Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. once wrote, “Economists are about as useful as astrologers in predicting the future, and, like astrologers, they never let failure on one occasion diminish certitude on the next.” And while this may be a bit harsh on those who make their living forecasting market trends (not to mention handicappers and psychics), it can’t be denied that going with one’s own instincts rather than the accepted knowledge is what separates successful people from those who merely get by. Making the right call in a risky, volatile marketplace can mean the difference between a place on Park Avenue and one on the park bench.

Few foresaw, for example, the seemingly overnight proliferation of internet companies during the last decade, and fewer still were prepared for that over-inflated industry’s shake-out a scant few years later. The cigar industry has followed a similar path of unprecedented growth followed by a leveling off of the market in recent years. And yet, amidst the gloom and doom forecasted by some, there are companies that had their birth during the boom years that remain to this day, most of which have big plans for the future.

“Cigars are alive and well,” proclaims Bill Fader, president of the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America, without a hint of irony. “Some of the brands that came out during the boom years are gone, but the ones that are still in the marketplace today are those that have maintained quality, realistic prices, and good management. We’ve even had a number of new companies come into the business last year.”

So what sets the survivors apart from the flashes in the pan? With the assistance of some of the people who have steered their cigar start-ups to success in the post-boom era, we’ve narrowed it down to seven key factors. Budding cigar entrepreneurs out there are encouraged to take note.

1. Consistent High Quality at a Reasonable Price
You won’t find a cigar maker out there that disputes the importance of this factor. As the heady days of the cigar boom recede to a memory, today’s boutique brands place an emphasis on getting bang for the buck.

“You can’t fool the public,” warns Yossi Kviatkovsky, the president of Cupido Cigars. “When a cigar smoker supports your brand and likes your cigars, after a while he knows that cigar probably better than you do. And if it changes, for whatever reason, he knows it! I would definitely say that the key ingredient is creating the quality and maintaining its consistency.” Kviatkovsky, something of a maverick in the boutique cigar business, has spearheaded a unique effort to ensure the consistent quality of his brand: namely, controlling it from the tobacco-growing stage on up to the finished product. “Over the last couple years,” he reveals, “when our competitors were concentrating on increasing their sales, we concentrated on purchasing land on which to grow our own tobacco. Cupido is one of the few companies that produces its own tobacco.” Kviatkovsky believes that this is not only an important distinction, but also the wave of the future, and the key to long-term survival.

Gael DeCourtivon, head of La Luna Cigars, shares Kviatkovsky’s dedication to the industry. A veteran of the graphic arts business and a longtime connoisseur of wine, food, art, and cigars, DeCourtivon has always trusted his instincts above all else. “I think the reason I’m still in this business is that what I like is very marketable,” he jests. “I thank God that I happen to have a very commercial palate.”

He also has a firm grasp of today’s more competitive marketplace. “My perfectos are not more expensive than my parejos. Why? Because they don’t cost me more to make. I believe that you have to have competitive pricing. The market now is not the people who walk away from a store with three $10-$12 cigars every couple of weeks to smoke with their friends. The market now is the guys who walk in on a regular basis and buy boxes. And you cannot reach those people unless you have a very competitive price and a very, very good product to back it up.”

2. A Sound Marketing Strategy
Like any business venture, much work must be done before your product even approaches hitting the shelves. For people bitten by the cigar bug, building a business plan from the ground up is a labor of love, starting with giving your baby a name. Larry Meiselman, a former ad and promo guy, and Bob Spoden, an erstwhile designer of security systems, formulated the idea for Bucanero Cigars over drinks in a Costa Rican hotel in 1996.

Spoden reveals that the name of the cigars was initially suggested as a tribute to the football team of his hometown Tampa Bay, but later took on a more historic meaning. “I had no interest in naming our cigar after the Buccaneers,” he reflects, “but I got on the Internet and ran across the name bucañero, which is what they called the pirates who sailed from Spain to raid the Moor empires in Africa. Whatever they stole, they brought back and distributed on the docks to the townsfolk. In essence they were like a Robin Hood of the high seas. These pirates were instrumental in the early stages of spreading the cohiba (cigar). I thought the name had a nice ring to it.”

