JAPAN. Tobacco products giant Philip Morris International (PMI) is celebrating the success of its redesigned IQOS corner at KIX Duty Free in Kansai International Airport Terminal 1’s new airside departures area.
The Moodie Davitt Report was on location for the 5 December opening of the expansive 2,500sq m KIX Duty Free walk-through store, within which tobacco products in general and IQOS in particular command a very strong presence. KIX Duty Free is run by Kansai Airports Retail & Services (part of Kansai Airports). Lagardère Travel Retail provides an extensive range of support services, including a supply contract.
The IQOS corner highlights the brand’s aesthetics and its digital innovations designed to bring an enhanced experience for legal age customers.
The area features what is described as the most significant heated tobacco products space in the store.
To enhance the consumer experience, the new IQOS space features a discovery area that showcases the brand’s products, allowing potential customers to touch and engage with the physical products.
{The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie shot this short film of the KIX Duty Free tobacco offer on his iPhone during a store tour on opening day, 5 December}
A guided trial area offers adult visitors to sample IQOS and explore a wide range of TEREA flavours at the store.
The store features a community area where legal age consumers can enjoy their IQOS and interact with other guests.
Also available at the corner is a product news area that includes displays of the brand’s latest products with impactful visual merchandising.
Aside from these consumer experiences, PMI also puts its focus on digital innovations to deliver a more convenient retail experience to consumers. The new IOQS corner combines these digital innovations with physical experience.
The store features an interactive station that works with RFID to allow 3D product visualisation, comparison, configuration and shop assistance.
It also has a dedicated payment solution enabling staff to use two mobile tablets to process payment from anywhere within the area.
Consumers can interact with the TEREA flavour advisor for product recommendations. The advisor helps them explore a variety of flavours and save them to their favourites.
At the store, customers can find the brand’s Discover IQOS kiosk, which offers more information about products and the benefits of switching to better alternatives to smoking.
PMI Duty Free Vice President Edvinas Katilius said: “With the opening of our new IQOS corner in Kansai International Airport we have reinvigorated our IQOS brand presence and redesigned our in-shop consumer experience to bring delight but also functionality to our travelling legal age consumer journey.
“We continue to demonstrate our constant commitment to delight our legal age consumers in travel retail with our premium and innovative IQOS corner and we are looking forward to welcoming travelling legal age nicotine users to experience the latest in IQOS travel retail.”
The new IQOS corner marks a new milestone for the successful partnership between Kansai Airports Retail and Services and Philip Morris International Duty Free, the brand owner noted. This collaboration is built on “common principles of trust, responsibility and transparency”.
As of 30 September 2023, PMI estimates that nearly 19.7 million smokers across the globe have already stopped smoking and switched to the company’s heated-tobacco product, which is currently available in 82 markets under the IQOS brand.
Smoke-free products accounted for approximately 36.2% of the company’s total net revenues in Q3 2023.
PMI stated its ambition to expand its presence to 100 markets by 2025. By then, it says, at least 40 million of its cigarette users who would otherwise continue to smoke will have switched to smoke-free products.
In addition, the company aims for more than two-thirds of its total net revenues to come from smoke-free products by 2030.
IQOS Iluma Prime
The revamped IQOS corner showcases the new IQOS Iluma Prime design, which uses anodised aluminum combined with a texture wrap.
The device is available in four colours and is customisable both in terms of connected features via the user’s smartphone and offline. It comes with a wide range of accessories, including charger wraps and holder rings.
It provides two consecutive uses without recharging the holder and includes advanced features that can be enabled or disabled—by the IQOS app. These include smart gestures, auto-start, various illumination modes, alerts, and the ability for the user to lock and unlock the device when needed.
IQOS Iluma is described by the brand as its most refined and advanced tobacco heating product, which requires no blade and no cleaning. ✈
