What we talked about
Franca Comparetto is the CEO and co-founder of Cigar Sense Inc., a pioneering platform that delivers unbiased, personalized cigar recommendations based on sensory science and consumer preferences:not marketing hype. In this conversation, Franca shares her remarkable journey from her early career in Brussels at the European Commission, through a decade at Cisco leading business operations and data governance, to co-founding Cigar Sense with her husband.
Show notes
Today we welcome Franca Comparetto, co-founder and CEO of Cigar Sense Inc., a company dedicated to helping cigar lovers discover what they truly enjoy without being swayed by marketing hype. With a background spanning from anti-fraud consulting at the European Commission to senior roles at Cisco, Franca combined her expertise in strategy, business operations, and sensory science to create an innovative platform recognized worldwide for its contribution to cigar culture. She’s also a published author, sensory science trainer, and a leading voice in empowering people to refine their tasting skills and trust their own palate .
Full transcript
Federico Ramallo (00:01) Welcome back to the Prevetted podcast where we spotlight extraordinary people and remarkable talent reshaping our world. Our guest today is Franca Compareto. She’s a CEO and co-founder of Cigar Sense Incorporated. It’s the first unbiased recommendation service for cigars. She has over a decade of experience at Cisco in business operations and data governance.
So she brought her expertise into consumer advocacy So since 2014, Franca has been merging sensory science with technology to empower cigar lovers to trust their own preferences, not marketing hype. She’s a strong advocate for sensor autonomy, ethical business models, and authentic consumer company relationships. Welcome Franca to the show. How are you doing today?
Franca Comparetto (00:51) Thank you so much Federico for having me. I’m doing great. I’m doing great. How about you?
Federico Ramallo (00:59) I am doing great. This is a good day today. yeah, I’m doing amazing. So tell us, can you tell us about your journey from, you working at the European Commission and Cisco to then co-founding CigarSense?
Franca Comparetto (01:06) Awesome. Awesome.
Yeah, that’s a long journey.
So, after some work experiences in other European countries, I ended up in Brussels. And I was very lucky, actually, to be able to work at the European Commission because it’s a very, very interesting community there. You can imagine, actually, Brussels as a
rather big village, then that’s when you exclude all the European workers, of course, there. And yes, it was very pleasant. So I’ve been assistant to the director of the anti-fraud unit, which was also very interesting. And during that work, I’ve also worked on my thesis, which was an interesting
in one that connected me later to the work I’m doing. And that was a thesis on consumer behavior, the behavior of consumers who like animal products but ⁓ wonder well-being.
After the short experience at the European Commission, I moved on to Cisco. And with Cisco, I’ve been moving back to Italy and then to the US, where I actually then met the person who became my husband and co-founder of Cigarsens.
And then we just thought out of my frustration that I can explain if you would like to, in cigars we created Cigar Sense, which was really something to help other consumers like me find pleasure, sensory pleasure from cigars.
Federico Ramallo (03:07) Interesting,
Wow, yeah, I mean, it’s a long journey, right? So I apologize if I kind of reduce it to just a single question, right? There’s so many things to unpack, So you come from Italy, right? Yes. And then you now move to the US, correct?
Franca Comparetto (03:23) Yeah.
I moved to the US, but then in 2010,
end of 21, we moved to Italy actually. We moved to Italy and David continued also some of his consulting work from here and now we are both working basically full-time on cigar sense from Italy. The company is still in the US, we do business with the US, which is the biggest market for cigars.
Federico Ramallo (03:38) nice.
Right, right, yeah, I think that’s the dream, right? Because then you can live whatever you want, but still doing business in the US, yes.
Franca Comparetto (04:09) Yes, yes, that’s right, that’s right. And we are able to do that now and we are in a beautiful lake here in Italy and you know, we’re happy.
Federico Ramallo (04:21) nice, nice.
Yeah, I I can see the appeal of Italy over the US for sure. Yeah, it’s a more romantic place overall.
Franca Comparetto (04:33) Yes, but I love the US as well and it gave me a lot. On top of my husband, of course, which is most important.
Federico Ramallo (04:40) Right,
right. It’s a husband exporter country.
Franca Comparetto (04:46) Are you in a similar situation? guess.
