Thinking Outside the Box: Inside Avanti’s Rebranding

Do your brands and packaging need a reset? Find out the process Avanti Cigars went through to rebrand its well-known brands for a new generation of cigar smokers

Changing the branding and packaging of Parodi Holdings dba Avanti Cigar Company products was not a decision made on a whim; it came after analyzing sales data and identifying weak points in the business. Following its acquisition, Manifatture Sigaro Toscano SpA (MST) had a clear plan: to hit the ground running and take advantage of Avanti’s history in the U.S. market. To get a sense of where the brands really stood, the company launched a consumer data-gathering campaign that ran until June 2016 and gathered feedback from 874 U.S. cigar smokers.

The research and re-evaluation included redefining the values of both brands, which led the company to realize that Avanti’s middle- and upper-class consumers typically purchased their cigars because of their unique taste, the affordable price and the company’s Italian heritage. These qualities brought customers to their brand and created a sense of brand loyalty. Newer customers purchased Avanti products hoping to be provided with what the company defines as the “ultimate smoking experience.” Parodi brand customers, on the other hand, were in search of a more traditional and masculine experience. Across all the brands, the use of Kentucky fire-cured tobacco and the American craftsmanship that went into the products were common strengths that set the products apart from competitors’ brands on the market.

The strategic changes to better position the brands will impact existing and future product releases as well as marketing strategies. Avanti’s focus will be providing adult smokers with long-lasting flavor, while Parodi will experiment with different vitolas and tobaccos to offer smokers a 100 percent natural and intense dark fire-cured smoking experience. The company also had a lot of qualitative data provided by Kantar TNS to consider in the repositioning of its brands. While the old packaging was found to strongly convey tradition, comfort and a classic style, it was also viewed as a bit cartoonish and old-fashioned. If the company wanted to attract new cigar smokers, it would need to innovate and refresh its brands’ appearance.

The Big Reveal
The biggest challenge in coming up with a new look for its brands was finding the right balance between the need to change and the greater need to not disappoint or completely disrupt the connection its loyal customers had to these well-known brands and products.
“This was our biggest fear until we tested the options, both on brand users and then on those users not yet buying our brands,” Simeone explains. “Despite our first gut reaction that the change would not be welcomed by all current users, we knew that the risk of losing our current buyers would be limited, provided that we did a good job in informing them about the change and letting them know that the new look would not impact the products and their prices.”

The winning package designs better communicate the values of the Avanti and Parodi brands and create a new synergy with the quality of the company’s premium cigar products. For the Avanti brand, it was important to convey to consumers that its cigars were available in a variety of flavors and manufactured by a cigar business founded by Italian immigrants. Avanti wanted to communicate the unique and strong flavors of its cigars and that its products are made with some of the finest hand-picked Kentucky fire-cured tobacco available. Parodi’s new branding, on the other hand, had to communicate many of these same things as well as the fact that its cigars come in a variety of different and unique shapes.

The new packaging aims to connect with customers on a nostalgic level. While continuing to communicate in a direct and impactful way, the design strives to illustrate a better connection between brand, SKU and increased value.

“Packaging is powerful because it tells consumers why your product and brand are different,” Simeone explains. “The re-styling we did strives to reassure the current consumers that the quality is always going to be the same. We have kept the key elements of the historical brands, but at the same time we wanted to communicate the premium characteristics of our cigars. The packages feature only one color and make it easier for the consumers to navigate through our different cigars. The elegance of the new packs is a seal of guarantee of the best quality.”

New Look, Same Quality
With the new packaging hitting the market this summer, Avanti is excited to reintroduce its cigars after spending more than two years repositioning and rebranding their historic brands. The new look for the brands will bring more clarity to the company’s marketing and sales efforts, focusing on the premium and superior quality of the Avanti and Parodi brands while making them more visually compelling. Changing the branding required a lot of investment, both in manpower and time, but the company expects to see a big return as the brands connect with their customers, new and old. While its branding has undergone what some will see as a big change, the company wants its customers to know that the quality of its cigars and the price point will remain unchanged.

This story first appeared in the July/August 2018 issue of Tobacco Business magazine. Members of the tobacco industry are eligible for a complimentary subscription to our magazine. Click here for details.

– Story by Antoine Reid, an editor and digital content director for Tobacco Business Magazine. You can follow him on Instagram @editor.reid.