Turkish Royal cigarettes feature stylish, light-gray lines along the length of the cigarette paper, and the filter is tipped with a distinctive golden-tan, crisscross patterned paper.

According to Scott Rhodes, vice president of marketing for Camel, the new style responds to consumer requests for a richer, more mellow version of Camel's classic flavor.

"Camel Turkish Royal's smooth, rich taste, slightly sweet aroma, and its distinctively smooth finish differentiate it from the brand's other Turkish styles and appeal to a wide variety of adults," Rhodes says.

Rhodes also notes that the "Turkish family styles," Turkish Royal, Turkish Gold, and Turkish Jade, play an important role in Camel's brand-building efforts.

"The brand has a distinctively different taste because Turkish tobacco is the smoothest, most aromatic leaf in the world," he says.

Rhodes notes that the brand employs a unique approach to marketing Camel's three Turkish styles.

"By promoting the Turkish styles together, our goal is to maximize trial and awareness of all three styles among adult smokers of competitive brands, build on the success of Turkish Gold and Turkish Jade, and, ultimately, continue to grow Camel's market share," says Rhodes. Camel will make adult smokers aware of Turkish Royal's availability through a range of marketing support, including direct mail, event marketing, and retail promotions and displays.

The new paper-coated boxes, which replace the former plain wooden boxes, are fresher and livelier, due to the new full color artwork. Foil trim and embossing detail enhance their rich look, and impart a feeling of luxury to the cigars.

"This transition to the new box design increases the draw for customers to the retailer's shelf," reports Miranda. "This added attractiveness enhances Tatiana's identity and increases product rotation for the retailer."

The new box design is the latest in a series of moves by Miami Cigar to increase in-store awareness for Tatiana cigars, joining a double-facing door decal and eye-catching Tatiana counter-top mat.

"The new box art is a special enhancement to the prestigious image of the Classic, with its crystal tube packaging," Miranda added.

When launched in May 2001, Sequoia brought to market two other breakout flavors in the snuff category: Mountain Cider and Cinnamon Ice. The brand features a unique "twist-off" lid that is an improvement over the traditional snap-on lids.

"Sequoia, through its flavor profiles, packaging, and image, meets the lifestyle attitude of those who like to do things their own way, and who seek products that are new and different," said Mark Whitfield, director, new business development, Swedish Match North America. That life-style attitude is reflected in the marketing tag line: 'Sequoia. Stand Tall,' which reflects and supports the individualism of the target Sequoia consumer, males 21 to 34 years of age, says Whitfield.

"The new packaging provides our first invitation for competitive smokers to step into the new 'house of menthol'," said Ludo Cremers, the company's divisional vice president of marketing.

The new Kool packaging went on sale in May. "We Built the House of Menthol" advertising began appearing in magazines and newspapers this summer, and promotional programs and events, will support Kool throughout the year.

The Kool test market conducted in Hawaii earlier this year and comprehensive consumer research show that the eye-popping new package is a perfect fit with the Kool brand strategy, Cremers said. Both current Kool consumers and competitive menthol smokers rate the new Kool packaging as 'up to date,' 'high energy,' 'high quality,' and 'for someone like me.' Kool will continue to be supported by the "We Built the House of Menthol" advertising campaign designed by Bates USA. An aggressive national advertising and merchandising effort, which includes magazines, newspapers, direct mail, point of sale material, and retail merchandising fixtures, will consistently support Kool throughout the marketplace.

Blunt Wrap tobacco shells are a combination of homogenized tobacco wrapper and binder shaped into the form of a tube. They have a circular memory and seal when licked, making the rolling very process similar to RYO cigarettes.

Blunt Wrap tobacco tubes are ideal for smokers who enjoy mixing their own tobaccos to create their own signature cigar. Smokers can use Blunt Wrap's own Gourmet Rolling Tobacco, a medium cigar blend offered in .5 oz pouches, five pouches per countertop POS display. For a stronger smoke, the company suggests smokers use any favorite RYO cigarette tobacco.

The tubes come in eight flavors: cognac, chocolate, vanilla, berry, champagne, honey, cool mint, and punch. "We spent years testing and re-testing our flavors to get them right," said Danny Sinclair, company president. Single packaged Blunt Wraps are offered in boxes of 25. They also come in five packs - 10 five packs to a carton.

The entire line, consisting of Full Flavor, Light, Menthol, and Virginia blends, received a package design update, giving the product line a colorful, coordinated look at the counter. McClintock, produced in Denmark, is a high quality cigarette tobacco packaged and priced for value. Its 1.25 oz. pouch contains 65% more tobacco than competitive brands, and the 14 oz. can is exclusive to the brand.

"The Perdomo Estate Selección Maduro is a cigar my father [Nick Perdomo, Sr.] and I thought about producing shortly after the release of our Estate Selección in 2000," said Nick Perdomo, Jr., President of Tabacalera Perdomo. We were both extremely pleased with the Estate; we knew it was the finest cigar we had ever made, but we also know you can never rest. You can never be satisfied. At that time, we had some beautiful, oily maduro Cuban-seed wrapper that had been aging for three years, but we wanted it to age even longer. Now that the Estate Maduro has been aging for five years, we are ready to release it."

The Perdomo Estate Selección Maduro will only be distributed to Tabacalera Perdomo Estate Selección Appointed Merchants, similar to that of the current Estate Selección line. Production of the Perdomo Estate Selección Maduro has been limited to 250,000 cigars, and is available in five unique sizes: the Imperio (5 x 48, $8 retail); the Regente (5 x 54, $9 retail); the Aristocrata (7 x 54, $10 retail); the "Prestigio" (6 x 55, $11 retail); and the Monstro (6 x 54-60, $12 retail).

All Perdomo Estate Selección cigars are carefully packaged on their original box-pressed aging trays and then stored in humidified laser-engraved royal mahogany boxes lined in aromatic Spanish cedar. The Perdomo "Estate Selección" is then box-aged for an additional 14 months before shipment to retailers is permitted.

"Our experimentation, and sampling by key retailers, taught us the two essences harmonize into one distinctively intriguing flavor," explained Indianhead president Bill Bock . "When our testers reported not only a pleasant and unique flavor, but also favorable comments from nearby people, we knew we had an enticing cigar."

Retailer's costs for the new Sweet Vanilla Rum line are identical to the natural Premium Value Hondurans: the Corona (5 1/2 x 42) is 58˘, the Toro (6 x 50) 62˘, and the Churchill (7 x 46) is 66˘. "That's a lot of premium cigar for the money," states Bock.

Like the original Premium Value Hondurans, Sweet Vanilla Rum flavored cigars are made at Nestor Plasencia's new factory in Danli, Honduras. The wrapper tobacco, grown in Honduras by Plasencia, is Connecticut-seed shade-grown. The filler, also Plasencia-grown, is Honduran and Nicaraguan leaf.

Sweet Vanilla Rum cigars are presented in wooden boxes of 50. Bock reports, "Retailers say this is a cigar they've been looking for, and they're available now from Indianhead." The first shipment of the original Premium Value Honduran cigars sold out almost immediately, reports Bock, noting that "Customers have found the handmade, all tobacco Premium Value Honduran line is an irresistible value that competes head-on with lower quality machine-made cigars containing non-tobacco ingredients."