Federico Ramallo (04:49) Well, something similar happened to me, so I am Argentinian. moved to Mexico 17 years ago. And then I was single and then I met my wife to be here in Mexico. And then we…
We continued our relationship, then I went back to Argentina, then I went back to Mexico, and then we established as a couple here in Mexico. And yeah, I love it here. And same thing, right? I do business in the US, but…
I mean, for doing business, I think it’s great, but there are a lot of, in my opinion, a lot of drawbacks to live full time in the US. And we prefer to stay in Mexico. So I’m traveling frequently, mostly to the Bay Area. But yeah, for raising a kid, I think it’s better, Mexico. ⁓
Franca Comparetto (05:43) Yeah.
I always tell.
Federico Ramallo (05:53) So yeah. But going back to Italy, what happened is that where I grew up, I grew up in Monte Grande. Monte Grande is one of the biggest community of Italians outside of Italy. Or that’s what I’ve been told. I don’t know how true it is. So I was in the Italian society.
Franca Comparetto (06:09) I don’t know. ⁓
Federico Ramallo (06:16) you know, it’s a community and they have a big building. So what happened is that a lot of Italians moved to Monte Grande when it was just a train station and there was nothing there. So they basically moved as settlers, right? So they developed their life there, right? And they built
shops, commerce, were some artisans, professionals, and basically they are one or two generations before me. So by the time I grew up there, there was a lot of Italians that were able to build a social place, a physical building.
I was in the Italian chorus for almost 10 years and I was in that participating in the annual events where La Nonna would do the Cannelloni and it was amazing, right? And we would, because most of the founders of that community
were also on the course. So that was kind of the activity. And then every year we would do this lavish dinner and we would invite everybody and then we would do a concert and we would raise money to pay the… It was all voluntary, right? But we would raise money to pay for the director, right? Which… It was the only person that would collect the salary, right? Because it was a prestigious role. So we wanted to have…
really good director, right? And then we’ll go to different churches and different places, schools, you know, to the concerts, right? So it was me and my parents who were all involved in that. So anyway, that’s even though I haven’t been to Italy, I have a very, you know, very fond memories of Italians because of that, right?
Yeah, I appreciate you talking about Italy because now I remember all that. It has been a while since I have talked about that.
Franca Comparetto (08:26) Bye.
California is a great state to be in. been obviously in San Jose because I was working at Cisco. But the surroundings also are so wonderful. I have beautiful memories of California, of Lake Tahoe of course, because I love lakes. And that’s really wonderful.
Federico Ramallo (08:45) Right.
Franca Comparetto (08:47) you
Federico Ramallo (08:48) Yeah, mean the nature there is so beautiful. I love it. We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge four or five times already. Yeah. And when it’s windy, it’s so hard to do. know, yeah. ⁓
Franca Comparetto (08:55) Yeah.
Yes, yes, yes. And the fog,
the fog is so mystic though. I was born in Italy in a place on the northern pole plain that is rather foggy in the winter. And so, Francisco I particularly felt at home because of all of this fog. So yeah, I find it so magical.
magic.
Federico Ramallo (09:36) Yes, yes. For me the fog is something interesting because I mean we didn’t have that in Buenos Aires. We had more of fogs high in the sky so we will not have it close to the ground. It was very unusual.
Franca Comparetto (09:50) Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (09:52) So going back to cigar tasting, ⁓ Tell us a little bit more about what cigar tasting is about.
Franca Comparetto (09:56) Okay.
So I guess you’re asking about Cigar Sense, so the company, or you are tasting as an action to enjoy cigars. I could talk about Cigar Sense. So what Cigar Sense is about is,
Federico Ramallo (10:07) sorry Cigar Sense yes
Franca Comparetto (10:21) an online service that helps consumers make informed choices about the cigars. It provides personalized recommendations based on their individual preferences. So it’s not like Netflix or Amazon that gives you recommendations based on, you know, what other people who like this cigar have.
liked or have bought, we really look at the individual profile in details and we have on the other hand a database with very detailed sensory profiles of all the cigars that we have run panel tests with, thousands. And we basically
match every single cigar in terms of how it fits to each individual member through an algorithm. So you, you, I’m not the tech expert here. David unfortunately has not been able to be here, but
I understand this is a causality-based approach. So we are not working with big data nor AI. I know that AI is more probably in your direction, but this is actually what we do. And in the process of helping consumers,
understand what they really like or do not like in cigars and help them out of the myriad of cigars available on the market to pick without wasting time and money the ones that are most likely to be loved by them. In that process we do two things we educate from a sensory perspective but also
Also, we serve manufacturers or companies, can be distributors or retailers as well, supply chain companies, who like to delight their customers because we’ve done different type of things to serve the industry actors.
make their customers more happy. I want to specify when we talk about data that we translate into insights, it’s always strictly anonymized data, obviously.
know, privacy is very important for us. We had already applied GDPR before it even came into, you know, action. It was mandatory from Europe. So, so what we do is we help companies.
better understand earlier in the process before they even release the products where they could best fit in which market they are more likely to find more consumers that will appreciate them. So we do that and inform product development.
