From E-Liquid to Charging Cables: How Leading Manufacturers Win Consumers with Ever-Longer Product L

When brands are addicted to racing around with longer and longer product lines, will they limit their customer pool and shut out potential consumers at some point in the future? When it comes to disputes about consumers 'right to choose independently, will a similar "family bucket" strategy be suspected of kidnapping?

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From tobacco oil to charging cables: 

How can leading manufacturers occupy the minds of consumers with their increasingly long product lines?

Wen| Two top CHalotte Yu

[Two Supreme Origins] Recently, Imperial Tobacco's subsidiarye-cigarette brandsblu launched its own in the UKsmoke oilBrand--blu liquid. The product line consists of 10 flavors including mint, blueberry, and green apple. The nicotine content is available in two sizes: 9mg/ml and 18mg/ml. The price is 3.99 pounds.

The BLU brand was founded in the United States by Jason Healy and was acquired by American tobacco company Lorillard in 2012. Subsequently, Imperial Tobacco acquired the international copyright of BLU in 2015 and launched blu2.0 in France in 2022. The launch of blu liquid marks the official development of blu's tobacco and oil line.

Tobacco oil landscape of leading manufacturers

It has been a long time since leading brands in the UK market began to produce tobacco oil products. There are currently many on the markete-cigarettesThe brand has launched its own tobacco oil brands, such as ELFBAR, VUSE, SKE and ELUX, with specifications concentrated in 10ml and the price is stable at around 4 pounds (about US$5.09).

Take ELFBAR as an example. The ELFBAR online shows that there are 27 varieties of tobacco oil on sale, including desserts, fruit flavors, cool flavors, and tobacco flavors, covering almost all flavors. 10ml of tobacco oil costs 3.95 pounds (about US$5.02).

 ELFBAR owns its own tobacco oil brand| Source: Screenshot from official website

The tobacco oil launched by SKE claims to be "nicotine saltBase ", offering 10 flavors. The price tag for 10ml is also 3.95 pounds (about US$5.02), and 3 pieces are 10 pounds. Nicotine concentrations are available at 10mg or 20mg.

 SKE Crystal owns its own tobacco oil brand| Source: Screenshot from official website

ELUX's cigarette oil launched in the UK in May 2023 has a slightly higher price of 3.99 pounds (about US$5.08) for 10ml on shopping websites, and a nicotine concentration is also available in 10mg or 20mg. An industry insider familiar with the UK market recently revealed to 2FIRSTS that the monthly sales of this tobacco oil in the UK are estimated to reach 3 million bottles.

 Elux owns its own tobacco oil brand| Source: Screenshot of shopping website

As for British American Tobacco's VUSE, the deployment is more "elegant". Its official British online store shows 54 types of tobacco oil on sale. Specifications are in terms of number of mouthfuls. The price of tobacco oil for 1,900 mouthfuls is 6.99 pounds (approximately US$8.89). It provides a choice of 5 nicotine concentrations from zero to 18mg. It also provides ordering services starting from £ 4.29 (2 cigarettes per package), and delivers tobacco oil to customers every month.# p#pagination title #e#

 VUSE owns its own tobacco oil brand| Source: Screenshot from official website

FMCG "Family Bucket": Mental Occupy and "Affordable" Strategies

Extending the product line has become one of the brand's strategies to "create public relations image" and "occupy users 'minds". This strategy, nicknamed by consumers as the "family bucket", has been proven to be a reasonable strategy in research in other industries from the perspective of reducing consumer choice costs and increasing user loyalty.

This method has a long history in the field of FMCG brands. Taking recent practice as an example, Tsingtao Beer has launched a bottle opener based on alcoholic drinks; while Drip sells core disinfection products, it also launched its brand of liquid portable containers. These measures to gradually extend product lines around core businesses are helping users establish product selection preferences in order to occupy consumers 'minds.

 Bottle opener launched by Tsingtao Beer| Source: Screenshot of Tsingtao Beer's official website

Electronic 3C products also rely on the same method to create their own closed ecosystem. The most typical example is the operating system that is interoperable within Apple's devices andcloudServices. When users accept the ecological environment and the cost of transplanting increases, their willingness to switch to other brands during subsequent product iterations will also decrease.

The same is true for game consoles: when you only own a Nintendo console, you are less likely to buy games from Sony software; and when all game discs at home are versions on the PS platform, when upgrading the console, you are less likely to switch to Nintendo.

To the present day, e-cigarettes are still essentially a process of atomization through technology and then ingesting by the human body. E-cigarettes, which have both the attributes of "FMCG" and "technological product", seem to be "destined" to embark on this path.

Of course, the technological barriers of e-cigarettes are no different than host platforms. Basically, there will be no situation where "brand A's equipment cannot smoke brand B's cigarette oil."Brands have launched cigarette oil brands one after another, and more importantly, it is a kind of mental occupation.

In addition to the "psychological level" layout, profit-making at the price level is a more practical strategy.

Based on the current industry average atomization efficiency, 10ml provides a suction experience of about 3500 puffs. The self-owned cigarette oil lines of the above brands are all lower than the local selling price of disposable products with similar number of puffs (e.g. ELUX disposable product Elux Legend 3500) PUFFs sells for about £ 9, which is about 2.5 times the price of equivalent tobacco oil).

 Elux Legend 3500 puffs sells for around £ 9| Source: Screenshot of shopping website

Overall, the "open + tobacco oil" product combination is more affordable than one-time products. Under the premise of economic downturn and insufficient consumer confidence, it is the general trend for consumers to turn to cheaper options.

