How would you market snus to the US market?

[tom502]

I tend to think most American snusers came from smoking. But I also think dippers would be more open minded to try it.

My marketing idea is based on a good strong product being widely available. I think Thunder would do better than say, Roda Lackett, and even be more apealing than General.

But I think the "need" for special refrigerators is holding it back. And keeping them only in specialty tobacco shops is holding it back.

General at the gas stations might do well too.

[gambino]

i look at your example and this is how i would react: arrogant euro-snobs trying to poke fun at the millions of american dip losers who must not be smart? how dare this bourgieouse (sp) sorts insult the working man like that, gimme a can of copenhagen.
gurantee you a lot would responce like that...cater to the dip crowd, the hunter, the plumber, the carpenter, etc...

I don't really see the insult part but whatever, thats just my idea.

I was thinking of the people here at snus on. Probably 95% came to snus to quit using some other tobacco.

Personally I think the people you are describing will just continue to use what they were already using no matter how it is marketed. You may be surprised but I don't think a high percentage of snuson members came from dip. The snus marketed in America was already being marketed to dip users.

i didn't mean to demean your opinion, just telling you what i thought.
and those people i listed hate dip just like you or i, but they are hopelessly addicted...show me a long time cope user and a i gurantee he's tried to quit or worries about how harmful it is.

[SnusoMatic]

by trying to make snus classy and hip one would be losing most of the adult market. frosted thunder portions, a good regular portion and then a strong loose and a regular loose to start out with.

make a deal with some of the larger 7-11 type stores across the usa. price the stuff at or below cope price. put a lot of info out about the 'good' differences between snus and cigs and snuff. never call snus snuff, dip or chew.

blend snus into the common persons lifestyle so that yea for a while its new but after a while it's common. and after a while you would be a rich fat cat.

keeping it in cigar stores like SM does now limits it's exposure. Even people who work around where they sell it now don't know what it is unless they already knew or just happened into the cigar store and looked over the counter and saw it. most of the time the snus i have bought out of a cigar shop cost $2 more than online and was out of date.

I can't wait for V2 to get here because i know they are hungry and will make it work. SM may have good snus but they are a bloated company who expects everything will come to them.

[tom502]

They need to be able to bypass refrigeration, and get a deal going with a US marketer that can get their stuff on the dip rack, with a placard ad visible.

[justintempler]

They need to be able to bypass refrigeration, and get a deal going with a US marketer that can get their stuff on the dip rack, with a placard ad visible.

You won't let go of that refrigeration theme will you?

Do you understand why Swedish Match went to refrigeration?
Refrigeration stops fermentation.
TSNAs grow in fermented snus that isn't refrigerated.

[gambino]

They need to be able to bypass refrigeration, and get a deal going with a US marketer that can get their stuff on the dip rack, with a placard ad visible.

You won't let go of that refrigeration theme will you?

Do you understand why Swedish Match went to refrigeration?
Refrigeration stops fermentation.
TSNAs grow in fermented snus that isn't refrigerated.

i read the other day that TSNA count in snus did not increase w/o refrigeration.

[RRK]

i didn't mean to demean your opinion, just telling you what i thought.
and those people i listed hate dip just like you or i, but they are hopelessly addicted...show me a long time cope user and a i gurantee he's tried to quit or worries about how harmful it is.

Sure, that's why limited risk is the key. You want to get the attention of everyone out there that is trying to replace their tobacco use with something better. That's why statistics and education is so imprortant and the only place that these statistics exist is Sweden. Unless you want to totally divorce snus from its Swedish roots I don't see any way around connecting it with the marketing. Also, you don't want to specifically associate snus with dip or chew or cigarettes since those that are concerned about health cross all of those borders.

Also, I agree with justin about the refrigeration thing. I think it helps to differentiate snus from other products and pretty much everywhere that you would buy snus will have refrigerators already. It gives it a sense of quality. Maybe place it with the alcoholic beverages to expose the right age group.