We also help them manage their portfolio because sometimes you launch lines, you launch cigars that…
might put in danger some other lines. And it’s all about a matter of how you communicate, yes? But if you find that in terms of intrinsic qualities of the products, you can put this one next to this other one, but this one is very similar actually, if you’re really thinking about discontinuing, we can inform, we can help also.
Federico Ramallo (13:37) you
Franca Comparetto (14:00) also through insights on the whole portfolio.
And we can also help with sensory information on the products when released that can help people selling ambassadors, you know, using a sensory language that corresponds better to the reality of the cigar. Why do I say this is a big word, reality and truth is something that sometimes I say and
Federico Ramallo (14:26) I’m
Franca Comparetto (14:29) I know it’s tough words, but what happens today like in many other luxury markets is that it’s very much driven by marketing and hype.
which on one hand it’s great and it’s great that there’s a lot of magazines and blogs that talk about all these new releases we have, especially in the US, there’s really a lot of releases. And that’s great because that is…
the blood of the business. It keeps consumers engaged and interested in new products. The problem that we are trying to solve when I talk about more authentic profiles is that tasting is subjective. Perception is subjective.
So you might like, I don’t know, coffee with sugar, maybe a little bit of milk. I like it unsweetened and black. And it’s all fine because both taste very good. They’re good. As long as the coffee itself is good, then they’re both good, right? Taste is subjective and there’s so much excitement among, in the industry.
and among consumers about talking about what people actually perceive, what their experience is. And today we have even more platforms and opportunities to do that.
The problem with the consumer who is looking to really have pleasure, to really, you know, I don’t want to waste my time and money trying all of the cigars that people are talking about. It becomes a little bit a problem. And so.
That’s one of the reasons for which cigar sense exists because I was one of them. I was one when I moved from Italy where I had started to smoke cigars and I was more used to Cuban cigars. And I moved to the US where you cannot get Cuban cigars. I was lost. And although I thought I could describe cigars already and then working with cigar sense, have studied.
more sensory science etc. But at that time already I could tell what was wood, what was not, what was dried fruit in a cigar and I was trying to explain it to the tobacconist but it was not a common language. I was not understood. And so you know
This is something that sounds very simple, like everybody can write, this cigar tastes like wood, but in the end, if it really tastes like wood, it is to be seen. And if the consumer doesn’t find wood after having read the review, then the consumer gets confused. All of this information…
Therefore, it’s not a reliable predictor of whether people will like the cigars that they read about.
So, in order to make it a reliable predictor, you need to work in the back end, in the process. And that’s why we set up a sensory panel. And I’m now training the sensory panel.
Tastings, even for a sensory panel, tasters, is subjective and it will always be subjective. There’s no way out. But it is the way, what you make out of the subjective tastings.
that becomes what is a reliable benchmark to match all of these individual detailed preference information from our members and to inform company executives who need to take important investment decisions. And at stake, there’s quite a lot. It doesn’t seem so, it seems like.
you know, and I still have a lot of people buy just many cigars because they see that in social media and they want to try them but the number of people who complain about the taste of cigars is extremely high. There’s a lot of people that smoke premium cigars because of their flavor, the natural flavor. And so ⁓
You don’t want to be disappointed. know, premium cigars. So when I talk about premium cigars, let me specify further. I’m talking about an agricultural, artisanal, traditional, hands-made product that is fully rolled with full leaves, full leaves of tobacco that has been
cured, fermented and then rolled, boxed and shipped.
It’s a very natural product. There are also, you can find them even at convenience stores, artificially flavored cigars, but this is not what we do. It doesn’t make sense to pay panel test, to invest so much in panel test for a cigar that has already on the label vanilla because we don’t need to test it to tell consumers that tastes like vanilla. It’s already written on the label. The problem is with the natural cigars
that too many people just taste like tobacco. In fact, they are very different one from the other.
