Category: VAZO

“If you want to win the trust of consumers in a certain country and have a certain market acceptance in a certain country, you must understand, respect and accommodate the local people and culture.”

On June 15th, at the 2022 Electronic Cigarette Industry 6th Standardization Development Conference and the 1st Export Service Development Conference, how to further expand exports and establish a good brand image in the international market became a hot topic of the day. Gao Wenhan, Marketing Director of ZIPPO VAZO Greater China, said in an interview with reporters that a solid overseas market survey must be done before exporting.

On the day of the conference, the “2022 Electronic Cigarette Industry Export Blue Book” jointly produced by the Electronic Cigarette Committee of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce and the two supremes was released. The data shows that the global electronic cigarette market will exceed 100 billion US dollars in 2022. It is expected that by 2022 The scale of the overseas e-cigarette market will maintain a growth rate of 35% in 2018. In terms of exports, it is expected that the total export value of electronic cigarettes will also exceed 180 billion yuan in 2022, with an expected growth rate of 35%.

At present, there are more than 1,500 electronic cigarette manufacturers and brand enterprises in China, and more than 70% of them mainly export their products overseas. It can be seen that it is the general trend of the development of China’s electronic cigarette industry to continue to expand exports and actively export foreign exchange. So, how can domestic e-cigarette brands go abroad and quickly open up in the fiercely competitive international market? VAZO, a high-end electronic atomization brand inherited from ZIPPO in the United States, has its own unique experience in developing overseas markets.

According to reports, VAZO’s layout in overseas markets has been prepared for a long time. So far, various VAZO products have been exported to South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Spain, Kenya and other countries and regions. In Korea, VAZO has reached a channel cooperation with GS25, one of the largest local convenience store channels in Korea, and has achieved impressive results in product coverage and user mentality.

As the saying goes, “the troops and horses are not moved, the food and grass go first”. According to Gao Wenhan, in-depth market research is an essential step before VAZO enters every new overseas region. For example, visit local dealers, experience local market culture, hire local consultants, etc., trying to create localized products that meet local people’s preferences in terms of packaging, design, taste and other aspects.

Gao Wenhan believes that brands should focus on longer-term interests and truly prepare to embrace the market, so as to contribute to the virtuous circle between the market and consumers and the long-term development of the brand.

“For example, in the localization of products we made for African countries, we abandoned the original packaging pattern, but adopted many design elements with local African characteristics, so that the entire packaging is more in line with the aesthetics of the local population; In terms of taste adjustment, according to our preliminary research, different from domestic consumers’ preference for low cooling and low sweetness, African consumers prefer the taste with extreme sweetness and brightness. Some adjustments have been made.”

In addition, VAZO will hire cultural consultants locally. In order to understand the customs, taboos, etc. of each country in terms of culture, religion, customs, etc. Brands can be recognized by different consumers only if they respect the differences in different regions culturally.

According to reports, in order to adapt to the local Kenyan market, it took VAZO about three months to adjust the packaging design and product taste. “Although the time is long, our preparations in the early stage are still worthwhile. At present, we have done a good job in terms of sales volume, market share, and repurchase rate in the local area.”

As a typical African country, after Kenya entered the Kenyan market, it became much easier for VAZO to explore other African countries with similar cultural customs and consumption preferences, such as South Africa and Ethiopia. “Bringing Chinese products and Chinese culture to the world is what we want to see.”

At present, China’s e-cigarette export is still facing many challenges. Gao Wenhan believes that on the one hand, it is necessary to deal with the changing e-cigarette policies of various exporting countries. On the other hand, China’s e-cigarette products are seriously homogenized, which intensifies the competition in the industry. . To this end, on the one hand, we must do a good job in the localization of overseas markets; on the other hand, it is necessary to insist on making good products, innovate constantly, and make Chinese products into benchmark products in the global market.

ZIPPO VAZO, recently launched its own China-style vape series. VAZO’s new China-style vape series takes the use of IMD technology, which retains the color and is not easy to scratch, making it more delicate and durable.

VAZO integrates traditional culture with current trends to make products more fashionable. Incorporating innovative elements, combining traditional culture with current fashion trends creating more sparks. It not only satisfies young consumers’ pursuit of fashion but also inherits the excellent connotation of traditional culture.

VAZO settled in Yonghui Supermarket, starting a new offline retail mode

On April 24th, the electronic cigarette brand VAZO under Zippo officially entered Chongqing Yonghui Supermarket. Backed by Zippo’s big brand and excellent product design, VAZO gained extremely high popularity on the day it settled in.

This is not the first cooperation between VAZO and Yonghui Supermarket. As early as January this year, VAZO has settled in Chengdu Yonghui Supermarket. It is reported that VAZO’s cooperation with Yonghui Supermarkets in other parts of the country will also start one after another, and it is expected to reach 75% coverage by the end of this year. When purchasing VAZO at Yonghui Supermarket, all Yonghui Supermarkets will review the age of the purchaser in accordance with relevant national regulations to protect minors.

Since VAZO entered the market, there have been a number of important retail chains in the country that have cooperated with VAZO in many fields. On the basis of the original large and small Zippo flagship stores in the country, VAZO has also been exploring a variety of retail modes such as Flash store, shop-in-shop, professional flagship store, etc. By the end of 2020, VAZO will form a nationwide diversified sales matrix centered on large and small flagship stores, with large retail giants as network nodes, and a new retail model as an innovation breakthrough. It will cover more than 60% of cities in China with 100,000 sales points.

