Positioning in the Age of Exposure

What you meant to say won’t matter when the math doesn’t match.

August 7, 2025 | Jonathan Lipson | Founder & President | The Cigar Profit Consulting |

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Preface: If It Landed, It Probably Had a Target

I wrote this, then paused. Took a breath. Dropped a few quiet signals online nothing aggressive, just a sentence here, a visual there. A nudge.

The loudest 20% of your audience isn’t fringe anymore. They’re watching your moves, decoding your message and exposing the gaps you thought no one would notice.

One of them landed harder than expected: an AI-generated image critiquing a pattern that’s become too familiar. The one enclosed in this article isn't it. The one I'm mentioning - here's the prompt:

ChatGPT40:

“Left side: a cigar brand owner front-facing a brand-new Rolex Daytona Ice Blue Platinum, wrist jammed into the camera. Right side: a letter to retailers - “Due to tariffs, we’re raising prices again. This has nothing to do with my $200K watch.” Captioned simply: “If it landed, it probably had a target.” (And yes, I still have the screenshot of the prompt. It's available if you need it.)

Was it aimed at anyone in particular?

No.

It reflected a behavior, not a name - but if it felt too close to home, that’s on your conscience, not mine.

The comments, texts and calls came in. Some got it. Others tried to flip the script - digging up old photos, old wins, stripped of context, like that somehow changed the point.

It doesn’t. I’ve never knocked profit, or celebrating wins. That’s not the issue. But if you’re leading a company right now, timing matters. Tone matters. And the people paying attention - the ones asking the hard questions - aren’t the fringe anymore. They are the market.

This isn’t a prediction. It’s a status report.

Stop Acting Like Nobody’s Watching - Because They Are

The premium cigar industry doesn’t have an optics problem - it has an optics delusion.

This isn’t about tobacco’s perception in the public health debate. It’s not about anti-smoking legislation or taxation. It’s about internal behavior. It’s about the brand owners, executives and corporations still acting like they operate in a sealed world, protected by tradition and insulated by legacy. They’re not.

The illusion of privacy is dead. This is an industry with one of the most porous internal cultures in existence. Wholesalers drink with brand owners. Retailers tour factories. Consumers sit in on blending sessions. Media gets direct access to strategy, sometimes before the sales force does.

Everyone knows how the sausage is made. Everyone’s seen it. NDAs are worth less than the paper they’re written on.

And the idea that your customer isn’t paying attention - is laughable.

You’re not under attack. You’re just on display.

And if your public persona, mission statement, value proposition and story don’t hold under that kind of visibility, it doesn’t matter how good the cigar is. Because in 2025, optics drive belief. And belief drives buying decisions.

So when you push a price increase, blame tariffs and follow it up 24 hours later with an Instagram post with your latest luxury acquisition- don’t be surprised when the room turns on you. The damage wasn’t the margin move. It was the sequence. It was the tone. It was the sloppiness.

You’re not being hated on. You’re being decoded.

This isn’t anti-capitalism. This is a warning for anyone who still thinks tone-deaf behavior gets a pass just because your story used to check out. Your story isn’t static. And neither is your audience.

Welcome to the Age of Exposure.

Breaking and Entering: Why Nothing Is Safe

You don’t need to get hacked. You don’t need a leak. You don’t need a disgruntled employee forwarding sensitive emails to the press.

All you need is to underestimate how much is already public - and how fast it travels.

Let’s talk specifics.

Ever heard of ImportGenius?

If not, let’s fix that.

ImportGenius scrapes and publishes U.S. Customs data. That means anyone with a laptop can pull up your import manifests - down to who shipped it, from where, when and in what quantities.

Want to see how many boxes a company brought in last quarter from a factory in Estelí? It’s there. Want to track which brand shifted production from one supplier to another? That’s there too. And don’t be surprised if your name is on the documents - because many of you are the consignee.

This isn’t black hat. This isn’t a data breach. It’s legal, public, and used by importers, buyers, and yes - your competitors - to track patterns. You might think your new blend is under wraps until PCA, but if your shipping volumes spiked from a new factory last month, the cat’s already pawing at the bag.

That’s just one tool.

Now layer in AI scraping. Google Alerts. Reddit threads. Social media posts.

And then comes the media – Cigar Aficionado may print your press release, but outlets like Cigar Coop or Halfwheel will crosscheck them.

They don’t guess at your logic - they reconstruct it. One number at a time. You might not agree with the conclusions, but it’s your fault if you didn’t lay out the math before they did.

