ECF is involved in a big project to help correct a serious problem in communications coming out of the vape world. And make no mistake, it really is a serious issue.
Put simply, the independent sector (i.e. all the businesses we engage with) is, in a sense, invisible.
That is to say - financial analysts, regulators, and any other interested parties have
really, really good information as to what vape products are sold in convenience stores and other traditional retail, but they have next to no information about what's being sold in vape stores and online.
It also means that headline figures about the impact of the vaping industry are pulled out of thin air, and don't describe the real picture of the pace of innovation and needs and wants of vapers.
The net result is that there is a huge skew towards the interests of those who have their products in c-stores (typically cigalikes and egos). This plays out in the media reporting of the sector, and it plays out in the way regulations are being carved out in many states. It will also have a serious impact on tax policies - imagine: if the only represented products are the ones which contain 1-2ml of e-liquid, what's the harm in putting in place a 50c per ml tax? The industry
needs to correct this with authoritative information as to what's being sold and consumed by US vapers.
So, two independent analysts - Roebling Research and ECigIntelligence - are working on a joint project alongside ECF and SFATA to survey vape stores to provide this information. The project, codenamed "Vape Manifest" (as in "to make vape manifest") has been running for around a month and has had brilliant success so far - but a final push is needed to get over the threshold so that a critical sample is gathered.
CAN YOU HELP?
Are you a B&M store? If so, please go to this link and
complete the survey.
Do you frequent a B&M store? If so, please ask the owners to participate by passing them on the following link: bit.ly/Project-Vape-Manifest-Survey
Vape stores that participate will receive a summary report with the consolidated data analysis.
Please note: All data is confidential and held by Roebling and ECigIntelligence. All information will be consolidated prior to analysis so that individual stores' commercial data will not be available.
