I’ve written about women cigar smokers before and I am writing about them again now. I cannot overemphasize the fact that cigars are no longer considered to be solely a man’s pastime. In fact, there is an organization called The Association for Women Smokers and their mission is:
To serve as an informative resource for female cigar smokers.
To collect data to help the cigar industry better cater to women.
To provide support to female cigar shop owners.
They recently conducted a survey which aimed to determine if there are significant differences between men and women smokers. The study also aimed to find out information regarding the smoking habits of women smokers. The results were shared by Gary Manelski over at About.com. Let’s take a look at some of the interesting points.
Why Women Buy?
In a question designed to find out what most influences women’s cigar buying habits, ‘personal experience with a brand’ was found to be most powerful. Some 82% of women respondents stated their buying was most influenced by personal experience with the brand. Surprisingly unimportant in respondents’ perceptions were label and box designs. Women described themselves as indifferent to box design (73%) and label design (55%).
Interesting – this breaks the stereotype that women are preoccupied solely with the aesthetic aspect. In this respect – the fact that they value personal experience with a brand – they do not differ from male smokers at all, do they? Indeed, the survey broke stereotypes:
Refuting Stereotypes
When a woman enters a cigar shop, she is often treated as an amateur. Are women cigar-amateurs? The results of this survey suggest not. Not only did women of all ages respond to the survey but many had decades of cigar experience. When asked what their motivations for cigar smoking were, 59% of women said that their motivation was that they like the taste of cigars.
The next time you hear someone say that smoking cigars is not a woman’s turf, point them to this study.
Photo courtesy of Pulpolux