Quote05Venturer - 1/15/2020 9:37 AM "Does make me wonder if 6 major companies can pull out of the CRA, why am I there?" My thoughts exactly Chuck
The CRA, or really any PAC or organized political advocate, has a reason for existing if that purpose is to represent an industry or market in DC. Having a single "tip of the spear" focused on delivering the message has its advantages. If the 6 tobacco companies attempted individually to get their message across it would be come diluted and quite possibly mixed. We all understand there is power in numbers. I get two main stories outs of this article.
First is the ICPCR trade show worth the money spent by the tobacco companies on booth space, sponsorships, events, etc…? If you have not done an event in Vegas the costs might shock you. You have more than just the booth, you have travel, entertainment, inventory & swag to hand out, etc… It would not surprise me if someone like General spends well over $1M+. I can tell you that in 2016, our last Vegas show, our budget was north of 2.5M. For them the measurement seems to be orders placed, new store fronts and facings won. It doesn’t matter the number of people walking thru the door, it’s the quality. Did a B&M owner send someone authorized to buy, or just on a vacation? In the end the ultimate driver of what sells and is put on shelves is us, the consumer. Which gets back to the internet. We all get emails daily either from stores or directly from manufactures. The reach manufactures have now direct to the consumer is incredible. I see the power in the hand of the manufactures, not the PCA/ICPCR/CRA. If the 6 pull out, and by the way Villager did not show in 2019, smaller people will also pull out thinking there are no anchors there to draw the people.
The second main point I seemed to get from this was the disorganization at both the CRA and ICPCR and then the merger of the two. It seems they lost focus. In fighting on board members. It will be interesting to see what happens. If the PCS’s major cash infusion is the show and then membership dues then they might be in trouble. What I can tell you is that you single voice has more power sometime than any organization. Write your Congressmen/women. Tell them what you want, don’t tell them what you think, tell them what you want them to do. Hopefully this all gets sorted, maybe a new manufactures PAC gets organized?