Meiselman actually saw the inevitable decline of the cigar “fad” as a marketing opportunity. “Whenever there’s a fad or ‘boom’ in any product, the people who remain after it ends are the consumers who are hardcore and demanding of a high-quality product,” Meiselman says. “We felt - correctly, it turned out - that the emergence of the boom would create for many people the love of smoking a good cigar. As far as the ‘fad smokers’ went, the ones who just held a cigar in their hand to look cool, those weren’t our market.”

“You can produce the greatest cigar in the world, but unless you market it properly, you’re going to wind up having to smoke your own product,” declares Kviatkovsky. Cupido - the brand’s moniker comes from the family name of one of his tobacco growers - succeeded with the tactic of slow, steady growth. The outspoken Kviatkovsky explained, “During the boom, even a dried piece of lettuce rolled into a cigar shape would have sold. It was difficult to get shelf space in stores, so we made the marketing decision to come out with one single cigar, our Churchill. We figured that because of the quality, we’d succeed in getting that one cigar on the shelf. There’s always room for one more box.” Cupido followed it up with a box-pressed size, and increased the line gradually, approximately one new one per year. Today, all boxes of Cupidos are numbered, and production on some lines is as low as 27,000 boxes, all to ensure strict quality control, according to Kviatkovsky. “We’re pretty discriminating about who gets cigars. We don’t sell over the internet, we don’t sell in discount or wholesale outlets. Our basic support comes from traditional tobacconists.”

3. Attractive, Eye-catching Packaging
The finest product in the world is likely to sit on shelves gathering dust if it fails to grab the attention of the consumer. Fortunately, many of today’s boutique cigar manufacturers put a great deal of toil and effort into their packaging, from the boxes down to the bands. Doug Wood, who founded La Perla Habana Cigars in 1996, dove into history for his inspiration. “I’ve been a collector of cigar label art for awhile,” he recollects, “and the old La Perla Habana label was probably the most coveted one in history. It’s very rare, and I’d been determined to find it, and finally did at an auction in ‘96. The label is a turn-of-the-century German lithograph, very detailed, very ornate, with lots of gold and bronzing powder, and 26 different colors. Even the hair of the girl in the illustration is embossed so you can see the waves. I registered the artwork and began production of the cigars.”

Wood saw it as a challenge to create a cigar that was worthy of the high-quality label art. “When you’re starting out with a relatively unknown brand, people are going to look at the overall picture - the packaging, the wrapper, the construction. When someone walks into a humidor, you only have a few seconds to get their attention. And the cigar needs to be as good as the label. I think, judging by the sales, that we’ve succeeded with that. ”

Carlos Toraño - who prefers to be called Charlie - is becoming known for meticulous presentation of his namesake brand of cigars. Toraño’s distinct packaging, incorporating double bands and glass cylinders, is part of an overall effort to make customers stand up and take notice of his eight-year old line of Nicaraguan cigars. “The competition is intense inside the humidor, particularly in the post-boom,” he acknowledges. “Hopefully, the consumer will look at the packaging, be attracted to it, and notice the attention paid to the details of it. The next leap we want them to make - which is accurate in our case - is that we’re also paying that much attention to the quality of the cigar.”

Another man whose innovative packaging has been a tremendous boon to his cigars’ popularity is Tony Borhani, the former retailer and nightclub owner who launched Bahia Cigars in 1993, becoming the first manufacturer to introduce Costa Rican-made cigars to the U.S. mass market. Borhani recalls seeing a sunset over the Bay of Havana while smoking one of his new cigars, and how its colors inspired the unique look and identity of Bahia: “I designed the band to be solid orange, fading to white. We were one of the first to do a band that was nontraditional, and very contemporary-looking. People made fun of me at the time. They said, ‘This will never sell!’

“I believe in tradition when it comes to the basics of cigar-rolling, but that’s about it. In other areas, I like to be different from everyone and everything else out there. I wanted something that reflected my personality. I love art, I love vivid colors. I used a bright yellow band for our maduro line, and I actually had to change it later, because everyone else started using yellow. It’s now a fiery red, also very noticeable. Our packaging certainly gets noticed a lot. And that was especially helpful in the beginning.”

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