTC, and other boutiques show up pretty often in the smoking threads.
Something you may want to look at is doing a couple different options by profile. Me personally, I tend to smoke more medium to full blends so a COTMC that’s giving me Connecticuts will never be for me. Maybe do three options; a mild, medium, and full or med/full selection.
Another option for different selections is a price tier setup. For instance, a $35, $50, $75 option that gives an equivalent value to the cost while supplying tried and true winners and newer releases that everyone is curious about.
@TheCigarChick, I was a member of the Janus Tobak cigar of the month club for a short while until they closed up. I appreciated the write-up about each cigar sent giving me more information about the cigar and the maker, You wouldn't have to include a paper print-out, you could have the information online, maybe have a QR code in the box for the shipment or for each cigar that you could tie in with the information and possibly give them a way to re-order their favorites.
My favorite vitolas are Coronas, Robustos, Toros, Corona Gordas, but everything I hear from the industry is that the larger ring gauges are the big sellers, so I guess it depends on who the target audience is going to be.
I think clubs like this are a great way to introduce new smokers to different cigars. As someone who mostly knows what I like now, the problem with samplers is that one cigar I know I don't want will ruin the entire sampler. If there's a sampler with 5 cigars that costs $30, it's normally going to be more cost effective than just buying 5 single cigars, which is great. However, if one of those cigars is a Connecticut or a gordo of some kind, then effectively I'm getting 4 cigars for $7.50 each instead of $6 each, which would eliminate the entire appeal.
For sizes, I prefer coronas and lonsdales, as do many other forum members. The thing that would get me personally most tempted to sign up, would be if you focused on new releases, to give us all a chance to try a cigar that just came out (and potentially buy a box if we liked it). If the packages regularly contain cigars I've had before or already own, that's less intriguing to me.
Once again proving how cynical an oldfart can be... I suspect some COTM clubs are concocted by some online retailers to move a dud or two that aren't selling. Kind of like when you see an email for a rare/elite Fuente but it's stuck in a sampler with some Chatueu de Stinky's. I agree w/ @CalvinAndHobo on what a bust it was getting one or two sticks out of five that I just didn't care to smoke, and that's the main reason I got out of the clubs I was in.
It would be great fun and extremely interesting sometime to find out the percentage of cigars forum members smoke that aren't even sold by Ccom.
We love you Lindsay @TheCigarChick and appreciate all of your efforts to make the cigar world a better place and our enjoyment of cigars moar better.
@peter4jc The fact you typed out "oldfart" makes me laugh like I'm 12, so thank you for the levity.
I think it's horrible that some COTM Clubs are using a subscription box as a means to move duds as I find that extremely dishonest. Our model at CIGAR.com is to have one featured cigar, two highly-recommended, and two everyday options (often one mellow-medium and the other medium-full) for variety.
What I find most interesting is in formal surveys recently many COMC members told us they enjoyed the two everyday options more than the fancier/boutique/higher-end options included. Just goes to show that if I removed all of the bands and told people to just enjoy, they'd more than likely choose the $7 cigar over the $19 one...
I've been a COTMC member here for many years. I always like trying new stuff, sometimes something comes along that I'd have never tried and I learn that I want it. Other times, I now know that I don't want it. Pretty helpful at a reasonable cost.
It's rare that I like the larger ring gauges. Just for the record. I think those are mostly frat boy cigars and are more about bragging rights than cigar enjoyment, but, to each his own. Sometimes I'll try them and if I like them I look to see if they're available in a more desirable vitola.
One thing I do miss about the old days was the information sheet that came with each month's order. Gave a little information about the cigar, the brand, the blender etc.
I liked that.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
@Amos_Umwhat Great feedback. Since you've been a COMC member for a long time, do you not find the current Newsletter as informative, or do you prefer the extra info with the ratings system?
Not informative at all, or maybe it's just not being put in the box. Now there's just a little stamp page. No information. Cool box, though.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
From a personal standpoint, I too, agree with @Rdp77 (pricing tiers and flavor profiles), @Yakster and @Amos_Umwhat (cigar, blender information) and @peter4jc and @CalvinAndHobo (that one or two cigars nobody wants. I like to try new releases. I, also, know what I like and respectively, purchase. Perhaps, corporate speaking, a process where purchasing and marketing can work together (rather than, hey marketing this is what we purchase, work your magic). I’m thinking a sneak preview (time logistics TBD) of cigars and sizes, that could be released to members, to be voted on by club members. Overall vote , the people have spoken. That way purchasing could use the information to purchase accordingly and marketing would have a jump on product marketing as well as included information. I’m aware of logistics on this one, just my thoughts.