Hold the chain leader position

Marcello Balestra, head of Set Spa, the Italian exclusive distributor of ELFBAR's first officially owned tobacco oil brand ELFLIQ, said when the product entered Italy in May last year that ELFBAR's move is moving towards a more environmentally friendly direction while maintaining its original characteristics. At the same time, it saves consumers money.# p#pagination title #e#

But this is hard to say the whole picture. Beyond the marketing level, the driving force for more brands to launch tobacco oil products is still commercial convenience and benefits.

Wuma Technology announced on January 4 that its subsidiary Ispire has completed ISO certification at its Malaysian factory. Michael Wang, the company's co-CEO, pointed out that its own factory in Malaysia will enable Ispire to achieve product assembly.greater profitsIt also reflects Wuma Technology's ambition to fully establish its own tobacco product production line under control of the income of the production chain.

There is a logic in this: as the global market share of e-cigarettes continues to expand, the bargaining power of tobacco oil and other suppliers is also expected to increase. Because the room for cooperation with other friends will increase, especially core suppliers such as atomizing cores and tobacco oil, it is not impossible to build their own brands and achieve direct sales.

After all, not all companies are Apple, which can control suppliers through a strong vertical management system. However, its method is always of reference significance: if we can open up upstream and downstream, reduce communication costs with tobacco oil manufacturers, and strictly control production costs, so as to gain greater profit margins and price competitiveness. In addition to consolidating its position as a chain owner, it will also bring practical benefits to the brand: brands with factories will have more obvious terminal advantages when their size expands.

Not only the major factories mentioned above, not just the European market limited by 2ML, more and more e-cigarette brand manufacturers have begun to enter the market in order to improve their comprehensive competitiveness and industrial layout. e.g. Russianvape ExpoAt VAPE CLUB SHOW 2023, e-cigarette brand SOAK revealed to 2FIRSTS that the company will launch a new product line in March 2024, all using the brand's own cigarette oil.

 E-cigarette brand SOAK's booth at VAPE CLUB SHOW 2023| Source: 2FIRSTS

In the future, perhaps disposable e-cigarette brands will also join the "open equipment". After holding both "machine" and "oil" in their hands, brands will be one step closer to a truly closed ecosystem.

Deep binding and compliance prospects

As for the leading manufacturer's own cigarette oil product line, although there is a high probability that it is an OEM product, the brand's initiative to "sign" the cigarette oil can at least deeply bind the quality of imported products to the brand. Establish a certain "credit system" between producers and consumers in the market, and objectively urge brands to tighten quality control and achieve healthy development.

In March 2023, the FDA proposed to establish a traceability system. Whether it is OEM or self-developed, the brand's own tobacco and oil line can help people other than producers grasp the chain links to the greatest extent and facilitate traceability by consumers, distributors and regulators.

Another concern is about compliance. Since 2021, a one-off wave has swept the world for all. However, while veteran e-cigarette players and traditional tobacco have entered the one-time battlefield, a number of upstart brands such as ELFBAR, Lost Mary, and SKE Crystal that have made a fortune in one time have also launched replacement products in 2023.

 SKE's new bomb replacement product is priced at £ 7.99| Source: Screenshot from official website

This advance and retreat may show from the side that some manufacturers lack confidence in the future compliance of disposable products. So far, the tobacco oil capacity of disposable products that can enter the European market in compliance cannot exceed 2ml. However, a conventional size of tobacco oil can reach 10ml; and many countries have relatively strict policies on disposable products. An example is Australia, which will ban the entry of disposable products into the country from January 1, 2024.# p#pagination title #e#

How long is a one-time life cycle? whether it ise-cigarette marketLong-term "version answer"? Where will the future regulatory policy for it go? These unknowns all urge one-time brands to put a "safety lock" ahead of time and layout the road of transformation. Tobacco oil may be one of the chess pieces.

What will be after tobacco oil?

From the perspective of consumer portraits, these products are aimed at players who pursue cost-effectiveness, can operate atomization equipment to a certain extent, and are not satisfied with the "lazy bag" disposable e-cigarettes.

The product catalog on VUSE's official website currently includes the option of "accessories", including charging cables, storage holders and sanitary filters.

 The "Accessories" page of VUSE's official website| Source: Screenshot from official website

From the perspective of consumers, this is a "one-stop" shopping service; from the brand side, this is a "add-on" profit channel. However, these products launched around the "better nicotine intake experience" have gradually decoupled from the brand image as they gradually move away from the core "nicotine (atomizing core, tobacco oil)" link.

Is this weak relationshipcanMaintain it? Or whether this weak relationshipit is necessaryMaintain it?

Everything has two sides. Apple products that are determined to build an independent ecosystem are also facing poor compatibility problems, which limits the conversion of Android users to Apple users. When brands are addicted to racing around with longer and longer product lines, will they limit their customer pool and shut out potential consumers at some point in the future? When it comes to disputes about consumers 'right to choose independently, will a similar "family bucket" strategy be suspected of kidnapping?

2FIRSTS will continue to report on the brand's own tobacco oil product line and more derivative products.

Related reading: [1] Interview with SOAK: Policy direction is unpredictable. Brand self-developed tobacco oil will be launched in March next year.[2] The FDA plans to propose three new e-cigarette manufacturing regulations involving tobacco oil concentration, environmental protection and traceability systems.[3] Inventory of the top ten launches. E-cigarette brands with self-owned tobacco oil products: ELFBAR, Lost Mary, SKE, VUSE, ELUX, etc.

This article is an original article of Shenzhen Liangzizhang Technology Co., Ltd., and its copyright and license rights belong to the company. No unit or individual may copy, reprint or use other methods to infringe the company's copyright without authorization. The company will retain the right to pursue its legal responsibilities.

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