The new default isn’t discretion. It’s exposure.

And your product is already the property of the public.

So no - this isn’t about trying to protect your secrets. It’s about being prepared before they come out. Because they will get out.

Exposé Culture Isn’t Coming - It’s Already Here

Every luxury market that thought it could hide behind tradition got steamrolled the moment the right person put them on blast. This isn’t theory. It’s recent history, with names attached.

Uncle Manny (Instagram: @unclemannynyc) went from jewelry counter to online wrecking ball the moment he started filming. He didn’t editorialize. He pulled back the curtain on watch markups, double-selling and how the industry rigs the table. His videos didn’t beg for trust - they forced it, turning insiders into nervous wrecks and customers into watchdogs overnight.

Benz’s & Bowties (Instagram: @benzsandbowties) - Doug Horner – a dealership GM who took out his phone and started recording. He broke down the numbers, exposed the shell games in the finance office and let the public see what happens when a salesperson says: “I have to ask my manager”. Now the entire auto retail game has buyers quoting him back to their own salespeople.

Cy Porter - (Instagram: @cyfyhomeinspections) - home inspector, didn’t speculate. He filmed cheap wiring, cut corners and builder excuses right on the jobsite. He called out the developer by name, contract in frame. When the builders tried to shut him down, regulators sided with him and his audience doubled.

You see the pattern? One person. One camera. Proof in hand. The moment the story went public, the market flipped. Industry leaders stopped talking and started sweating.

Consumers didn’t ask - they audited.

And if you don’t think cigars are next, you’re not paying attention.

All it takes is one retailer, ex-employee, blogger or an insider with an audience who wants to disrupt how an entire industry works.

Not because they don’t care, but because they care more than you do.

Exposé culture isn’t lurking. It’s loaded, aimed and only waiting for the trigger-pull. You won’t get to frame the discussion. You won’t get the last word. The only question left is whether you show up prepared or get picked apart in real time.

In 2025, you’re either the one telling the story - or the one being dissected by someone who knows where to look. There’s no middle ground.

Blame Isn’t a Strategy. Alignment Is.

Every brand has a playbook for tough times. Yours probably includes a line about “rising costs,” a nod to “external pressures,” and maybe a paragraph or two about labor, logistics or “macroeconomic factors.” That’s fine. That’s business. But if that’s the whole strategy - if your defense rests solely on a list of external variables you can’t control - then what you’ve built isn’t a brand. It’s a shrug in a box.

Nobody’s saying tariffs aren’t real. Or that raw materials aren’t more expensive. Or that shipping rates didn’t spike when the canal backed up and the docks got jammed. That’s all true. But you’re not the only one dealing with it. And you’re not the only one trying to pass those costs on to someone else.

The problem isn’t the price hike. It’s how sloppily it’s messaged - and how conveniently the narrative skips the part where you own the move.

Buyers know the difference between hardship and hustle. They’ll tolerate a price increase - if they believe you’re in it with them. But when the announcement feels detached, when the math doesn’t add up, when the rationale feels copy-pasted from the corporate vault and when actions speak louder than words, they don’t hear strategy. They hear spin.

The message they hear isn’t: “We had no choice.”  

It’s: “We just didn’t think you’d notice.”

Here’s the truth: you don’t need to apologize for raising prices. You need to align the move with something real. Something that says, “We’re making this decision with our eyes open - and here’s why it holds water.”

The pedestal you’re standing on didn’t appear out of thin air, you jumped on it. You built a community of brand advocates, and you didn't do it without a purpose. They can recite your taglines better than your reps.

And unless you want to get knocked off the base like a losing Joust competitor on American Gladiators, you can’t ignore the challenge.

Alignment doesn’t mean everyone agrees. It means the math, the messaging and the moment match. It means your price hike doesn’t just land - it makes sense. And in this market, making sense is the last line of defense you’ve got.

So go ahead - raise prices, shift blends, restructure supply chains. Just don’t pretend it’s invisible. Your customers aren’t blind. And your competitors are waiting to weaponize the story you refused to tell.

And believe it or not, the one’s screaming the loudest aren’t the ones looking to destroy you or your brand – they’re the one’s looking to protect it.

Your Loudest Critics Are Your Best Customers

The old 80/20 rule is dead - and pretending it still applies is how good brands get blindsided.

It used to be simple. Twenty percent of people made noise. Eighty percent quietly paid and smoked.

