Dunhill

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

Celius

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 17, 2019
121
154
Could you please give some concrete examples of Alfred's transgressions in marketing and promotion?
Buying competitors brands,

copying of other makers unpatented inventions and slightly changing and patenting them.

Besides that for A. Dunhill it was never about making/loving pipes, but only about money.

And there are many opposite examples of high end pipe makers.
 

Celius

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 17, 2019
121
154
If given the choice between 10 different pipes, pants, ties, jackets, whatever...I always like the most expensive one.

It's a curse.
Fair enough, but what if you are given the choice between two products from the same price segment?
 
  • Like
Reactions: briarbuck

BROBS

Lifer
Nov 13, 2019
11,765
40,026
IA
Buying competitors brands,

copying of other makers unpatented inventions and slightly changing and patenting them.

Besides that for A. Dunhill it was never about making/loving pipes, but only about money.

And there are many opposite examples of high end pipe makers.
very true.. a smart businessman but a tobacconist naught.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Celius

shanez

Lifer
Jul 10, 2018
5,188
24,084
49
Las Vegas
I have always hoped to come across an estate Dunhill in a market or charity shop but have not to date.
You always live in hope!

Don't give up hope. I bought one of my Dunhills from a member on the site here. It had been repaired and I only paid $60 for it. It smokes great and I think I can tell where the repair is but not really. To the average person you'd never know it had been repaired. In fact, if I wasn't told I'd likely never know.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lightmybriar

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
This is a rather dark commentary, but I wonder if Lord Alfred's indifference to pipes themselves helped him make cold business decisions that made their elevated prices successful. I think all of the English makers appropriated a lot of the French shapes and made them seem English, along with the French use of briar in the first place. I like my English pipes a lot -- Britannia, Parker, Ferndown (which I'm smoking at the moment).
 

Celius

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 17, 2019
121
154
This is a rather dark commentary, but I wonder if Lord Alfred's indifference to pipes themselves helped him make cold business decisions that made their elevated prices successful. I think all of the English makers appropriated a lot of the French shapes and made them seem English, along with the French use of briar in the first place. I like my English pipes a lot -- Britannia, Parker, Ferndown (which I'm smoking at the moment).

The opposite to Dunhill were Frederic and Rueben Charatan, who it seems to me, had a passion for pipes.

Another good example is Giancarlo Guidi.
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,570
27,078
Carmel Valley, CA
See reply interspersed, in italics.
Buying competitors brands,

Totally fair.

copying of other makers unpatented inventions and slightly changing and patenting them.

So, he was the Bill Gates of pipe dealers? Not nice, nor ethical, but unfortunately not uncommon in industry.

Have you examples of that? It'd be very interesting.


Besides that for A. Dunhill it was never about making/loving pipes, but only about money.

Making money, yes, he was about that. I don't have any information about his true feelings about pipe making and/or if he loved what he made.

And there are many opposite examples of high end pipe makers.

Yes, there are. But I don't see you've cited any chicanery involved in marketing and promotion. He was very good at both.
 
  • Like
Reactions: diamondback

BROBS

Lifer
Nov 13, 2019
11,765
40,026
IA
His main marketing gimmick was this newfangled thing called the automobile and accessories for that and the “motoring elite”. It’s always wanted to be seen as a luxury or elite brand and in the late 20th/21st century that means raising the price. Look at ST DuPont products or Davidoff... same thing.
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,570
27,078
Carmel Valley, CA
His main marketing gimmick was this newfangled thing called the automobile and accessories for that and the “motoring elite”. It’s always wanted to be seen as a luxury or elite brand and in the late 20th/21st century that means raising the price. Look at ST DuPont products or Davidoff... same thing.

Yes, all in the same boat, but such started in the 19th C, or early 20th. I don't see what's wrong with creating cachet and selling at a premium. None of us are forced to buy same.
 

craig61a

Lifer
Apr 29, 2017
5,766
47,569
Minnesota USA
I have about a dozen Dunhill pipes. They smoke just as well and are about the same quality as my other British machine made pipes.

Dunhills carry a hefty price premium for vanity in my opinion.

Given the fact I could buy an awfully nice artisan pipe for an equal or lesser amount of cash, I would fall on the side of artisan.

But if you have to have a Dunhill, then by all means...
 

BROBS

Lifer
Nov 13, 2019
11,765
40,026
IA
Argyll is the pipe model. Savory’s is the company. There is a pipe called the Savory Semi-matte. Same company, different model pipe. But yes the ones I have are all sandblast Argyll. Half had inner-tubes.

and I agree with Craig that Dunhill is all hype.
 
  • Like
Reactions: diamondback
Status
Not open for further replies.