is big tobacco intentionally making bad e-cigs?

[Decimate]

After a little looking around I found out that the 3 biggest tobacco companies are all making e-cigarettes now. It's sad to me that these are the only e-cigarette companies that have the money to advertise to the mainstream yet it's for such a terrible product. I just found out that the biggest company (marlboro) recently came out with this:

Review of the MARKTEN Disposable E-Cig by Philip Morris / Altria - YouTube

If you look at the website for it, it says that the original tobacco model doesn't even include flavoring lol, only water, pg and nicotine (or so it says). The guy in the video above says the taste is like "chinese e-liquid". Also, don't they realize that cartomizers are nearly obsolete? I know that the only way they can feed their pockets is to sell their overpriced cartridges but I don't understand how they can come out with a "new" product that's been around as long as vaping itself. I'll give it to blu, at least theirs tastes good and works alright, but they charge you an arm and a leg for the starter kit and the cartridges. You could get a much better setup for a fraction of their cig-a-like. My guess is that a lot of people try stuff like this and give it up pretty quick, and then they give up on e-cigs entirely because they think that all of them suck.

I wish Evod starter kits or something like that were more widely known and advertised. I know I had tried 4 different crappy corner store e-cigs before I found something somewhat decent, and my guess is that 99% of the members here had a similar situation. What do you guys think about this? 8-o

 

[FranC]

I say you're pretty much right. I never tried any of those myself but I might have if they were out when I started vaping.

 

[heroinesick]

Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised at all. They are known to pull some crazy things. I only hope that the people that get motivated to buy these, also get motivated to search out better products or toddle their way down to a brick and mortar for advice.

 

[ut1205]

I was fortunate that I never purchased a gas station e-cig. I was turned on to e-cigs by a vaper who was using an Ego Twist and a Pro Tank and he got me started with the right hardware.

 

[DRock]

About 2 years ago I bough a volcano tankomizer and was not impressed, went back to the analogs. This round however, my friend started me off with rebuildables and mechs. Havn't touched an analog since Nov. 5th. My guess is these will sell due to massive advertising budgets, perform poorly, and get people back on the cowboy killers. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I can see the FDA trying to protect and endorse products from big tobacco while labeling smaller companies "uncertified" and "potentially unsafe," forcing them off the market. Corporate America is extremely powerful....we must fight to protect the rights of vapers and vape companies.

 

[FranC]

My daughter was the one first interested. I'd tried quitting off and on for years so she caught my interest and I bought a kit from direct-cig something I can't remember. It was carts and atty's and when the atties started getting really expensive I switched to the Green ones with pre-filled cartos. They were good til quality went downhill. I'd already done some research and bought 2 egos kits. All this was at the time hubby had a heart attack and triple bypass so he went to vaping too. That was just the beginning. LOL

 

[Orb Skewer]

Ummm.....Yes

 

[Steamix]

Maybe they are copying the business model of big pharma. Chewing gum, patches, whatever cost a lot of money as they are touted as a medical product. And their 'success' rates are abysmal, like having to swallow ten aspirins to make sure that one of them works...
They weren't competition, as 9 out of ten people got back to smoking.

But e-cigs are the incarnation of evil in the eyes of big tobacco - so you need to summon some demons of your own to counter it...

Their marketing machinery catches the smokers and prompts them to try one of their crappy products *before* s/he gets to lay hands on some decent vaping gear. Their products are *meant* to disappoint, so that folks go back to analogs.

If you tried a new dish and found it wanting, the chances that are you going to give that dish a second chance in another restaurant are much slimmer.

Think it's called mental conditioning or manipulation....

 

[NicoHolic]

Except for Lorrilard, who bought Blu, Big Tobacco shuns anything "not invented here." They've put out failure after failure, trying to stick with things like an e-cig that "warms" rather than burns tobacco. They seem to want to avoid e-liquid. Perhaps that's due to onerous regulations of the US Employment Prevention Agency (EPA) which make the processing in the US expensively impractical.

I don't know. I DO know I'd never buy one of their e-cig products, laced with their 600+ poisonous chemical cocktail.

 

[Spazmelda]

I don't know that I'd say they are intentionally making bad ecigs. I think they are trying to appeal to a different market than the typical ECF user. They are marketing to people who want something that looks like a cigarette. They also want the user to be tied to their product with having to buy their non-refillable cartos. I don't think they understand the typical ECF user, and at this point they don't think they have to understand us. Whether this will change or not, I don't know. With a company that makes only e-cigs, they are competing with both all brands lf cigarettes and other brands e-cigs, so they have the incentive to make a better product. I think the BT companies in the game so far feel that their e-cigs are only really competing with cigarettes, so even if the new customers don't like the e-cig and return to smoking, the BT company still wins.

