How These Cigar Bands Revolutionized the Cigar Business
It’s hard to believe, but a simple strip of paper (the cigar bands we pretty much take for granted today) revolutionized the entire cigar business.
The story of cigar bands starts in the early 1800s – Gustav Bock was a cigar maker in Cuba who exported his cigars to Europe, and he developed a reputation for making excellent cigars. His problem was that there was no way to differentiate his cigars from other inferior cigars and unscrupulous cigar makers who claimed their cigars were made by Gustav Bock.
Bock came up with a creative, but simple solution in around 1830 – he made simple white paper bands that he hand signed, and affixed them to his cigars. These are generally credited as being the first cigar bands as we know them today.
His solution was inexpensive and effective – his sales skyrocketed. The success of the early cigar band was not lost on other Cuban cigar makers. Ramone Allones, one of the founding fathers of the Cuban cigar industry, quickly jumped on the idea and by 1850 virtually all Cuban-made cigars had paper or foil bands.
Although we take it for granted today, the idea of branding was a revolutionary concept in the mid-1800s. Most products - including cigars – were sold in bulk out of boxes or barrels, and consumers were hard pressed to develop any loyalty to any particular manufacturer since it was almost impossible to differentiate one brand from another.
Banding of cigars changed all that. It gave cigar makers the motivation needed to make the best cigars possible in hopes that smokers would become loyal and seek out their cigars.
As a result of the trust that branding cigars provided to consumers, the cigar industry grew by leaps and bounds from 1850 through the early 1900s. It is said that as many as 4-out-of-5 American men were cigar smokers during this period.
Today, cigar bands are perhaps the most important marketing tool that cigar makers have. From simple to elaborate, cigar bands are a mainstay of modern cigars.
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