E-Liquids & E-Juice – Is There A Difference?
By: Chris Dodge
I am new to this Industry. I come with over 25 years’ experience in international sales and marketing and can tell you that right now is an exciting time for the industry but it is also a time when people need to get serious.
I had the pleasure of attending the ECC show in Los Angeles and the main purpose for me was to inform people that there is a great need to make a distinction between those products with Nicotine and those without.
To help you understand the basics, I will use much of an old seminar I conducted at both the International Manufacturers Forum in London as well as the Annual Chemist Society of Turkey’s conference in Antalya, Turkey. It is important because both countries have a completely different take on the sale of all products in vaping.
The subject of both speeches was analyzing the subjective and objective properties of products in beauty brands. Although it was for the Beauty Products, we can use the same principles here.
In the course of selling your product, it is important to know the how and why of your product. It is not enough to know you have a fine product at a good price—you need to know why your product is good, and, more importantly, the characteristics of how and why.
Subjective Vs. Objective
When you evaluate your product, you need to know that it has both a subjective and an objective property.
The subjective property of a product is the perception of that product upon the senses of the consumer. It is the taste of the product as well as its strength, how it feels when it is inhaled as well as things not related to that such as ingredients that are used to promote a different style.
The objective property is the function of the product. For vaping liquid and juices, there are two Objectives, one for Nicotine based products and one for non-nicotine based products.
The objective is that function that is not up to any interpretation. It is the function of the product at its most basic level.
For Nicotine based products it is the nicotine as that is used to satisfy an addiction.
For Non-nicotine products the function is to provide a satisfaction for an oral craving.
My son is using Vaping to quit smoking. I have no idea how long it will take him and to be honest, I don’t care as of right now, Vaping, even with nicotine is still much better health wise then inhaling all that secondary stuff like tar and other carcinogens.
For Derek, he needs the Nicotine and hopes to eventually transition down to non-nicotine but if he is like his grandmother Carol, he will always have a craving to put something in his mouth. At that point, he can use a non-nicotine based product and satisfy that craving.
The Industry right now has NO distinction between non-nicotine and nicotine based products. I am not for one minute suggesting that there needs to be a ban on anything, just a designation so that people and more importantly governments, can know which is which.
Example. I will be making a Brand legal in Dubai (hopefully) in the next 12 months. I need to overcome a great deal of hesitation from the various health ministries and by giving them a clearer picture of each product. Think of it this way. I can sell millions of dollars in Grape Juice there but I would go to jail if I tried to sell Wine.
It is important for people in that region of the world to have that option because there is a great cultural heritage in Hookah and giving them a chance to use a product that is safer then tobacco is one way I can get them to reverse their direction.
Make no mistake, I am not trying to ban nicotine nor am I throwing them under the bus. I believe that once this industry matures, it can better articulate the benefits of nicotine products and educate the consumer of those benefits but right now, nowhere in the world has any government changed their minds on a ban and without the designation difference, they won’t start.
Here is what I am proposing to the industry. E-Liquid should be the designation of all products that have nicotine. All products without should be called E-Juice.
A few of you might know that there are some countries that use a two-tiered system based on nicotine. I am proposing that we help them by adapting these terms so that they can better formulate the appropriate regulations for their people.
I believe that using this designation will help stop the unimpeded progress of Big Tobacco in closing the world to Vaping products.
In future issues I will delve into specific areas of Marketing and sales to help you know what the distributor or importer is looking for and how regulations can benefit you and help the industry.
Chris Dodge is the chairman emeritus of International Commerce Development and the director of global business development for the Gulf Beauty Association and Ambassador to the Arab Business Club in Dubai.
