Screens Gone Viral: Overlooked Emotional Value Behind Gimmick

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Global Annual Brand Article Series 2023

Screens Gone Viral: Overlooked Emotional Value Behind Gimmick

-- Do Consumers Need Screen on Disposable? 

Innovation or Gimmick: Reality of Screen? 

Is Emotional Value Behind Screen Worth Attention?

2FIRSTS

At the just-concluded VAPE CLUB SHOW 2023 in Moscow, there are more disposables than ever being seen with a little black pad on them. When you turn on the device, the pad will light up with numbers indicating power and fuel level. In some cases, something even more newfangled will also pop up, like effect animation when taking it.

“It (Disposables) won’t sell without a screen in Russia nowadays,” a staff member at the YOVO booth told 2FIRSTS. According to him, a screen has almost become the “ticket to the game,” without which some merchants won’t even bother asking for more details about the products.

As not much news ignited the market year, screens at least serve the users of disposables with some fresh tastes. At TPE in February 2023, the. Merchants at the spot were delightfully discussing this product in chat groups about the debut of FUNKY REPUBLIC Ti7000 from LOSTMARY, the first of its kind with a screen in the series. Soon after, more brands are following up to make screens available on their products.

Not long before there are only two small indicator lights that come on when the battery is recharging and the e-liquid level is low. How have screens become a must on disposables and triggered a craze among brands within just a year?

Screen: Novelest Creation on Vape in 2023

The rise of screens on disposable vape was evident a year ago. 

When 2FIRST attended TPE this year in February, none of the other products had made a splash like FUNKY REPUBLIC Ti7000 from LOSTMARY in the chatgroup of merchants. The slim screen runs the entire length of the body, making a clear power and e-liquid display that has never been seen on a disposable vape device.

A distributor based on the West Coast in the US also recalled her memory at TPE, saying that Flum’s GiMi 8500 Disposable made an impression on her.

The device mentioned by her comes also with a screen at the bottom of the body. She told 2FIRSTS that the proper size of the screen, and the feel of it are among multiple features that caught her attention.

GEEK BAR PULSE was launched in October, the US market soon embraced the “full-screen” design with a more-than-decent sale volume. As of Dec, the product made it a top 20 best-seller among all disposables in multiple mainstream online vape shops.  

Manufacturers are also following the trends closely. A staff member from Dongguan Hongyi Technology Development Co., Ltd, a supplier based in Shenzhen, told 2FIRSTS that they too noticed the trend and kept their pace instantly by updating molds and designs to adapt to the screens.

The market tells itself. A SKE product manager told 2FIRSTS that in the North American market, screens are almost a necessity to enter the market.

When 2FIRSTS browses U.S. mainstream e-shops for vaping devices, many sites are found to highlight "disposable vape with screens" as a category. Screen has made itself one of the essential attributes that delineate the category of the disposables just as “rechargeability” and “nicotine levels”.

On Dec 17, among 719 disposables in stock on the Vapesourcing, 152 came with screens.

Besides the US and Russia, the screen also can be seen in other markets that allow big-puff disposables. In Malaysia, new arrivals of a mode of the regional best-seller VAPETAPE were also geared with a screen to tell how much was left for both battery and e-liquid in early December - and it didn’t have it in its former batch two weeks ago.

Same Price, Screen Plus: Consumer’s "Balance" Anxiety Solved

Primarily, consumers are attracted to screens because of price.

2FIRSTS found that among the best-selling products in the online store VapeSourcing, there is almost no difference in price between those with and without screens (and the average puff number is bigger for screened products). As for the VAPETAPE that 2FIRSTS found in Malaysia, the price remained the same from batch to batch, although the latest model offers a screen.

However, price is not the only reason why we now see a screen on disposables.

Large-puff e-cigarettes bring hidden anxiety along with ease of use. When the flavor becomes slightly off, users are not quite sure if it is about the liquid or the battery - the justification of why screens come to help in the situation is this simple.

"The screen has really eased my anxiety about uncertainty when vaping." A US consumer named Himmah told 2FIRSTS. "However, as far as any other additional features, I wouldn't consider them when deciding on a purchase."

However, is a screen the only thing that can do that? 2FIRSTS has learned that some industry insiders once preferred vibration in filling this task, the idea was eventually put on the shelf because the solution with screens turned out to be significantly cheaper.

And for open e-cigarettes, a transparent oil chamber can serve the same indication; but sweetening pure oil (propylene glycol) with a sweetening substance is bound to cause carbon buildup, so the oil tends to take on a less pleasing dark brown color after a while, making it unacceptable to some users. "And there's also the problem of oil leakage," said the aforementioned U.S. West Coast distributor, "and so far, I haven't seen any manufacturer solve this problem."

