If you vape, have you ever taken a moment to think about why you buy the vape juice brands that you buy? It isn’t just a matter of what a given e-liquid flavor tastes like. It’s not just about the quality of a company’s marketing campaigns or how buying that brand makes you feel.
In fact, there are real, tangible reasons why certain vape juice brands consistently come out on top while others never break out of the middle of the pack – and the brands that are on top are the ones you’re more likely to buy.
So, what separates the best vape juice brands from the small players – and more importantly, why should you even care? Knowing what makes a premium vape juice brand worth the money is good for you as a consumer because you can buy e-liquid knowing that you’re buying from a reliable brand that will always deliver a quality product.
Knowing what makes a particular vape juice a truly premium product is also important if you’re a business owner or prospective business owner. If you’re thinking about entering the vaping industry, you should know how the top brands have managed to overcome significant competitive and compliance issues and get to where they are today.
Let’s examine the things that separate the best vape juice brands from the rest.
Willingness to Meet the Market’s Demands
The demands and desires of the vaping community have changed a great deal over the years, and the brands that have stayed on top are the ones that have kept their product lines updated.
- In the mid 2010s, the sub-ohm vaping trend began. People began to use more e-liquid, and they wanted prices to come down. The vape juice brands that increased their bottle sizes and sacrificed some of their profits for volume reaped the rewards.
- The increasing power of vaping devices also led people to demand vape juice in plastic bottles because glass bottles made refilling tanks too inconvenient. The best brands migrated to plastic bottles because that’s what their customers wanted.
- The advent of pod systems created demand for nicotine salt e-liquid. The companies who added nicotine salt to their product ranges were once again rewarded.
Remaining Ahead of the Regulatory Curve
One of the most important aspects of running a business in the vaping industry is regulatory compliance. The best e-liquid brands were the first to put their ingredients on their labels, and they were also the first to register their ingredient lists and production facilities with the relevant authorities.
The top vape juice brands aren’t in the business to earn quick profits; they’re in it because they want to remain in business for the long term – and to do that, they need to remain ahead of the regulatory curve.
Cutting Costs and Embracing Automation
One of the key aspects of staying in business for the long haul is ensuring that your company remains profitable – even when consumers demand lower prices. When vaping began, e-liquid was incredibly profitable to produce because retail prices tended to hover around $1.00 per ml.
That, however, didn’t last forever. Prices were very quickly cut in half – and then they were cut even more. Vape juice companies had to adapt by cutting their production costs, and the brands that embraced automation were able to take their price cuts even further while remaining profitable.
The fact that the best e-liquid brands have automated their production isn’t just good for you because it keeps your prices low; it’s also good because automation ensures a completely consistent product. That’s important for you as a consumer because you know every bottle of vape juice you buy will be exactly the same as the last bottle.
The flavor will always be consistent, and the nicotine strength will always be correct. In the early days of vaping – when many companies mixed their products by hand – that wasn’t always the case.
Doing What It Takes to Stand Out on Retail Shelves
Another thing that has changed about the vaping industry over the years is that the standards for professional-quality packaging have increased rapidly. If you’ve been vaping long enough, you probably remember a time when companies shipped their e-liquids with plain laser-printed labels.
To further save time, the maker of the e-liquid would often circle the nicotine strength with a pen rather than printing separate labels for each nicotine strength. That level of professionalism might have been good enough when people bought their e-liquid online and expected to receive a hand-made product, but it’s definitely not going to fly today.
These days, people expect to buy their e-liquid in a package befitting a truly professional product. The top vape juice brands invest the necessary money to ship their products in tamper-evident bottles with high-quality labels. Tamper-evident packaging is important for you because it’s a safety factor.
Even more than that, though, high-quality labeling is a factor that can determine whether you buy a particular product or not. Why did you buy the vape juice that you’re using today? Could it have simply been because your eyes were drawn to that brand’s higher-quality packaging?
Investing in Research and Development
The final thing that separates the best vape juice brands from the rest is the quality of those brands’ flavors. The factors listed above might influence your decision to buy a particular brand for the first time, but it’s the flavor quality that makes you decide whether you’re going to buy that brand again.
When you use an e-liquid that has had real care put into its flavor development, you can really taste the difference. Likewise, you can also tell when an e-liquid is comprised of just a couple of flavors and a lot of sweeteners.
The reason why some brands’ e-liquids seem to have a certain “special something” – the reason why you continue to buy those e-liquids again and again – is because those e-liquids are much more complex in their flavor profiles than you might realize. A truly premium e-liquid – even one with a simple-sounding flavor profile like strawberries and cream – might actually have a dozen or more individual flavors in it.
The greatest vape juices often have the longest development phases – and developing a product of that complexity requires a significant investment. Once again, the brands that make the required investments are the ones that reap the rewards.