[Premium Parrots]

I say rig up all the convience stores and gas stations so that if someone comes in and asks for a pack of cigs a trap door opens under their feet and they fall into a chamber that is impossible to escape from. Force them to try a snus portion of their choice for 30 minutes or so while the health and other advantages of using snus instead of smoking is broadcast to them. Then let them escape only if they purchase a tin.


If that doesn't work then simply ad viagra to the ingredients. Women all over the country will be buying it and forcing their men to use it.


Either way you can't lose.

[BadAxe]

Market snus as a healthier alternative to dip and cigarettes, and you'll convert millions overnight; however, the snus companies might not be willing or ready for the massive fight they'd have to engage in regarding the "healthier" claims. They'd be fighting the FDA, the anti-tobacco groups, and the existing US tobacco industry.

They wouldn't be fighting those organizations, it just wouldn't be allowed. No tobacco product in the US will be allowed to be marketed as healthier, reduced risk, etc... There will be no nicotene delivery system that is allowed to be marketed as an alternative to smoking unless its pharmacutical and tobacco free. Just not gonna happen.

[lxskllr]

elgance? clubbing? have any of you folks ever been to a club in nyc or vegas? it doesn't sound like it.
not a place or a sort of crowd that is going to be using oral tobacco anytime soon.
maybe in euroland high society folks use snus, but stateside that's not the case...
no amount of marketing can take away the fact that oral tobacco is a good ole boy habit...snus makers could make huge inroads catering to this trad. dip crowd.
doing the opposite and trying to market to wall street club/kid types IMO would utterly fail and probably alienate the folks who might actually try it: the blue collar dudes like myself.

They need to get away from the good ol boy market, or modern tobacco will fail. Snus was almost dead in Sweden before they gentrified it, and made a major push to switch from cigarettes. If they limit their market share in America by cantering to rednecks, snus will go the way of plug tobacco(a couple dusty old chunks on the back shelf of a small town general store).

[tom502]

I agree, but to me, I think, availability and exposure is the main thing. Keeping it in speciality tobacco shops under special conditions, I don't think, is going to give it the exposure and mass availability to prospective noobies. I never(hardly ever) go to a tobacco store, and if I hadn't seen Camel SNUS at my corner gas station, I may have never known about snus, or pursued it. And when I buy tobacco, if not online, it's at the local grocery store.

[giancarlo]

I'm a marketer by profession and the first thing I would do is change the name.

Snus is not a good name for a tobacco in the US in my humble opinion.

Second, I read about twenty different websites before I would even think about using oral tobacco since the mouth cancer risks (whether true or not) are known to almost everyone.

There would need to be a way to simplify the harm reduction message - which as other posters mentioned will be nearly impossible in the US.

Fourth, chewing or dipping has it's own "stigma" in the US. If I mention that I'm using tobacco orally to people I know they immediately think I'm dipping and it takes too long to explain otherwise.

A mental distinction would need to be created through the advertising/marketing that would differentiate it from all other classes of tobacco.

[lxskllr]

I'm a marketer by profession and the first thing I would do is change the name.

Snus is not a good name for a tobacco in the US in my humble opinion.

Second, I read about twenty different websites before I would even think about using oral tobacco since the mouth cancer risks (whether true or not) are known to almost everyone.

There would need to be a way to simplify the harm reduction message - which as other posters mentioned will be nearly impossible in the US.

Fourth, chewing or dipping has it's own "stigma" in the US. If I mention that I'm using tobacco orally to people I know they immediately think I'm dipping and it takes too long to explain otherwise.

A mental distinction would need to be created through the advertising/marketing that would differentiate it from all other classes of tobacco.

You don't think the name snus works? I think that can be the distinguishing characteristic, and help separate it from traditional American smokeless tobacco. It's foreign enough that it can sound cultured as opposed the dip that's associated with rednecks.

[RRK]

What about the name Swedish snus?

[tom502]

No one knows how to pronounce it. But still I'd stick with it, because that's what it is. If Camel didn't call their's snus, many of us still may not know what it is.