One of the blogs I read is Creating Passionate Users, its a good read, about how to properly market whatever it is that you are peddling. They have some nice points, even if you don’t talk the marketing language, I still recommend you give it a read, it is great general information stuff. I certainly am no master car sales man, but this stuff is just so basic it is compelling. Not enough companies out there are doing anything to keep you interested in their product, really, I can not think of many, yet even with all the “smokers being treated like leppers” stuff that goes on today, I have to admit, the folks over at Phillip Morris USA are pretty on point.

Yep, you caught me, I am a smoker. I know it is bad for me, there is no argument there, but god damn it, i am a grown up and I know what I am doing. Not a day goes by now that I don’t get reminded that some tree hugging liberal has a better idea of what is good for me. Before I start my day, I generally head on down to the local Starbucks and grab a venti decaf (Yes, I am a puss, but caffeine just does not agree with my current loon status) and chat over a few smokes with friends. About a week ago, there was a new sign on the door, they are no longer allowing smoking within 20 feet of the door. This just gets me, in a year or more of smoking outdoors I have never once been approached by a single person asking me to put out my cigarette, not once! It’s not like they don’t have options, for Christ’s sake, they can always go inside, where it is warmer, nicer, and quieter. If I was not sucking my life away outside, I sure as hell would sit inside in a comfy chair next to the fireplace. As best as I can tell, it is a city ordinance, really, Starbucks has no say in the matter, the outside area is owned by the shopping center, they have no claim to the sidewalk, so i assume the city has to be the one who is laying down the law. I am still testing the waters on this one, so far they have been pretty lax at enforcing this new rule, there is this grey area where you fall just about at 21 feet from the entrance, and 21 feet from the next door place, leaving a nice area for us lepers to congregate.

It’s just really starting to get on my nerves, why is it that one form of an addiction has been cast down as evil, and others are considered somewhat cool, even applaudable? Next time you are watching Carson Daily or whatever other late night crap is on, take notice how when someone mentions drinking or smoking pot it gets immediate applause. it’s absolutely insane, quite literally, being an alcoholic, or letting others know how wasted you were, scores you quite a few bonus points. I just don’t get it, to me, smokers are superior in every way to a drinker or pot head. I know there are a boatload of you out there that think that pot smoking is harmless and does not interfere with your life, I hate to tell you this, you are just wrong. It is absolutely shocking the people I know that are total pot heads, people you would never suspect, kindergarten teachers, police officers, you name it, everyone is doing this stuff. Its not that I really care one way or the other, but it is the superiority to us smokers that gets under my skin. Pot smoking and cigarettes are in such different categories they really share nothing. It has come to the point where you will get told to stop smoking when right next to you, someone is burning a joint and everyone fails to notice. Maybe I am jaded, I do live in one of the most liberally retarded communities in the country.

How many people do you know that have been in a DUI? I would say 90% of my friends have at least one under their belt, (ugh, that’s sounds so incriminiating) some of them I can not even count the times they have been in drunk tank! From alcohol induced fights, car wrecks, stealing, the list goes on, I just am at a loss as to how this is applaudable, let alone condoned and held in such a better light than a smoker. I am yet to meet someone who smashed into a kid and killed them at 3AM cause they had too many cigarettes, I just don’t think there are people out there who beat on their girlfriends because they have had one too many smokes. Honey, I am sorry, I really did not mean to cheat on you, I just had one too many smokes, can you really hold it against me?

Still with me? I know, I tend to go off on long winded rants, I just cant get enough of the wonderful sounds of clickety clack my tactilepro keyboard makes. :-) So what does all this have to do with “Creating Passionate Users”? To start with, for all the hassle I get because I am a smoker, for the health issues it must be causing me, there is still something keeping me from quitting, even defending my use. Perhaps it’s the addiction, the tobacco industry is unique in that regard, but no more unique than someone like, Mc Donalds, where they get you addicted to food. At least with cigarettes, I know for certain they are bad for me. Even still, there are some really brilliant things Philip Morris does to keep me hanging around.

For starters, I can not think of another product that comes in such great packaging. Apple does a pretty good job with their kit, but it’s not something you pack around all the time. For something so small and compact, the flip top box is just awesome. Made of nothing more than paper, it is good for well over the 20 or so times you will need to open and close it, not to mention withstanding the asinine people out there who insist on smashing it against their palm in an effort to pack the tobacco into a smoother burning product. This stuff is engineered people, there is no improving on it, it has just the right amount of tar, nicotine, and carcinogens to keep you alive long enough to spend a small fortune on, packing your smokes is only killing precious time to get closer to that iron lung.

Quite a bit has changed in the past years in regards to marketing cigarettes. Gone are the billboards, gone are the magazine ads with all the coupons, and especially gone are the sample 10 pack promo boxes you could get for filling out a survey at your local store. Yet with all this restriction, there is still a heck of a lot to gain from being a smoker, you just have to know where to look. Every pack I buy is tagged with a 4 fold paper book that tells you all the ways in which you can get help to stop smoking, this however, is just a ruse. If you dig a little deeper and look under the flap on the flip top box, you will see a subtle url pointing to Smoker Sign Up. Since filling out a small little survey on the site, I have received all sorts of goodies. To start with, every year on my birthday, I get something, you never know what, but it is not some cheap schwag like your local bank is inclined to send you, this is top notch stuff. Branded Zippo lighters, lighter holders, cook books, all sorts of really nice stuff. it doesn’t stop there, no, it is not just your birthday that is special, pretty much every day is a holiday, or at least, about once a month. So far, I have been given a Visa Card pre-charged with $15.00 on it, and an agreement that if I send in a few hundred miles, they would charge it up to $25.00 more, genuine Zippo lighters, solid cast Bic Lighter cover, genuinely descent bar-b-cue cookbook, and countless coupons for a buck off a pack. All this is in addition to the great stuff they have in their catalog that you can trade in for just saving your UPC miles code on each pack.

So yeah, they are killing me along the way, but there are just as many other industries that I have to give five bucks a day to that seem to care less about me. I probably spend about the same on food, gas, music, and clothes, separately of course, as I do on cigarettes, yet I get no such love from either of those industries. I guess it just boils down to the fact that I am a passionate smoker, and they are keeping me that way with some really intelligent marketing. For all they know, I could have quit, yet they are still dropping about $50.00 a year on me in printing and promotion. I am not sure how it would pan out for them and my passion if they did not get to work with an addiction, but putting that aside, it still shows there are much better ways to be marketed to, it just so happens that eventually, this one will kill ya.