Federico Ramallo (20:02) Right, right. can relate that to, so I like Alfajores, the dulce de leche, which is a very Argentinian traditional, know, sweet, it’s not candy, it’s a sweet, you know, dessert, right? And here in Mexico, they do something similar. You know, they call it dulce de cajeta, which is…
based on goat and in Argentina is based on cows and it’s almost the same but it’s not exactly the same so I mean I can understand that you know and you know being away for so many years you start missing those specific flavors right it’s not like one is better than the other one is that I have a personal
know, attachment with that specific flavor, right? So I can understand your, you know, your, you know, missing the Cuban cigars, right?
Franca Comparetto (20:53) Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
There’s also a lot of good cigars that I’ve learned to discover in the US. New world cigars, they come from different countries, be it Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and there’s tobacco that comes from even more countries. know, cigars are blends and sometimes they’re puros, we call them puros as well. when they’re made of
tobacco coming entirely from one country or they can be blends from like wines, tobacco coming from different countries and different varietals especially in wines you find most frequently different varietals from the same country of course.
But yeah, so you have many different, and you know what we found in our journey is also that it’s hard to differentiate cigars if you don’t categorize them. That’s how…
People normally try to help consumers find their way and they categorize cigars by country of origin, tobacco types, price, shape, nicotine strength. And also working with our data, we have found that
Even those categorizations are not necessarily reliable predictors for whether a person will like a cigar or not. You can say I have smoked already a Connecticut shade wrapped cigar. Connecticut shade is a particular type of wrapper.
that finishes the cigar. It has a peculiar flavor, but blended with other tobacco leaves, that peculiar flavor may be different than what you might expect when you think back of the Connecticut wrapped cigar that you have smoked in the past. And so…
You know, you might find something that is very different. You might find that that cigar, the other second cigar is much stronger in nicotine or that it develops flavors that you don’t like. It is too dry. It is less creamy than the first one. It has too much herb or too little food. You can find many things because everything creates a harmony. It’s not just about
What you find is how intense it is. It’s how it coexists with the other descriptors that you find so you know everything everything is important and So you you might be Having this memorable product in mind It is that particular lecture. How did you say the lecture?
I do sedulation. It might be a cigar. You have one in particular that you memorized, that emotions you. And then you can find it. You try other ones, but no, that’s not that. No, that’s not that. So yeah, that’s a way to go.
Federico Ramallo (23:47) Dulce de leche. Yes.
yes, and I can see how that, you know, it’s a harmony of all the flavors and all the combination what makes that specific flavor unique, right? and in that journey when you’re exploring you want to find something that is similar to that on one direction or another, right? so having that more informed decision, right? allows you to explore that
Franca Comparetto (24:18) Thank you.
Federico Ramallo (24:33) those flavors, know, I think that’s a much better experience, right? ⁓ I think that what I’ve seen that happens, and I’ve seen this happen in the auto industry, motorcycle industry, movies as well, right? But in particular, motorcycles and cars, I’ve seen is that you see people reviewing, journalists reviewing vehicles or reviewing motorcycles, and
Franca Comparetto (24:39) Yes.
Federico Ramallo (24:59) basically, they say similar things and they launch the reviews at pretty much the same time, right? and they don’t say the cons of the product, right? or they use this code where they don’t say something is wrong with a car or a motorcycle, but they
talk about it in a positive way, right? And the reason for that is because there’s a conflict of interest because the ads that the magazine gets are from the automakers, right? So, you there’s a relationship there that, I mean, not always, but most of the time cause this conflict of interest, right? So can see how that happens on the car industry. I’ve seen, you know, movies that the… ⁓
⁓ official reviewers rated low but then people love it and they rate it high and that has been happening more and more often so that creates this it undermines the trust that we can have to these what used to be these authorities ⁓ critics, yeah, yeah and the critics are the critics are supposed the ones that knows about this stuff so
Franca Comparetto (26:03) They have to the pretty size.
Yes.
Federico Ramallo (26:12) we rely on their knowledge but what happens when they have a conflict of interest so now we cannot rely on them anymore so I can see how your platform based on sensory science can help the buyers get a much more informed review
Franca Comparetto (26:18) Yeah.
Yeah, and you know the beauty of this, what it is, it’s that any brand, regardless of the marketing budget, regardless of their relationship with us, can see their cigars highly recommended or lower in the ranking of a particular member.
Simply because we don’t care about all of that. We take that completely out of the equation. The algorithm works in the same way for every cigar and for every member. We cannot start to tweak it based on our interests or friendship with a given company. I mean, we couldn’t manage it. We couldn’t possibly manage it. You understand very well.
