Long Halfwheel article about the IPCPR / PCA, well worth a read

Started by Kid Montana, 01/14/2020 05:52 PM

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Cfickter

Wow, what a great read.
I have been involved in trade shows for my company for over 30 years.  I have done dozens and dozens of trade shows around the world from small 10X20 booths to over 90,000 square feet in Vegas.  What is in the article about the trade show side concerning questionable attendance numbers, costs, and value is common in a lot of shows.  Maybe most of them.  It is the quality of the attendee that matters not the quantity.  When you have an organization whose major source of income is related to a trade show or event, then they will do the money grab.

What I felt most disconcerting was it seems the people who have out voice in DC has lost their focus.  In fighting, executive leadership out of touch with its constituents, feeling they know more and better than the people who they serve.  Seems evident they are biting the hand that feeds them.  

Does make me wonder if 6 major companies can pull out of the CRA, why am I there?
Guru Master of the Minions

Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms should be a convenience store, not a department of our government!

Gunga galunga ... gunga, gunga-lagunga." - Carl Spackler

Education is important, cigars are importanter!

I like long walks, especially when they're taken by people who annoy me





05Venturer

"Does make me wonder if 6 major companies can pull out of the CRA, why am I there?"
My thoughts exactly Chuck :confused:
Kent
 Guru of Cynicism & Cigars

"Pump the brakes; you take your shirt off but leave your sunglasses on?" "What sort of backwards !@#$ing pageantry is that?" "You going to fight with those shades or play pokerstars.com?"

Kid Montana

Kinda depends on why you joined CRA in the first place.  Should the manufacturers do all the lobbying and political outreach for us, the consumers?


I'd rather have a cigar...

wescat

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In most realms, tranquility comes from ownership.
Order ensues when everyone totes their own water.  
Stand firm, and never let the bastards grind you down.  
Life's arc is primarily charted between ones ears.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
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Hell is where the police are German, the lovers Swiss, the mechanics French, the chefs British, and it is all organized by the Italians.
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BewareDaPenguin

Sweet will check it out at the gym! Started n sounds good! Thanks for link!
"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't." - Jack Dempsey

"Things do not happen. Things are made to happen." - JFK

sweatsock

I wonder how many cigar smokers are like me; only buy online and don't chase the new stuff. From my perspective there was nothing surprising in the article. I've got purchase emails from JR going back to 2002 and my online buying and not buying at B&M predates that.

Cfickter

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 :confused:

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?

Guru Master of the Minions

Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms should be a convenience store, not a department of our government!

Gunga galunga ... gunga, gunga-lagunga." - Carl Spackler

Education is important, cigars are importanter!

I like long walks, especially when they're taken by people who annoy me





tuck0411

From the article: "Two of the four—Altadis and General—are owned by companies that also own three of the largest catalog/internet retailers: Cigars International and Thompson (both owned by General's parent STG)"...  I guess that explains why I got a couple of five packs with Thompson labels on them in my last box from C-bid.  That one had me scratching my head, but it makes sense now.
Todd

"Those sticks won't smoke themselves..." -- OZZ


   
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