R.J. Reynolds Unveils New Online Tool for Tobacco Retailers

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- R.J. Reynolds is offering retail operators another tool to help them navigate the complexities of tobacco retailing.

This week, the tobacco company launched Get Engaged, a new feature on its website EngageRJRT.com, an online resource for R.J. Reynolds' retail partners. Created as a research and learning platform, retailers have access to shopper insights and other educational materials to help manage the tobacco category.

Get Engaged, according to the company, provides access to data, learnings and insights that emphasize the importance of retailer-to-consumer engagement. It also offers training resources aimed at helping retail associates and managers improve their interactions with adult tobacco consumers.

Mike Auger

"We're speaking to the retailer, our customer, in a more collaborative way," explained Mike Auger, vice president of trade marketing development. "We're not telling them simply 'how to grow business by selling more Camel.' We are going much broader than that."

He added that many R.J. Reynolds insiders, as well as retail partners, have been asking for such a tool.

Overall, Get Engaged is designed to help retailers gain a better understanding of shopper behaviors such as frequency, loyalty and cross-category purchasing. Creating the tool involved reviewing scan data from more than 67 million transactions, interviews with nearly 4,000 shoppers and conversations with adult tobacco consumers in convenience stores over the course of a year, the company explained.

R.J. Reynolds expects Get Engaged to evolve and grow over time based on marketplace and retail dynamics, as the category changes.

Get Engaged also includes an "Optimize" tool that allows retailers, as part of their category assessment, to evaluate the potential profitability of an adult tobacco consumer. It provides an in-depth look at profitability, the products adult tobacco consumers typically buy and how often they visit convenience stores.

"As we approach a store, when we visit either at the buying office or the outlet level, we're bringing more than just what retailers may traditionally expect out of a consumer product company," Auger said. "We do those traditional things to help build your business, but another value we bring is education and meaningful engagement with our retail partners through tools such as EngageRJRT.com, Get Engaged and Optimize."