And when the 20% moaned...

The advice? Ignore the noise. Write it off as static. Trolls. Low-information buyers. Not your core – maybe not even your customer.

But that was before import data got scraped and B2B communications got leaked. Before the loudest people were your top customers - and they had better data than your COO.

Now the 20% are the 80%, because they became your auditors, your amplifiers and - if you slip - your top critics.

And it doesn’t even need to be malicious.

It’s often the opposite. These were your believers. Your brand advocates. The ones who paid full price and still recommended your product in Reddit threads. But now they’re crowd-sourced watchdogs - because they don’t feel like they’re getting the truth.

You encouraged engagement. You asked for feedback. You wanted community. You fed the content engine - and now you’re shocked when the engine turns its lens on you.

This is the ecosystem you built. The only question is whether you use it - or get steamrolled by it.

Because when their patience runs out, they don’t argue. They broadcast.

And once you’re content, you’re no longer a brand.

You’re a case study.

Control the Narrative - Or Watch It Turn on You

The market doesn’t care that it’s hard. Everyone’s operating in the same climate. Tariffs, shipping, labor, raw materials - none of it’s unique. So when you lead your letter to retailers with “we can’t absorb this increase” or “we don’t have the scale,” you’re not earning empathy. You’re handing them a reason to start calculating whether your brand’s even built to last.

And once that doubt enters the room, it’s not just about your pricing - it’s about your permanence. Now they’re not just questioning the increase. They’re questioning the investment.

Loose lips sink ships. And in 2025, they also fuel discourse on every public forum available.

You think you’re getting ahead of the story, but you’re actually feeding the beast.

And let’s be honest - smokescreens don’t exist anymore. Every excuse you type is already being cross-referenced by someone smarter, faster and less forgiving. Every time you think you’re offering context, you’re actually inviting contradiction. So stop begging for grace and start positioning with clarity.

Because here’s the real kicker: the more your customers think you believe they’re stupid, the more motivated they are to prove you wrong.

That’s the culture now.

So if your narrative isn’t airtight - don’t think you’re flying under the radar.

Every extra sentence you publish becomes a thread someone else can pull. The longer the letter, the louder the doubt.

Strategic silence is not cowardice. It’s protection.

Say less, with more precision. If your brand has a story to tell, tell it. If your pricing needs to move, own it. If your margin has shifted, present it like a business - not like a bleeding heart.

The moment you position your challenge as a cry for understanding instead of a business decision, you hand over the mic - and the crowd will fill in the blanks without you.

The fix? Stop explaining. Start aligning.

Know your numbers. Know your audience. And stop giving your skeptics the blueprint for your own destruction.

Because if you won’t control the narrative, someone else will - word by word, post by post, thread by thread.

This Is the Last Quiet Moment You’ll Get

You’re not being targeted. You’re just refusing to adjust.

And every minute you delay is a choice - to stay exposed, misaligned and defenseless.

There’s no forcefield around your brand. No moat around your margins. You’re not being hunted. You’re just visible in a world that’s finally learned how to look.

This is the last moment you get to course-correct without it feeling like damage control. The last window where silence doesn’t signal guilt. Because once the narrative shifts from “They don’t know how to explain it” to “They think we’re too dumb to notice,” you’ve already lost the room.

Exposure isn’t coming. It’s already here.

Because the moment your customer suspects that you think they’re stupid? That’s when they go from confused to motivated.

And that’s when the storm starts.

Let The Cigar Profit Bulletproof Your Position

Let me make something uncomfortably clear: There are no industry secrets in this article. Everything you just read is already out there. Public. Searchable. Traceable. And that should be the part that keeps you up at night.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m not here to fearmonger. And I'm definitely not the guy here to expose anybody - especially by name. I’ve simply shown you what this looks like - because we’ve seen it in other industries. And we both know: it’s only a matter of time before someone runs the same playbook here.

If you’re a brand owner, a manufacturer or a retail-facing principal - and any part of this article hit too close to home - don’t waste another day convincing yourself it’s not a problem. Because if it’s visible to you, it’s already visible to someone else.

What I offer is simple: A Discovery Session. A confidential, top-down, no-BS review of your positioning, pricing, narrative gaps and internal vulnerabilities.

We identify the cracks. We patch what matters. We get ahead of the headlines - before they write themselves.

Because once the video drops, the hashtags spread and the memos leak - You don’t need a rebrand. You need a rescue.