Scenario One: While checking out at his local tobacco shop, a loyal customer complains that his restaurant job recently banned smoking, seriously cutting down on his smoking breaks. He relays how hours before quitting time, he is dying for even one puff.
Scenario Two: Another longtime tobacco customer is trying to cut down on her costly cigarette consumption. She mentions this as she pays for her carton, indicating it may be awhile before her next purchase.
In both cases, it would pay for the tobacco outlet to be up on the latest in nicotine delivery systems—without the smoke. Companies are touting that they curb smoking cravings with less harmful effects.
Nicorette Gum was perhaps the first such product of its kind—but because it was (and still is) promoted primarily as an aid to quit smoking, tobacco retailers were unlikely to carry it. Now, with such harsh smoking bans in effect, and with smokers looking for tobacco alternatives in many forms, it makes sense for the outlet channel to be up on the alternative category—lest their customers go elsewhere to find it. And now there are new forms, such as water and “minty” pellets, with quite a different push.
Currently, the drug channel has been the quickest to embrace some of these alternatives. Tobacco outlets should make room for them in their accessory sets—and be prepared to “chat them up” when the timing is right with customers.
NICLite, with more than nine years of research and development, is an organic nicotine molecule equally suspended in eight ounces of pure water and is classified as a Dietary Supplement by the FDA, according to its company, NICO Worldwide, Inc. One eight ounce bottle has just under the nicotine equivalent of two cigarettes. It is said to be odorless, tasteless, and colorless, but with a clear benefit to smokers.
“The effects of one bottle can be felt within five minutes and can last for several hours,” says Martin Simon, vice president of sales and marketing. “Basically, smokers drink the water and their digestive systems break it down enough to where it’s not addictive. For three hours or more, they don’t want to smoke a cigarette.” He adds that “water is the safest delivery system known to man, making NICLite the perfect choice when customers want to smoke but can’t or shouldn’t.”
According to the company, NICLite has an advantage over patches and gums, which contain harmful chemicals. It, on the other hand, is made up merely of purified water, four milligrams of nicotine, and a low-sodium preservative that give it a one-year shelf-life.
The product was initially launched in airports with the thinking that it was a perfect solution to smokers taking long flights, where they are not allowed to smoke. Certainly, any tobacco outlet in the vicinity of an airport would be wise to look into the product, as well as others who have customers that complain of smoking bans.
The first wave of the product was made available in water with “just a hint of lemon,” according to Simon, but there are plans underway to launch some new added flavors very soon, including berry and green tea.
One of the most important goals of the company is to change the stigma associated with nicotine. In its company
literature, it quotes from The New England Journal of Medicine, which reported that in its natural state, and when ingested through the digestive system, nicotine is safe and non-toxic—and does not present the health hazards associated with smoking cigarettes.
Simon suggests that retailers who carry the water make more people aware that nicotine not only occurs naturally in tobacco and some teas, but in many of the “night shade” vegetables, such as tomatoes, potatoes, red peppers, and eggplant.
The nicotine molecule is also “showing great promise in medical research,” according to Simon.
Ariva and Stonewall Hard Snuff dissolvable tobaccos are Star Scientific’s delivery systems of smoke-free tobaccos with low levels of a group of carcinogens called tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), which public health experts have claimed pose at least a 90 percent reduction in risk compared with smoking. Unlike snus products that require users to insert, and then later discard, a pouch in the mouth, these two patented products are bits of powdered and compressed tobacco that dissolve away in the user’s mouth, leave no residue, and require no spitting.
Ariva and Stonewall are available with wintergreen flavoring; a Stonewall Natural flavor was introduced in March. An additional flavor, Java, is being developed for both products, should be available by this article’s print date. The new dissolvable product flavors will be identified in the marketplace as “Better than Cigarettes—Find Out Why,” according to Jonnie R. Williams, CEO.
Just this summer, the company increased its national distribution to include all three major drug chains—a force that tobacco outlets need to contend with if they want to be “all-encompassing” in the category. So additionally, the company recently has expanded its sales network by adding more than 40 new distribution centers, which are capable of making the products available to approximately 50,000 retail outlets.
First-quarter 2007 sales of Ariva and Stonewall Hard Snuff increased 136 percent compared with sales for first-quarter 2006, and the company continues to “explore licensing opportunities” for those products with other tobacco companies. Star has also stated that “the continuing publication of research addressing the risk reduction that can result from smokers transitioning from cigarettes to low-TSNAs smokeless products” will “complement its efforts to broaden consumer education and awareness.” •
