Customer segmentation is a less discussed aspect of the vaping world. There are many older smokers who vape for personal and health reasons. They do not have the goal of trying out new vapes like younger people. For long-time smokers, they want a natural, simple and compact form of tool, which is why they mainly choose compact devices, but with high nicotine levels such as pod mods.
The customer group is directly related to the concept of vape economy. In other industries, it is often the young customer group that chooses cheap products because of financial limitations. The adult customer group has work experience and can spend more freely. The most intuitive example is the sports car group, you can hardly see a group of people under twenty playing with cars like Ferrari or Lamborghini.
But with vaping, the pattern is reversed. Younger consumers are drawn to the newest or most feature-rich products on the market, while a larger group, often long-time smokers, stick with simpler, more compact devices.
The reason for this is that a mid-range or near-high-end vape device is only worth a few hundred dollars. So even the mid-range group of customers can save that amount. Maybe just by saving money on small things (like weekend coffee trips, small parties...) can help you buy a new vape sooner than planned.
Combined with enthusiasm and a few quick decisions, the young group of customers are easily attracted to vaping. They are eager to learn more about the design and operation of the device, and the technology of today's devices is mostly suitable for modern life. For example, many devices can be charged via USB ports, very convenient to carry outside.
The older demographic is different, as they have experienced most of the devices. They may not have the time or interest to get involved in vaping culture. While most younger vapers are interested in community events like vaping competitions or vaping fairs, older demographics are often too busy to engage with these channels.
Combining art and science
As those who join the vaping community quickly discover, vaping is a combination of science and art. To get the best experience, vapers must consider many factors. Coil temperature, wattage, and coil resistance are all important factors that can change the outcome. Vapers must not only understand the components of their device, but also how they work and interact with each other.
In a competitive environment, no detail is overlooked. One of the highlights of vaping is the combination of science and art to create changes in many features and functions. For example, the ability to heat up quickly is something that vapers value. The challenge is that there is almost no fixed standard, vapers have to experiment to find the type that best suits them.
For professional vapers, they do not care much about the machine features. Having all the advanced features without knowing how to use them is useless. The changes in display, chip, circuit board and heating must meet two requirements, one is the application as advertised, two is the way to use that application.
To understand better, let’s compare old devices with modern devices today. Old devices like vape pens can only notify users through light signals. Maybe in the early years, this was enough, but as the times progress, vapers need more interaction between users and devices.
A few years ago, devices with LCD screens were introduced to the market. This was a huge leap for the industry as it allowed for better user interaction. Features like precise power adjustment were the biggest advantage of LED technology. Vapers could customize the device's power precisely without having to guess.
The latest display technology today is OLED. The biggest advantage of OLED over LCD is that it has no backlight.
LCD screens also have a major drawback: they emit a lot of blue light, which can cause eye strain, while OLED screens do not. LCD screens also perform poorly in bright light environments, such as outdoors in the sun.
For vapers who often participate in smoke competitions, OLED screens are even more popular. OLED screens have a nearly 3D floating effect, which is very beneficial in competitions when they have to quickly change modes in thick smoke.
Vape technology for everyone
Vaping has a pretty big market. Vapers see a certain transformation in the community and industry, wanting to be able to experiment with new product lines. This attracts players from other market segments and makes them interested in the constant development of vaping.
Vaping represents a self-sufficient industry. Professional vapers are the driving force that attracts the masses. In return, new people will buy the devices they recommend, which will bring in profits for the manufacturers, allowing them to continue investing in research and development as well as advertising. This cycle will repeat itself, only bigger and better each time.
This is what makes the vaping industry outperform Big Tobacco. Vaping is a dynamic industry, constantly moving and seeking higher limits. Big Tobacco has not changed much since the past. Vaping operates under the protectionism and is beneficial to the environment.
The unique thing about the vape industry is that it can integrate modern technology into personal vape devices. Almost no one thinks about installing OLED systems or advanced circuits into a device for smoking, for them, smoking is just smoking.
Fortunately, vape engineers and product designers are more creative than the average person. It’s no exaggeration to say that vape customers are one of the most creative groups out there.
In short, vape and all its related products can be changed based on the lifestyle and preferences of the user. Those who like simplicity and compactness can be satisfied with simple devices such as pod mods and vape pens. Those who want to be more adventurous and comfortable can use advanced devices with many features.
