Hey. Has anyone noticed that the Charman® bathroom tissue cut has been changed from straight to wavey? I detected the new type of perforation months ago. Hmm? Anyone?
It’s not a dramatic difference, but it is a far cry from how it used to be. Straight. Predictable. Unnoticed.
Perhaps the folks at Procter & Gamble figured it ought to do something to get Charmin® noticed once again after almost a century of cleaning our bottoms. Think about it. Change was happening everywhere in 1928 when Charmin® was first introduced. The first television was sold for $75. Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin. And Walt Disney released Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon with sound. So it was thoughtful timing for a softer and more reliable form of bathroom tissue to be slid onto the grocery shelves since it was first invented in 1857 by New Yorker, Joseph Gayetty, who named the modern miracle “medicated paper for the water closet.”
Change and innovation are inevitable. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the curvy cuts between Charmin’s® soft sheets, or it can be mind-numbing such as the plethora of cigars that are being produced and added to the marketplace – it seems like – daily.
Ooooooookay. I’m a cigar broker. I am partly responsible for the issue, but the manufacturers are the bigger problem when they have too many cigars already available and add a new one, or those hopefuls who have yet to find a foothold on the shelves of the humidor due to the embryonic stage of their brand.
I like change. I like new cigars. But what I don’t like is, that instead of new cigars being slowly introduced, a good portion of the newer brands are pounding down upon us like boulders falling from above.
Yes, we need new stuff. We get bored with the old stuff. Praytell, the master- marketers on Madison Avenue make a living at this cultural phenomenon. But please give us a break. Too many newbies introduced a cigar last year at the PCA. One year ago. One. Twelve months – 365 days.
And – this year those same manufacturers are bringing out a new cigar, a new wrapper, a new blend, or new packaging. This decision, without gaining a market share or, in some cases, not even being a recognized brand yet. And they bring out something new? Where’s the logic in this? Of course, I’m not suggesting that cigar manufacturers wait a decade or more to introduce a new cigar. But please, for heaven’s sake, give the first cigar a chance to assimilate.
IrvCigarBroker 