You know, I love impartiality, equality and justice since I was a kid for my personal history very much and I love to see it in action here. You know, there could be a very small manufacturer who doesn’t even have money to place ads in specialized magazines.
who makes a wonderful cigar. Okay, it may be a coincidence. They need to still prove how consistent the quality can be, but they’re awarded for the intrinsic qualities of their cigar, full stop. So that’s what I love of what I’m doing. know, it is what it is. Data is what it is.
Federico Ramallo (28:09) Right.
Franca Comparetto (28:11) You don’t tweak the data to be pleasant to somebody, then, you know, what do you do? You mess up all of your system? No, you don’t do it. You invest it so much.
Federico Ramallo (28:24) right, I can see that happening because I think it’s something similar that happens in wine that price on the wine doesn’t set the quality of the wine we can have expensive wine but not very good quality and sometimes you find really
good quality wine at a really good price,
Franca Comparetto (28:58) Yeah, you need to blind test. So one of the typical practices when you have a panel is that you run blind tests. Now the thing is that there’s many panels that run blind tests.
Federico Ramallo (29:01) right.
Franca Comparetto (29:18) What happens between the outputs of the tasters of the panelists and the editing and the publishing of reviews is something different.
But if you have a system that shoots out in real time recommendations, you don’t have the time to edit anything, right? You just throw out recommendations that are fit for the member who is looking at them, and they’re there. The cigars are recommended. I wouldn’t even think about how to change that.
and
Federico Ramallo (29:54) Right.
Franca Comparetto (29:55) You know, that’s how where you just need to trust your algorithm and your data. It’s been tested pretty much. Obviously, we keep improving things. Like I started recently to actually measure the performance of the panel. And I measured it over time, you know, going backwards with retroactive effect. I was looking
at the past panelists we had, how they performed before we measured and how they’re doing today. We have introduced a lot more training. We refer to ISO sensory training for our panel. Yeah, the other important part.
of a sensory panel is the use of statistics because you have to figure out first of all outliers. You have to have a number that is sufficient to figure out what the outliers are of course. If I only smoke three cigars.
It’s hard, it’s difficult, so we test at least 10 samples blind and then we look at what are the outliers, what are the descriptors that are more frequently detected within each phase of the cigar.
That’s the exercise we do for the test. In reality, when we represent visually the profile, we figure it’s not really that important to be able to even tell if Cedar wood comes up at the start or at the end. In terms of the actual experience, it is important because it’s all you see that.
down and enjoy and relax from. But for us to give a reliable prediction, it’s not important if Cedar will appear during a certain phase of the smoking. yeah, those are the three pillars of the sensory panel. So blind tests.
sufficient number of tests to apply statistics and use statistics and
and the training and measuring the performance. And we see we have given tools to each panelist to actually improve themselves. They can look at how they have been doing in the past, how they have been improving, where they ⁓ align less, on which descriptors they actually have been aligning less versus the rest of the team so they can be aware of them.
pay attention and it doesn’t mean that it’s always that people don’t detect. Wood for instance, it’s that sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t and therefore you need to pay more even more attention. But there is a trend, there is a trend that helps you improve.
Federico Ramallo (32:47) Right, right. Yeah, I think that the, you you were talking about the algorithm, right? So I think that the algorithm could be both ⁓ used for unbiased or weaponized the algorithm, right? ⁓ You know, there was a study about how social networks detected that
Franca Comparetto (33:00) Thank
Federico Ramallo (33:07) negative emotions in the conversations would increase engagement. So then they would boost those type of posts that would generate controversy, negative emotions, and conflict with people. Because these organizations were looking to generate engagement. Now, you mentioned something that I find
Franca Comparetto (33:09) Yeah.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (33:30) important and the reason I’m talking about this is these companies were looking for engagement at all cost and one thing that I find particularly interesting about how you describe CigarSense is that you are a value-based company you’re building an ethical business model
And I think that’s a key differentiation that you guys have, because then you’re building an algorithm that is going to provide the best recommendation for the user, right? With no hype, with no, you know…
conflict of interest with no other agenda, with no hidden agenda. So I think that’s the most, and based on sensory science as we discussed before, so I think that’s the most important takeaway that I get from hearing what cigar science is doing.
Franca Comparetto (34:21) Right. Bye.
