Lessons from E-Cigs (Electronic Cigarettes)

This one if for all those entrepreneurs who smoke. The lessons from this recently successful product will be easier to connect with.

It’s meant for others too, but just like me, you will have to put yourself into a smoker’s shoes.

Cigarette consumption is an irrational choice and as per the understanding of classical economists, any normal person should not be consuming it. But as we know, their concept of rationality is based on prejudice and a ‘mental model’ of the world.

Every smoker will tell you that cigarettes are harmful. They blow up your lungs, give a high, increase risk of heart diseases, cancer and generally screw up your system. Thanks to new tax laws, they are also expensive. Add newly minted social norms and laws, with restrictions on smoking and you are looking at a major well-to-do section (they can afford branded cigarettes) of the middle classes feeling rather shifty.

So why would people still smoke. Habit is part of the reason but that does not explain why hundreds and thousands take it up every day.

By most accounts it is a combination of ‘the Mental’, ‘the Social’, ‘the Physical’ and ‘the Habitual’.

E-Cigs is just one of those amazing new age products which disrupt present paradigms by offering benefits relevant to today’s environment.

 

E-Cigs is basically an electronic cigarette with a battery, which looks and works like a cigarette, without the parts that make it socially and judicially unacceptable.

It doesn’t lead to second hand smoke since there is no smoke for outsiders to inhale (they claim), nicotine liquid doesn’t cause any health harm (they claim again), it still makes you carry on your oral fixation and lets you go on with life as before

Now to be sure, there are a number of states and countries who are considering, if not already enacted, a ban on these products since they are considered a drug and it is still not clear whether they do any harm to your body and mind.

 

So what are the lessons here?

1. Work on the intrinsic, physcological needs. Patches, medicines, chewing gum, will power – all of these have been tried but just like every person, we all need a crutch. For some it is smoking, others it is chocolate, tea, muffins, coffee etc. Some people just need to get over the guilt but don’t want to make that drastic shift yet… or ever. Products that are made to fulfil intrinsic rather than extrinsic needs and are hence pitched as such, are known to do better. It’s not for nothing that every pitch made by Steve Jobs about his products included the ‘sex’ they brought to that category.

2. Make it Social. Not only is this product socially acceptable, but some brands of E-Cigs vibrate when other users are around. Smokers are known to connect to other smokers. And in this small exclusive group of E-Cigs user, this can be a real conversation starter. Make sure you product can be shared in one way or another. If not the product in itself, then the benefit and if not the benefit then the information. If the information isn’t appropriate to share, just create a hook for starting conversations.

3. Play to the environment, rather than fighting it. The social/political/judicial environment created around smoking has become highly restrictive for many smokers. Many entrepreneurs find similar conditions for their products in terms of licenses and approvals. A thought process which looks at legally circumventing this environment to bring similar or better benefits to your customers is the need of the day. For E-Cigs this meant that retailers no longer had to have tobacco licenses to sell cigarettes, FDA approvals weren’t required, taxation was lower and people keep coming back to retailers for refills.  Suddenly no law applicable to smoking mattered.

4. Use your opposition to your advantage. Manufacturers have been very smart by using various articles, activists and court cases against them to publicize the positive effects of smoking E-Cigs. It’s the best free publicity possible and it made a small industry, a national phenomena. Be happy if you have people/organizations/competitors resisting your developments. Just learn how to play your shots well.

5. Managing Image. Celebrities light up all the time. Especially in Hollywood. Some manufacturers used them to start promoting these cigarettes simply by handing them out. Using Ex-Marines, War Veterans and other tough men to promote this product shed its image of being a fluffy substitute for the real thing.

6. Play the higher Goals. Don’t just sell personal benefits. Your pitch should include how the product is going to make the world a better place aka Higher Goals. e-Cigs does that by letting people know how they are making the world a healthier place and helping people kick addiction.

7. Keep innovating. When the first few variations of the e-Cigs came out, they did really badly. No one wanted them. But they kept taking customer feedback to make the product better because they knew the need existed. Our first products might be well meaning, but they almost are never perfect.

8. Roll out variants. Demand of the e-Cigs really ramped up when manufacturers came up with other flavours and concentrates. It also came out with non-nicotine variants, variants for men and women. This led to a product which was true to its core but was also broadly accepted.

9. Make Substitution Easy. The most important of all points. Cars had to do it when they wanted people to get rid of their carriages by making cars look exactly like them. So if your Target Group uses a product and you know the time for change has come, then make it easy for them.