From this perspective, the screens on disposable e-cigarettes have a practical value in the area of being used to indicate the status of the device that is difficult to replace with other solutions.

Supply Chain: Surprise Win under High Homogenization

Talking about the origin of e-cigarettes with screens, SKE product manager said that the emergence of e-cigarette screens is mainly due to the need for new selling points in the B-side market. Some C-side consumers accept novel products with screens. It can be seen that the driving force for the emergence of e-cigarette screens comes from the B-side business competition.

When the screen becomes the entry ticket of the contestants, the cost is very low to get a chance to participate in the competition and cultivate the market, all the products have been upgraded, and the products with a screen eventually occupy the shelves, and consumers are left with only one choice. E-cigarettes with an additional screen have not increased in terminal price. Between the "old" product without a screen and the "new" product with a screen, most consumers will choose the latter as a matter of course.

“But new arrivals always perform well on their debut, and so do those with screens,” she said, noting that there was a large portion of the new arrivals come with screens. “ They are doing well, and we’d love to give it a shot.”

It seems to be a "win-win" situation.

How Long will the Screen Frenzy Last?

The explosion of screened e-cigarettes has thrown a lot of product managers for a loop - it's hard to imagine why a disposable product would need a screen. In fact, screen products are not only hot in 2023, it seems that they will continue to be "wildly popular" in 2024.

The latest products go beyond simple directions. The popular PULSE, for example, has added more animations for switching on and off and for vaping. At VAPE CLUB SHOW 2023 in Moscow, a new vape mod introduced by LOST VAPE was seen offering games with its landscape 8-bit-ish screen.

"I've heard people talking about making full-screen disposable e-cigarettes." One practitioner told 2FIRSTS.

“If there is no significant soar in the cost, I can’t see why the brands will stop [to make the screens larger].” Rolenzo Lombardi, an influencer on Instagram, made this remark when 2FIRSTS asked him to make some predictions about the trends of the market in the upcoming year.

An insider familiar with the matter also shares a similar opinion. “Unless there is an acute setback brought by an overshoot, the race might just keep going on.” He mentioned to 2FIRSTS that the touchscreen is on the way, but will be more likely seen first on open-pod-system ones.

Yet the consumers are not too dazed to pay for the novelty twice. “Screens or other elements newly attached to the products may work the first time when the customers came across them, yet it won’t do its magic for twice if the products in terms of other edible qualities,” said the distributor..

“Good texture, stable quality control, and a rather decent outlook,” added she when asked about the commons shared among those best sellers. “And the texture always goes first.”

The hidden dangers brought about by the screen should not be ignored, and many issues are still on the agenda. For example, are disposable products with screens a waste of resources and will they cause environmental issues? The entertainment properties of the screen, whether it will trigger the attraction of minors and then cause an increase in the use? These issues will become the "bottom line" of the future development of screened e-cigarettes.

Overlooked Emotional Value Behind Screen

Disposable e-cigarettes with screens, from the initial flash of light in the minds of product managers, to set off a new wave in the global market, takes just one year.

The emergence of the screen is one of the many "brainstorming" ideas for e-cigarettes in a highly homogenized world. In fact, over the past two years, as disposable e-cigarettes have become mainstream, a high degree of similarity has also become a difficult point of competition between brands. To create unique selling points, manufacturers have made a lot of innovations in the past two years. As the difference in flavor is difficult to be experienced by consumers, the appearance has become the focus of manufacturers' "innovation" in the past two years, with screen as one of the many attempts on this innovation path.

If the emergence of large screen is the innovation of chance, then its popularity is not just luck.

"How much is the e-liquid left?" "When is it time to recharge again?" Dr. Gao Yang, Director of the International Communication Research Center for Chinese Brands in South and Southeast Asia at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, told 2FIRSTS that manufacturers need to satisfy this "progress bar mentality" of users, allowing them to take ownership of their use and time to bring a sense of peace of mind comparable to that provided by cigarettes, which is "clear at a glance". Open-systems dominate the market, the screen on the body has been providing users with this "emotional" value.

"Emotional value" is one of the basic needs of human beings, and the use of consumer products is a combination of functional and emotional value. Legal e-cigarette consumers should not be an exception.

Under the premise of environmental protection and the protection of minors, should the emotional function of legal e-cigarettes be addressed? In addition to providing legal e-cigarette consumers with the basic functional value of nicotine smoking, they can also provide the corresponding emotional value, and through the provision of emotional value to increase the use of legal tobacco consumers of harm reduction products? It’s a question to be further explored.