Enter VAZO official site to learn more:

VAZO official site

Since 2019, a number of e-cigarette brands have sprung up in China. It seems that all the entrants want to “fight a bloody way” in the new blue sea and win the attention of entrepreneurs. This fight includes famous domestic IP and Internet tycoons, etc.. However, these hot-blooded entrepreneurs are still trying to keep up with the situation that the national standards have not been released yet and the e-cigarette enterprises are burdened with unclear burdens of “Savage growth” once again to become the top brand.

ZIPPO, a new century crossing brand star in China’s e-cigarette track, was founded in the 1930s. With its own research on lighter windproof technology and excellent product design and quality control, ZIPPO has maintained a good reputation for many years. Zippo is serious about entering the e-cigarette industry.

First of all, in terms of product culture, ZIPPO’s cultural spirit of “I lead, more excellent” should be continued; as for product quality, it adheres to the consistent hard core product process standards, and has won a good reputation in the past hundred years with its serious operation attitude and humanistic after-sales service system. This reputation has also been influencing the industry’s self-discipline and promoting the orderly development of this emerging industry in the later industrial development stage.

It is the unique vision and profound foresight of Zippo brand, which has long seen a blue ocean of e-cigarette market: since 2014, ZIPPO has started to set up an e-cigarette category working group and carry out initial research and development; in 2018, ZIPPO manufacturing company registered a subsidiary company “VAZO”, which entered the e-cigarette market as a R & D and brand maker; in 2019, the integration institute with resources, it can better improve and respond to the brand management mode, and provide an integrated service system for the R & D and production, market operation and sales of Vazo vapes. For example, on the day of the launch of 618 shopping festival, the transaction volume of Vazo has entered the top 10 of e-cigarette category.

So, compared with other electronic cigarette products, what are the main aspects of the core competitiveness of Vazo with low profile and strength? On October 31, at the interview site of Zippo electronic cigarette trendy show, general manager Shi, project director of Vazo, gave the answer:

First, Vazo originates from the brand spirit of Zippo, inherits the cultural accumulation that Zippo has been proud of for a long time, and also has a unique understanding of the traditional industry. Its design concept is the same as Zippo;

Second, we believe that innovative products need more self-discipline of product manufacturers and strict requirements on product quality; all technologies that affect the safety of users must adopt mature schemes that have been tested by the market, and at the same time, with the company’s international resources, it introduces strict standardized inspection process and quality control management system that ZIPPO has long followed. VAZO has high standard inspection and process management processes in raw materials, processing, finished products, warehouse management, logistics and other stages to ensure the traceability of each product;

Third, in order to avoid the trend of product homogeneity in the market, Mr. Shi first affirmed the excellent visual effect and personalized selection brought by Vazo diversified pannels;

This kind of perfect presentation which combines practicality and artistry in the market segmentation is the necessary way to establish the brand image.

Vazo, with Zippo’s blood, based on brand appeal, with sound inherent channels and emerging channels as the link, constantly transmits healthy and rational correct consumption concepts to its consumer groups, as well as its corporate culture and social responsibility.

For the “sense of social responsibility” that Vazo constantly emphasizes, Mr. Shi told the media, “as a global international brand, we have been committed to multi-dimensional technology exploration in different markets and regions.

At present, the international definition of e-cigarettes and the emphasis on emerging industries tend to be the same, but there are differences in regulatory methods. ZIPPO brand is born with this industry. We have a deeper understanding of the industry and the state of human existence, and our yearning for healthy life is more urgent. We hope to exchange more support and cooperation with the continuous open business philosophy through longer exploration and efforts. ”

And is it really useful to simply emphasize “social responsibility” when the national standard is still waiting for that? Mr. Shi replied that Vazo will meet the challenge with the process standard of hard core products for two reasons:

I. The promulgation of national laws, regulations and standards is only a matter of time. I believe that the state will treat the emerging products of this category with an open and inclusive attitude, and make positive guidance on the standardization of products and the planning of use scenarios, which lays a more solid foundation for us to enter the industry orderly;

2. We will directly prompt “prohibit the sale of such products to minors” on the product packaging and identification. At the same time, we will take more strict intervention management on the sales policy by using the technical means of traceability to ensure the implementation of this regulation. In addition, Vazo does not encourage non-smokers to try such products.

At the end of the interview, the reporter was deeply impressed by a remark made by the representative of Vazo on behalf of general manager Shi, “China has the largest number of smokers in the world, and we hope to bring you a safer, more secure and healthier vaping concept from the material of device to the raw material of e-liquid with our own brand influence.”. But here, smokers are advised to pay attention to the health of themselves and their relatives and friends, and reduce the environmental pollution caused by tobacco burning by switching to vapes. ”

In China, there are many e-cigarette companies focusing on cash burning marketing and packaging mode, but few of them focus on brand image and excellent product quality. As a result, the market environment of China’s industry is becoming increasingly severe. E-cigarette practitioners, especially those who have experienced a decade of ease in the early stage of the industry, to the capital gambling Shenzhen e-cigarette factory, all feel that this is not the same as before.

Therefore, to develop the electronic cigarette industry in China, it is necessary to support more innovative technologies and enterprises. We can only expect that this industry is in the ascendant. All parties should show their own strength and achieve more excellent brands with value orientation rather than single price orientation.

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