Romeo y Julieta Cigars – To change or not to change…that is the question

Two of the most well known brands in the cigar world, Partagas and Romeo y Julieta, with the most well known logo’s have come out with a new line here in the U.S. but both choose to change their familiar logo’s dramatically…WHY?  

Moves like this intrigue me as a student of marketing and promotion, I, for the life of me do not understand why.  With a risk like this one, somebody in their marketing departments could be the next dead man walking. 

First let’s look at Romeo, arguably the highest volume handmade cigar brand in the world today.  Besides Macanudo, Romeo sells the most in the U.S., and if you take away the small tins of Macanudo’s (Ascots) Romeo takes first place here too.

The new Romeo is hip and new and has lost its heritage, its most deeming quality if you ask me.  The box most resembles a pack of Marlboro cigarettes  in my opinion and that bothers me the most.  We as cigar smokers need to separate ourselves from cigarette addicts.  We are different and so is the product we enjoy, lets never lose sight of that.

Next is the new Partagas.    Talk about unrecognizable; even the direction of the writing on the band is sideward’s.  Maybe the jury is out on this rotated band, they might have something here, only time will tell.  Most of all it doesn’t resemble Partagas or its history and heritage at all.      

So why would they do this…it seems stupid doesn’t it?  Those of us old enough can remember the colossal mistake Coca-cola made with New Coke in 1985.   They had the number one brand and made a dramatic change suddenly.  It wasn’t long before “Classic Coke” made its triumphant return and New Coke disappear. 

Are these brands losing market share, lost their luster or are the boutique brands taking a bite out of them?  Why else would they do such a thing? Dead man walking?