I think I did read somewhere that at least one BT company was considering making forays into the more advanced ecig market, but I can't for the life of me remember where I read that.

 

[rhean]

It's all too easy and inexpensive to use a battery+tank+juice combo, and the combo makes it all too easy to wean off analogs. BT has literally zero incentive to create, then popularize such devices. Their devices are comparatively expensive, and little about them is under the vaper's control. They're fun at a party, but not really tempting as analog replacements.

I expect no help from them. My main worry is that they will advertise the hell out of less than capable and overpriced ecigs, wrecking the experience for people who fall for it.

 

[bluecat]

Their market is not the mod users. Their market is for the one and doners. Not everyone wants a $3,000 mod to carry around with. Not everyone wants to fiddle with batteries, tanks, RBAs, making coils, checking batteries, figuring out ohms. Some people want to grab and go.

Most business succeed when have a business plan. We aren't their market. That doesn't mean there isn't a market out there for that.

I vape unflavored regularly. Nothing wrong with that. Also tried the Freebie NJoy. Other than it lasting 10 minutes the flavor wasn't bad. The "cigarette feel was very nice. The ability to puff hands free was extremely nice.

It is inevitable that they will. Too much political clout and too much money already.

Big Tobacco Nets Huge E-Cig Sales as FDA Contemplates Regulations

If we actually used them as we did a smoke instead of chain vaping, then they are similar in price.

 

[Orb Skewer]

Tobacco shares under pressure - Telegraph

 

[tj99959]

BT, or BP for that matter, have no interest in us saving money. They want vapors in a continuous circle of buying .. buying .. buying.
So the last thing we can expect from BT is a product that would last for years.

 

[Uncle Willie]

The cig-a-like is by far the best selling PV in the World ..

To suggest that BT is intentionally making a bad product is .. well, it's ridiculous .. BT knows full well the potential of this market down the road and they don't / won't want to miss out ..

Too many times, we on ECF talk ourselves into believing that we are the majority .. when we actually represent a fraction of PV users ..

 

[gingersnaps]

I think they are deliberately setting people up to fail so they return to analogs by putting out low quality products. It's all just a front to make it appear they are "in with the vape croud" but in reality they wish we'd go away.
If they were serious they would be coming up with stuff that works. Maybe some egos and clearos n such. Cigalikes almost never work and bad ones can make a person never want to try another ecig. I have met many who fit that exact description. Tried bad cigalikes and wrote it off that they dont work.
Cigalikes do have a place but they should be good quality and again if tobacco co were serious they would have upgrade options such as ego style.
Just my opinion

 

[Orb Skewer]

The cig-a-like is by far the best selling PV in the World ..

To suggest that BT is intentionally making a bad product is .. well, it's ridiculous .. BT knows full well the potential of this market down the road and they don't / won't want to miss out ..

Too many times, we on ECF talk ourselves into believing that we are the majority .. when we actually represent a fraction of PV users ..

Once BT have 'milked' the niavity of 'new switchers' Willy then they will have to shift their game- yes cig-a-likes outstrip sales figures-this is still an emerging technology-but how many return sales will cig-a-likes get when the 'tipping point' is reached, as has been stated before these products are NOT nearly as good as eGo style for conversion rates of smokers, in fact if they were stood side by side on a graph of 'test subjects' in a trial-which ones do you think would be thrown back on the table ? eGo or cig-a-like Willie ?

 

[diggyb]

I'm less worried about them manufacturing bad products, than I am worried about them intentionally manufacturing compromised juices that won't stand up to testing, and will get the ball rolling on the wrong side of regulation.

 

[Sundodger]

I think it has more to do with being able to get into the market without getting slapped down when the FDA issues new rules. Right now the cigalikes they are putting out probably conform to the equivalency rule that could hit us and make everything unavailable prior to...what is it like 2007? Or some such date.

 

[Uncle Willie]

I'm less worried about them manufacturing bad products, than I am worried about them intentionally manufacturing compromised juices that won't stand up to testing, and will get the ball rolling on the wrong side of regulation.

You think that after BT agreed to shell out $206 billion in settlement money when they agreed to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in November 1998 that they would still intentionally compromise what goes into their own PV products .. ??