There are a few people with brands of "their own" who made a big splash in the industry over the last few years. Many of those people really know marketing, branding, and how to sell products. Remember, advertising isn't about the product, it is about creating a need. Matt Booth is a talented designer and a talented promoter. He has a good eye for trends and patterns in style. He started a cigar brand out of curiosity and also a knowledge that the market was good for cigars from about 2005-2011. The market was primed for another boom, and along came the FDA. I agree with what was said before, the FDA did not kill Room 101 cigars. Matt Booth made a choice to leave. He made the right choice. Cigars were never really his passion. It was a side project that made him some decent coin and maybe gave him some exposure to another layer of clientele.
There are a few other smaller brands out there that are just that... Brands. They are run by people who have a feigning interest in cigars, but are keen with marketing and sales. They are looking for markets with money to be made. In general, they don't really care if the FDA kills the premium cigar market tomorrow. Do some of their brands put some good cigars on the market? Yes, but all made at factories that have been producing great cigars for decades. They own the brand and the name. They are the face of the brand, but they rarely get their hands dirty in the fields of Nicaragua or the factories in Dominican Republic.
Room 101 was built to get bought out by a big player like Davidoff, not because Matt Booth had a deep passion for the cigar world. I'm ok with that. It's capitalism, and it is beautiful. Just remember, Room 101 is only a brand name, not a legacy. When the FDA pinch starts to harm the legacy names like Fuente, DPG, and Padron... We all need to take notice. That will be the real beginning of the end.