A good cigar and whiskey solve most problems.
New releases with a vitola option.
Oh. And a monthly sliding price calculated as a %-off discount to accommodate differing MSRPs
I love the idea of a good cotm club, but I've never liked any that I've been in except for two.
One was the Ezra Zion club , and I think that worked for me because all of those cigars are generally the same and I generally like all of those profiles. The only problem with it was the **** coffee bags, which were filled with rocks or terrible coffee. The other one was the small batch club, and I think I had the $20 option. It started with like four cigars I ended up getting two cigars toward the end and no real value.
Everyone has documented the problem with these clubs fully. I guess the bottom line is that they're great for people who are looking to browse around and have an open mind about absolutely everything. The reason nobody sticks to them is that the first time they get a Connecticut Gordo, they're out. That Gordo Connecticut could taste like pumpkin pie, but if a customer feels like they're never going to smoke it and they never do, then you didn't reach them, even if it's a pumpkin pie cigar.
Of course! Privada has been successful for a long time, but in the end it's just like the Ezra zion in that all of that privada crap is pretty much the same. It's boutique-y and a fuçk load of Caldwell.
Custom tailoring to user preferences isn't really feasible if you're trying to serve a thousand or 2,000 customers. So that's likely out.
I don't know how you could make it successful, but the only way that I would probably join one is if it were an AJ Fernandez cigar of the month club. That said, you could just have people pick a manufacturer, and then everyone who picks that manufacturer gets three or five or x number of cigars from that manufacturer. You can also control the price point based on the manufacturer, so for instance, if you were to offer an el septimo monthly package, it would be a lot more than say the oliva.
Problem with that is that there are likely few options. AJ, oliva, and Gurkha from the stuff you guys typically have in stock. You'd probably get a few dozen subscribers but probably not enough to Make it worth your squeeze.
One add on here is that the one I am in now is Roman's, and it's a blind club. I think if you were going to do a blind cigar of the month club without the bands, that would be something that might attract new customers who think they are going to develop their palates, and old customers or veteran smokers who find curiosity in it.
There's a bunch of different ways to do this. You could put bantless smokes in was a sealed envelope that contains the descriptions, or link to the website with the information. I don't think too many people would cheat because the point would be as stated above.
Or you could do bandless smokes with an envelope of last month's cigar information in there. That would of course promote recurring customers. I don't know anyone who would smoke one and then not want to know what they smoked. It would be a perpetual cycle of madness.
Then in your cotmc, you could offer a blind version and a non-blind version.
Of course, the only downside to the blind version is somebody's got to take off all those godd@mn bands.
That would give people an unbiased chance to see what they really actually like. When we did a blind contest on the forum here, the biggest dog rocket in the bunch won the whole thing because the fuçkos here on the forum have goat palates.
Very insightful and I appreciate the angles you've provided, so thank you. What you're proposing sounds like a nice idea for a future COTM Club idea, and something similar to an idea I've kicked around to Marketing a few times. The one issue with revamping the current model to fit what you've proposed is I have to go to manufacturers with A LOT (6-9 months min.) lead time to see if the cigars I'll need in the future would be available given their respective production schedules, and even then things with certain vendors go off the rail. (lol) When it comes to new releases sometimes I get lucky and can bump other options down the pike if a vendor actually made enough cigars during the first run, but unlike some other COTMs, we need more cigars than a bunch of the Clubs out there.
I guess this is the blessing/curse of truly handmade products, right?
Are you referring to the cost of the club per month? If so, that's not possible and would probably land us in legal hot water with both open and fixed memberships under the guise of deceptive business practice.
We do, however, offer a flat 10% discount on all non-club purchases (except for gift cards). COMC Members have no exclusions with their 10% - this includes brands often barred from visible discounts - because it's an automatic coupon that gets factored into the Checkout process. (It's tied to one's customer account.)
