Some posts assume, fairly enough I guess, that I expect tobacconist professionals to participate as members in Forums. In fact, if a pro were to want to use Forums as a focus group, heavily on a regular basis, there would be good reason to read it but not participate, to maintain anonymity and some level of objectivity. No one would be arguing your professional knowledge, and you wouldn't be tipping the scales. I value it highly when Russ, Jeremy, jiminks, pipestud, and sable (some salaried pros, and others deeply educated amateurs) participate here. But equally, I would think pros would selectively scan these posts without ever being known to the membership. So my question isn't, are they members, but do they read us for professional information. Especially anyone involved with marketing might do so. Many of the smaller companies have no marketing staff at all, so having some market input at no cost would seem an obvious move. They would need only to scan and cherry pick what is a value and ignore the rest -- that would be the skill required, plus the ability to do that in about twenty minutes a week.
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