I’m so glad that you said it so clearly because it’s really our purpose. know, ethics don’t get you rich. That’s why we are still, you know, a very rare reality in the industry because, well, people in the end want to make money. You know, we have been bootstrapping from start and
I still believe in this, in doing this because I love to make people happy. I love to…
to have joy myself because I need to run the process before I buy some cigars myself as well. I, of course, I can be involved in the testing. I can also test myself. I can try one and then decide, of course. But isn’t it nicer to just go through your own process before making the best decisions that you can and have pleasure in your cigars? Yes.
We believe that being consumer centric is not easy. It’s not easy. It’s not very common. Even educational efforts can be tricky sometimes. You know, there is some…
Some things that you come to realization as you work on your venture. For instance, there’s the sensory language. That’s right. And we use some of the descriptors I’ve mentioned. There’s also some understandings of certain terms.
that really are prevailing in the whole industry from professionals and consumers that really make it difficult to even go into the more specific flavor language. I’ll give you an example, body. The term body in the wine language, it has a particular meaning, but…
the cigar tasting as an activity ⁓ came from people who were wine so millie and had experience with other products, right? Because there is no standard for cigar tasting. That’s actually probably what I will continue to create because there is no standard. Everybody creates their own standard. It can be double, it can be different. But somebody
We have run a survey and we have found at least nine different meanings. But really huge differences in the meanings because the term body, I use it to describe the canon, the actual physical body of the cigar. That’s it. And otherwise we ban it from any tasting or analysis that we do exactly because we don’t want to be misleading to be misunderstood.
can mean smoke density, can mean flavor intensity, can mean nicotine strength level, it can mean taste intensity, can mean tactile sensation intensity, persistence. It can mean so many things. Complexity, people put evolution in it as well. It looks like in every particular lounge, maybe people understand one another.
but you go to the next lounge and then already it’s confusing. you know, those are things that are significant when companies…
start to educate, invite people to seminars, to understand cigars, etc. If it’s so confusing, know, upstream, how can it be downstream? So, you know…
Clarity is important. It’s not the most important thing for the businesses. I think that at stake there are different things here. I think that at stake there are a lot of, if we talk in dollars, a lot of dollars that people, consumers, leave on the table because…
You know, it happened to me, it happens to others that talk to me, you buy five cigars and maybe you like one or two of them. It happens very frequently. Cigars have a cost.
and it’s a raising cost. They may be even $15 each. And if you smoke a cigar a day, it can easily get five, six more thousands per year. Now cigars cost $9.7 per month. Figure that out. You know, in Canada, cigars cost even more than in the US, and there’s where we have
you know, even more members in proportion because they save a lot more money every year. For companies, you know, we had a case of a company, one of their cigars became the Cigar of the Year for Cigar Aficionado and it stopped selling after three months.
And they came to us with the question, you know, what’s going on? Help us understand why the cigar is not selling. And we did our work, the panel test, etc. We really double-checked that.
We really wanted to be sure that the samples they sent us were from the same production lot as the samples that they had sent to Cigar Pensionado.
Well, know, the panel test was clear. There was really a problem at the factory. They changed the factory in the meantime. It’s all good. And they had already, of course, some, probably, gathered some feedback from other consumers or from…
from other reviewers, they kind of doubted already. They had a confirmation, they acted, and it was good. But imagine, you put into the market a cigar, as a minimum, if you also produce tobacco especially, it takes two, three years to make a cigar, at the minimum, because
Some manufacturers have the tobacco fermented longer, Asian roast. It can take a long time. It’s money invested. And then you launch. And that’s a high risk. That’s a high risk. And I have seen another company
during the launch like you were describing actually for cars or for other products too. I understand it happens so it certainly happens in the cigar world.
P &D product developed, not tested with consumers or tested with your friends. Yeah, yeah, it’s all good. Yeah, sure. And then you organize a so-called focus group, but it’s actually not a real consumer focus group. It’s gathered in distributors, retailers, bloggers, media, friends to really start the marketing machine.
And all of that creates that positive hype that you were talking about. And then when the real critics come, if they come…
It’s late. It’s late. The noise has already been on the positives and there’s no room. Nobody captures the negatives. So that’s how the hype is actually not helping, nor the consumer, but also not the businesses because trust is built based on the perceived quality and trust
triggers loyalty and loyalty triggers brand solidity, persistence, brand reputation. And you know…
The example of the company that I was about to make was actually telling the story of when actually the product gets negative feedback immediately at that focus group that you have set up.
so-called focus group. Somebody leaks some negative information. Not everyone, of course, it’s not in the interest of everyone, but if somebody leaks soon enough, it’s captured. They had to, you know, pull back the product and then retry again. So these things harm, harm the reputate, harm the brand and
If prices keep increasing because of production costs, because of more scarcity with tobacco, environmental problems and because of tariffs now as well, the elasticity even in the luxury industry, elasticity of consumers to price, you can play a little bit with that, but maybe not too much.