Could you please elaborate?
I figured a long lead time for ordering. However, if you know what vendors you will be buying from with long lead times, you could always forecast that to the club members for a vote. That way members have their choices voted for ahead of buying and receiving. Members would need to have some skin in the game to remain members during the voting, to cigar com buying , shipping and receiving monthly allotment. Another idea stretch 😜.
A good cigar and whiskey solve most problems.
@OutdoorsSmoke_21191 subscribes to the forum lottery for his cigar of the month club
My favorite cigar list here
That’s some funny 💩 right there 😜😜😜😜 that’s why I’m suspending my “subscription” for a few months 🤙🏼🤘🏼
A good cigar and whiskey solve most problems.
I agree with Edward. I have a buddy who did every COTM he could find when he started out, and the vast majority of what he received was stuff I've already tried. A COTM that focuses on newly released cigars (last 6 months or so) would be nice, but if I open it and it's full of churchills and gordos I'm immediately cancelling, and giving the sticks to someone else.
It's been asked higher up, but is the goal to entice new smokers, or experienced ones? New smokers want to try the classics, and usually in larger sizes. Experienced smokers would want stuff they haven't seen before, and usually in a corona, robusto or lonsdale.
At any given time the urge to sing "In The Jungle" is just a whim away... A whim away... A whim away...
I tried to type something insightful.
Nevermind.
I concur.
@Wylaff Appreciate the commentary.
Our COMC is meant simply to entice cigar lovers -- not specifically newer enthusiasts or seasoned aficionados. That a big reason as to why it's setup the way that it is, with one featured stick, two highly-recommended, and two everyday cigars. We try to make the featured cigar really important whether it be new or very limited, or high MSRP; the recommended cigars are often still special and/or higher cost.
As far as sizes are concerned, I'm right there with most of you: I love Corona Gordas, Lonsdales, Robustos, etc. Would it come as a shock to know that Coronas are the poorest-selling size online by a mile? (LOL, it's true) We do have to mix up sizes, and it's often during certain seasons supplying some larger sizes in the summer, and smaller vitolas in the winter.
Of course if anyone on here can get some cigarmakers to invest in demand planning personnel so their production schedules aren't always hot messes, we'd all benefit!
After responding to this, I got to thinking about it. I hadn't received the COTM for a couple months. I went to my stats page, or whatever it's called, and made sure that I'm still signed up. Actually, signed up again.
The point of interest here is that my shipment seems to be stuck en route. I had placed an order at about the same time as y'all send these out, got my "shipped" emails on the same day. The placed order arrived from the "Elite" offer in a timely fashion, La Aurora and Carillo cigars (very good, too), I posted them in the "What did you get today" thread, but the COTM order is still stuck in Smyrna TN.
This kind of thing happens, usually in Memphis, then suddenly appears again. Sometimes with a hole in the box that a hand fits into nicely. If that happens again, I'll be contacting you. I'm going to keep checking for another day or two, but something untoward may be going on. Or, it may just be same old USPS service problems. It's not unusual for a package to arrive in Memphis, 100 miles from here, and then travel on to Orlando FL or Baton Rouge LA before returning to Memphis and then on to me.
As I've done this here I'll be posting results whatever the outcome.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
@Amos_Umwhat - Did you contact Customer Service at all? At this point it's far beyond the "wait X-number of days to see if the package shows up and then call us back" routine, as you should be issued what we call "No-Cost Replacements" for any COTMs you paid for but did not receive.
Let me know if you'd like me to step in and facilitate on your behalf. USPS in certain markets definitely continues to be problematic, and if it's one thing I cannot stand, it's theft.
If nothing's moved by tomorrow, I will do exactly that. Thanks for the response.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
@Amos_Umwhat Happy to help in any way I can!
Contacted Customer Service this morning, we're still within the time allowed for delivery, which I expected. This package shipped at a different priority level than the other one.
I guess my concern is that according to tracking it left Smyrna, 3 hour drive from here, at around noon on Monday and hasn't showed up since. This is quite probably due to someone not scanning, or something like that. No worries, but if it doesn't show up Monday I will call again.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
At last, it arrived at the local post office at 6:57 this morning and is on the truck to me.
I suppose this all should have gone in the postal slobs thread. My bad.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain