Guests savoured Davidoff’s new Winston Churchill cigars,
together with Belgian chocolates from Neuhaus and Flor de Caña sipping rum.
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| Davidoff's new Winston Churchill cigar |
Return of Chinese travellers to Europe
Davidoff’s marketing efforts over the past few years are
paying off, as travel retail sales are performing “really well”, according to
Martin Kaufmann, Senior Vice President Europe and Global Travel Retail of
Oettinger Davidoff AG. The company is seeing high single digit growth worldwide
on its Davidoff cigars, driven by its new “discovery pillar” cigars Escurio, Yamasa
and Nicaragua, which are drawing in new cigar lovers. So far this year, Davidoff
long filler cigar growth is up 8.7% from January to the end of August.
By region, Europe is doing well, buoyed by the return of the
Chinese and other Asian travellers, while the Japanese market is performing “extremely
well”, as the Chinese tourists flock to Japan rather than Korea, following the
dispute between Beijing and Seoul over the deployment of the THAAD missile
defence system. The Middle East and African markets are also showing nice
growth.
“Innovations are allowing us to grow,” Kaufmann said, noting
that the most important factor was good retail staff who are well-trained and
knowledgeable. To this end, the firm has launched the Davidoff Academy to train
its brand ambassadors across the regions in key airport hubs such as New York
JFK, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where Chinese travellers are slowly coming
back.
Delivering experiences
Best-selling products are centred on Davidoff’s discovery
pillar blends, which encourage smokers to go out and discover the wider cigar
world. The company has observed an emerging group of younger uses aged 30-35
who are discovering the cigar category. “We have a new and exciting story to
tell,” said Chief Marketing Officer Charles Awad. “These smokers are more
open-minded and have not formed any habits yet – they want to discover the
wider world in the category and open their world to other experiences.”
The latter word is a crucial one in Davidoff’s lexicon. “We
want to deliver experiences and stimulate the senses,” continued Awad. “We’ve
asked our blenders to create the complex character of the Winston Churchill,
the intrigue of nights in Rio for Escurio, and the spice and heat in Nicaragua.
It’s not about origin, but diversity. We mix and blend to create something new,
in the same way as a chef like Alain Ducasse.”
Turning to the in-store experience, accessories are an
important part of the assortment in travel retail. For this segment, Davidoff’s
new travel humidor will play a major role, noted Kaufmann. This high-tech,
Italian-made product is welded from neoprene, tweed and rubber and carries a
retail price tag of under $300.
And in a further in-store development, Davidoff is trialling
a virtual reality experience at Zurich Airport. A headset transports you
directly to a tobacco plantation, where you can experience the sights and
sounds of the exotic location as well as the tobacco aromas of cream, honey,
cedarwood, chocolate and pepper.
