Cigars, blues, hoodoo and muscle cars. An acquired taste.

Avalon Cigars is a premium, fine cigar company. The fine cigar market is a small one but very competitive. We built one from scratch.

Challenge

If you think starting a company—any company— is a challenge, imagine starting a tobacco company. Initially a passion project intended as a hobby for a niche market, Avalon Cigars got traction early which required serious business and marketing efforts, not to mention product development as well as distribution, funding and management.

No two cigars are the same therefore authenticity is Key.

Avalon needed funding, management and marketing.

Solution

With Avalon Cigars we created everything from the business and marketing plans to package design, including website, multi-media presentations, specialty items, investor communication and reports, trade show coordination and display design, public relations, vehicle wraps and so on.

Combining authentic Mississippi Delta blues with cigars seemed so obvious we wondered why no one had done it before.

Manufacturing was originally started in Miami, Florida but we eventually moved it to Estelli, Nicaragua to get the retail price in the sweet spot. Traveling frequently to create new blends and oversee the rollers and packaging, we found relationships with the people was more important than the logistics.

We solicited and received angel investment, structured on-shore and off-shore manufacturing deals and facilitated all marketing and promotions. The premium cigar business is flooded with Latin (Cuban) influenced marketing. To stand out we chose American authentic, ranging from blues and hoodoo to muscle cars.

After only 2 years in existence Avalon Cigars was the number one rated Lancero cigar in Cigar Aficionado’s May/June 2010 issue.

Client
Avalon Cigars

Think
Research
Competitive analysis
Business design
Brand identity
Messaging
Culture design
Product design
Service design
Process design
Program design
Interior design
Startup Consulting
Software
Personas
Marketing Strategy
Event Planning
Financial modeling
Executive services

Create
Naming
Logo development
Product prototype
Web development
App development
Packaging
Publication/editorial
Digital ads
Conventional ads
Collateral
Event materials
Audio/visual

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Inbound marketing
Outbound marketing
Conventional marketing
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Direct sales
Customer acquisition
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