Federico Ramallo (43:47) Right, the trust and the flavor, those are the key components for people choosing those products. And if they can trust on the brand, then there can be more price elasticity. People who are willing to pay a little bit more ⁓ for a product, they can trust. But if they cannot trust them, or if they don’t know if
Franca Comparetto (43:56) Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Federico Ramallo (44:11) what they’re going to pay will meet their expectations then there is is little elasticity and there is an issue of trust, right? I’m spending my money on buying something that is not going to fulfill what I expect and yeah and the long process, right? You mentioned years, right? So I think the relationship between
Franca Comparetto (44:23) Yes.
Yes. Yes.
Federico Ramallo (44:38) CR consumers and manufacturers is much more personal than any other products because maybe wine I guess, or whiskey but with vehicles or other products it’s more ubiquitous but here it’s more of the flavor is much more personal and subjective
Franca Comparetto (44:51) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (45:07) matter,
Franca Comparetto (45:07) Yeah,
yeah, Well, you know, they do sensory analysis on cars as well, you know, on how it feels, the, you know, the wheel, the seats, et cetera, they do that, but it’s true.
Federico Ramallo (45:14) Yes.
Franca Comparetto (45:21) The senses that help us enjoy food are so important, are so important and they’re so connected, especially our faction is so connected to our emotions that it really, they really play together, creating flavor. They really play a very important role. You’re right, as you were saying, you’re totally right. Yes.
Federico Ramallo (45:42) So we talk a little bit about the ethical business model and making value-based and ethical organization. There is a price to pay for that, The same way that organizations or people that decided to just talk positive things about the products, right?
On both decisions there is a price to pay. Given now that you’ve been bootstrapping for many years and you’ve seen the price you paid, would you make decisions of staying ethical all over again?
Franca Comparetto (46:19) I believe, yes, I would probably seek a better life work balance because I’ve really put days and nights into this and I probably now deserve also to take it a little bit more relaxed, but I’m not giving up, no. I think…
I’m lucky. I’m lucky. Was I a single working woman with two children or three to to school? I probably would have taken a different decision. ⁓
Federico Ramallo (46:52) Right.
Franca Comparetto (46:54) I have some other skills too that I’m not fully using here, know, program management. mean, there are skills that you can try and, you know, use again and I probably would have to given up earlier. But I’m, yeah, I consider myself lucky because I’m able to pay the bills. I’m able to pay the bills and I can even, you know, dumb do some.
business travel and I can do what I believe is necessary and even more after all of these challenging years.
It’s not the time to give up now. It’s not the time to give up now. no, no, no. I want to continue, actually, want to continue creating standards and I want to continue creating value for both consumers and companies.
Because I believe in it. Purpose is what counts, really. You know, I was recently reading a book, his Italian, maybe nobody here among your listeners nor you know it. Paolo Iabichino.
He’s been a very popular ad, popular not so much, but very skilled and very effective ad designer. has been designing campaigns for emergency, emergency, I guess, for very important profits and nonprofits. yeah, he wrote the last book that I read of him is Civil.
writing, it is all about giving up some consensus for purpose. And I think it’s very important because today we’re measuring a lot, we’re measuring a lot of following, a lot of activity, engagement that to a certain extent is good, it opens
It opens to different worlds, which helps us connect with people we didn’t know before. It’s good. But what really makes a difference? What is worthwhile for people? Is it?
Is it that or is it having, you know, finding their own way to relax and have pleasure in the case of cigar? But it’s not only for the case of cigar, it’s for anything else. anything else. I think purpose is the most important thing. And yes, I would do it again.
Federico Ramallo (49:18) Amazing, Yeah, I think that having your mission and that mission tied to your purpose, I think that means that, you know, no sacrifice is enough to keep that mission going, right? And I think that’s admirable,
Franca Comparetto (49:37) Thank you, thank you very much. It warms my heart. You know, that’s when I, know, when people tell me, wow, wow, you know, you really, what you immediately recommended is really telling me that you’re getting it right, or, you know.
Federico Ramallo (49:40) Yes.
Franca Comparetto (49:55) businesses, value in what we do. This is really, you know, this helps moving forward. This is the reason for which I continue.
Federico Ramallo (50:04) Yes, yes, because you know and that’s why I I I you know, started a podcast talking about people, know reshaping our world because I think this this type of missions you know are are important because they do have an impact on the world and Because it’s tied to your purpose then you know You’re going to pursue it, right?
no matter the cost, right? Eventually, you know, there’s, you know, there’s a cost enough that we might, we might not, but it’s the threshold is so high that I think that’s, that’s, you know, commendable, right? And, and you’re changing people’s life, right? By giving them, you know, giving the value. Yeah.
Franca Comparetto (50:49) I mean you may say cigar is not a necessity.
I’m not dealing with food but there’s a cigar can ruin your mood, can ruin a few hours of your time.
And if you look at the opposite, cigar can enhance your life for a couple of hours whenever you choose. The good thing of the cigars we deal with is it’s not addictive unless you find people who really… I mean, I’ve seen some lighting one after another, but in general, average…
Federico Ramallo (51:25) Yeah, but it’s
a social issue, not the mechanism of the cigar. ⁓
Franca Comparetto (51:33) Yeah, I can stay
a month or two without smoking if I want and you know, it’s okay. My body doesn’t really request, it’s my mind that might request it, but it’s not really my body.
Federico Ramallo (51:42) right.
I mentioned I’m co-authoring a book about creativity. I’m doing the Spanish version and one of the things that we talk about on this book is about rest and that talks about sleeping, it’s mostly about sleeping recovering but I can argue that there’s also, and you mentioned
Cigar is not a necessity I agree it’s more of a luxury but I think it has an important role because you know I remember this TV show Boston Legal where at the end of every episode they sit down and they have a cigar on the balcony with a beautiful view so I think that’s the value in those ceremonies when we
we want to celebrate, want to rejoice of achieving, doing something, having that moment I think that’s the value of cigars, right? It could be cigars, could be whiskeys, it be… depending on the people, but what I’m trying to say is that I think that it’s the companion of the celebration, right?
Franca Comparetto (52:45) Yes.
Yes.
Federico Ramallo (52:57) and that could be enhanced or ruined with the wrong cigar
Franca Comparetto (53:02) yeah, absolutely, absolutely. The cigars have been going through different roles and rituals over time. For the Mayans, for instance, they had a spiritual role and then they became ⁓ like… So they had a social role when smoked in Europe, bourgeoisie, smoking cigars, and then they became an identity.
had the role of identity as well, which they still have a lot today, status symbol. And also resilience. mean, there were people fighting in wars that had a cigar to.
You know to recompact to recompound it, you know together and you know show hey, we’re still alive We’re there. Let’s move on after tough times and they had an important role there, too and Today I believe that it has Because we don’t time is one of the most precious resources we have relaxed and dedicated time mindful
going back to the senses is part of the big role that if you leave luxury aside, cigars can have.
Federico Ramallo (54:18) Yeah, and there is this refresh of hope, right? ⁓ these send moments, right? Where we can just enjoy life a little bit, you know, just have a small, you know, celebration even if, you know, as you mentioned, you know, in war situations, you know, everything is…
Franca Comparetto (54:26) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (54:43) so stressful, having this moment where you can celebrate and that refreshes your strength to carry on so yes, I think that’s an important role
Franca Comparetto (54:44) Yeah. Yes.
It is, it is
very much. Yes.
Federico Ramallo (55:01) so, Franca, thank you very much for joining us today any last remarks before we wrap it up?
Franca Comparetto (55:08) No, mean, it was so good to be here and thank you so much for having me. I mean, I would continue for forever, but ⁓ I really thank you and I respect your time and the time of the listeners.
Federico Ramallo (55:23) Thank you very much for joining us today, I think your story is amazing and I relate to, you know, we were talking about before before starting the episode about me and my wife are co-founders and I can relate to you and your husband being co-founders so I find that very interesting and I find your mission very interesting as well and I wish you
you know, the best success, yes.
Franca Comparetto (55:51) Thank you so much Federico. You’re doing really something great with your podcast. It’s really so interesting to hear the stories of all of these different people that you invite. Your podcast is so different from what I, you know, normally am used to. that’s really great. Thank you very much. You make it very human, very human, and it’s a lot.
based on connection. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much.
Federico Ramallo (56:18) Yeah.
Thank you.